The top patent earner in North Carolina 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 North Carolina 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.

Bank of America Corp. was the top patent-earner in North Carolina last year. It was issued 294 patents from the USPTO within the state, comprising 18.1% of all patents considered for the statewide analysis. Bank of America earned patents in 2022 for machine learning applications within banking, including for recognizing and analyzing documents, among other advances.

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 North Carolina last year.

#31. Soilgenic Technologies, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#31. Ge-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#31. Cree Led, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#28. Sealed Air Corp. US (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#28. Research Triangle Institute (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#28. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#26. Sportsmedia Technology Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#26. Cryovac, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#24. US Conec, Ltd (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#24. Metal Raptor, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#23. Ingersoll-Rand Industrial U.S., Inc.
- Patents issued: 14

#21. Tile Redi, LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#21. Smartsky Networks LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 15

#20. Open Invention Network LLC
- Patents issued: 16

#19. Hand Held Products, Inc.
- Patents issued: 19

#18. Corning Optical Communications LLC
- Patents issued: 24

#17. Electrolux
- Patents issued: 28

#15. Sas Institute, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 29

#15. RAI Strategic Holdings, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 29

#14. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Patents issued: 30

#13. Apex Brands, Inc.
- Patents issued: 34

#12. Wolfspeed, Inc.
- Patents issued: 35

#11. Trane International, Inc.
- Patents issued: 37

#10. B/E Aerospace, Inc.
- Patents issued: 38

#9. North Carolina State University
- Patents issued: 45

#8. Qorvo US, Inc.
- Patents issued: 50

#7. Honeywell International, Inc.
- Patents issued: 67

#6. Goodrich Corp.
- Patents issued: 76

#5. Duke University
- Patents issued: 94

#4. Red Hat, Inc.
- Patents issued: 137

#3. Hamilton Sundstrand Corp.
- Patents issued: 161

#2. CommScope Technologies LLC
- Patents issued: 221

#1. Bank of America Corp.
- Patents issued: 294