The top patent earner in Massachusetts last year

Tech and engineering firms were the most inventive patent winners across the U.S. last year—a year marked by growing tension with foreign nations racing to bring world-changing tech like artificial intelligence and space satellites to market.

Nearly 160,000 patents were assigned across the U.S. in 2022, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. When a patent is awarded through the USPTO, the individual or company that it's given to has the license to a temporary monopoly on business for that specific product or service. Companies have used patent law for decades to defend their intellectual property—including designs and devices against competitors that might attempt to profit off of stolen ideas.

ClickUp used data from the Patent and Trademark Office to find the top patent earner in Massachusetts based on the number of patents assigned in USPTO's fiscal year 2022, which ran from Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022. This analysis was part of a broader national report on the top patent earner in every state. The data looks at the assignees for both regular utility and design patents and was limited to assignees that received at least 10 patents within the year.

EMC IP Holding Company LLC was the top patent-earner in Massachusetts last year. It was issued 734 patents from the USPTO within the state, comprising 19.2% of all patents considered for the statewide analysis. Commercial electronics firm EMC IP earned patents in 2022 for processes that automate data recovery following a ransomware attack as well as tech that combines the computing of multiple devices to complete a single, joint activity. The firm is the intellectual property arm of multinational tech company Dell.

Nationally, the vast majority of top patent earners last year were private organizations. Private spending on research and development by U.S. companies has skyrocketed since the economic downturn of the late 2000s. In 2020, it was estimated to total $531 billion, according to the latest available data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. But nine colleges and universities rose to the top in their respective states for patent filing, as well.

Read on to see who else scooped up the rights to the most cutting-edge tech in Massachusetts last year.

#49. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#49. Biogen Ma, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#46. Trustees of Tufts College (tie)
- Patents issued: 17

#46. Insulet Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 17

#46. Formlabs, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 17

#44. Macom Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 18

#44. Berkshire Grey, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 18

#42. Teradyne, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 20

#42. Gyrus ACMI, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 20

#41. Entegris, Inc.
- Patents issued: 21

#39. Brooks Automation US, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 22

#39. Ab Initio Technology LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 22

#37. Genzyme Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 23

#37. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 23

#36. Nuance Communications, Inc.
- Patents issued: 24

#34. FMR LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#34. Children's Medical Center Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#31. Dell Products L. P. (tie)
- Patents issued: 27

#31. Cognex Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 27

#31. Akamai Technologies, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 27

#27. Trustees of Boston University (tie)
- Patents issued: 28

#27. The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 28

#27. Rapid7, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 28

#27. Motional Ad LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 28

#26. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
- Patents issued: 30

#24. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 31

#24. Converse, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 31

#23. Hologic, Inc.
- Patents issued: 32

#22. Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.
- Patents issued: 36

#21. E Ink Corp.
- Patents issued: 37

#20. iRobot Corp.
- Patents issued: 39

#18. Senko Advanced Components, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 40

#18. Northeastern University (tie)
- Patents issued: 40

#17. The Gillette Co.
- Patents issued: 51

#16. Schneider Electric
- Patents issued: 52

#15. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc.
- Patents issued: 53

#13. Zoll Medical Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 54

#13. Acushnet Co. (tie)
- Patents issued: 54

#12. Waters Technologies Corp.
- Patents issued: 55

#11. Analog Devices, Inc.
- Patents issued: 58

#10. University of Massachusetts
- Patents issued: 63

#9. Sharkninja Operating LLC
- Patents issued: 84

#8. The General Hospital Corp.
- Patents issued: 88

#7. DePuy Synthes Products, Inc.
- Patents issued: 108

#5. President and Fellows of Harvard College (tie)
- Patents issued: 134

#5. BOSE Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 134

#4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Patents issued: 235

#3. Covidien LP
- Patents issued: 298

#2. Raytheon Technologies Corp.
- Patents issued: 403

#1. EMC IP Holding Co. LLC
- Patents issued: 734