The top patent earner in New York 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 New York 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.

International Business Machines Corp. was the top patent-earner in New York last year. It was issued 2,512 patents from the USPTO within the state, comprising 47.0% of all patents considered for the statewide analysis. Better known as IBM, the New York-based company is assigned a gargantuan volume of patents each year. In 2022 it earned patents for data center storage methods and advancements applied to blockchain technology, among other things.

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 New York last year.

#50. Vuzix Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. Touchtunes Music Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. Research Foundation of the City University of New York (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. Paige.ai, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#50. Createme Technologies LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#48. GlobalFoundries (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#48. Curiouser Products, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#47. Labrador Diagnostics LLC
- Patents issued: 13

#39. Welch Allyn, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Rapidsos, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Padeh, Dov (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Omnitek Partners LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Nielsen Consumer LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. NASDAQ, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#39. Apparatus LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 14

#37. University of Rochester (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#37. The Raymond Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#35. Peloton Interactive, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 16

#35. Liveperson, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 16

#33. Eastman Kodak Co. (tie)
- Patents issued: 17

#33. Cps Technology Holdings LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 17

#32. CFPH, LLC
- Patents issued: 18

#30. The Rockefeller University (tie)
- Patents issued: 19

#30. Albert Einstein College of Medicine (tie)
- Patents issued: 19

#29. Axsome Therapeutics, Inc.
- Patents issued: 20

#26. Lsi Solutions, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 21

#26. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (tie)
- Patents issued: 21

#26. Hunter Douglas, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 21

#25. Uipath, Inc.
- Patents issued: 23

#24. Conmed Corp.
- Patents issued: 24

#23. Pfizer, Inc.
- Patents issued: 25

#22. Elc Management LLC
- Patents issued: 28

#21. Antecip Bioventures Ii LLC
- Patents issued: 30

#20. PepsiCo, Inc.
- Patents issued: 32

#19. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Patents issued: 33

#18. New York University
- Patents issued: 38

#17. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Patents issued: 41

#16. American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc.
- Patents issued: 52

#14. The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (tie)
- Patents issued: 55

#14. Sun Patent Trust (tie)
- Patents issued: 55

#13. The Trustees of Columbia University In the City of New York
- Patents issued: 62

#12. Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc.
- Patents issued: 64

#11. Saturn Licensing LLC
- Patents issued: 71

#10. Cornell University
- Patents issued: 76

#9. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Patents issued: 83

#8. Colgate-Palmolive Co.
- Patents issued: 108

#7. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
- Patents issued: 130

#6. The Nielsen Co. (Us), LLC
- Patents issued: 131

#5. Kyndryl, Inc.
- Patents issued: 136

#4. Mastercard International, Inc.
- Patents issued: 183

#3. Corning, Inc.
- Patents issued: 300

#2. General Electric Co.
- Patents issued: 489

#1. International Business Machines Corp.
- Patents issued: 2,512