The top patent earner in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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.

Comcast Cable Communications was the top patent-earner in Pennsylvania last year. It was issued 297 patents from the USPTO within the state, comprising 24.0% of all patents considered for the statewide analysis. Comcast earned patents last year for tech to process data across wireless communications and video compression methods. Comcast is a cable television provider as well as the owner of NBC Universal.

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 Pennsylvania last year.

#33. Wavefront Research, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#33. Giftya LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 10

#30. Unisys Corp. (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#30. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

#30. Certainteed (tie)
- Patents issued: 11

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

#26. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

#26. Joy Global Underground Mining LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 12

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

#22. Vitro Flat Glass LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#22. Thomas Jefferson University (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#22. Janssen Biotech, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#22. Ansys, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 13

#21. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
- Patents issued: 14

#20. Fmc Corp.
- Patents issued: 16

#19. Kennametal, Inc.
- Patents issued: 17

#16. Evoqua Water Technologies LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 20

#16. Covestro LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 20

#16. Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 20

#14. iControl Networks, Inc. (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#14. Drexel University (tie)
- Patents issued: 26

#13. Tyco Fire Products LP
- Patents issued: 27

#12. Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.
- Patents issued: 28

#10. Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC (tie)
- Patents issued: 29

#10. The Penn State Research Foundation (tie)
- Patents issued: 29

#9. Rohm and Haas Co.
- Patents issued: 33

#8. Carnegie Mellon University
- Patents issued: 35

#7. Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
- Patents issued: 37

#6. Dentsply Sirona, Inc.
- Patents issued: 39

#5. University of Pittsburgh
- Patents issued: 71

#4. Globus Medical, Inc.
- Patents issued: 88

#3. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
- Patents issued: 98

#2. Lutron Technology Co. LLC
- Patents issued: 117

#1. Comcast Cable Communications
- Patents issued: 297