April 19, 2024 | By: Anna Kinney and Daniel Finnegan
The 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) report entitled “Invention, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation” provides interesting analyses of patent and trademark activities according to several criteria. These include a geographic analysis of US regional patent inventorship and ownership. Patents issued in 2022 were analyzed to identify technologies related to climate change mitigation, the “CHIPS and Science Act” enacted in 2022, and critical and emerging technologies. An analysis of the role of government agencies and universities in knowledge transfer highlights the current Administration’s dedication to making scientific contributions publicly available. The report also discusses the impact of venture capital on innovation, particularly concerning small companies.
What Demographic Patterns Did the NSF Find in Patent Inventorship and Ownership?
In 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted 325,445 US utility patents. Of these, NSF determined that 47% of the patents were owned by US entities, primarily businesses. The US-owned patents declined in 2019, presumably related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest number of foreign inventors came from the European Union and Japan.
In the US, the highest rates of patent and trademark activity occur in regions with more educated workforces in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Innovation is concentrated on the East and West Coasts, around the Great Lakes, and in parts of the Southwest region including Texas and the Rocky Mountains. The top three counties in the US associated with patent activity in 2022 included Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, CA and San Mateo County, CA) and Fairfax City, VA.
Men are still much more likely than women to be inventors. As inventor gender is not collected by the USPTO, the genders were inferred by analysis of inventor names. Women are most represented in chemistry-related utility patents and design patents, though women’s participation is increasing most rapidly in electrical engineering.
Federal employees infrequently obtain patents, with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Energy (DOE) leading, with 465 patents and 425 patents in 2022, respectively. However, federal employees have been more likely to author peer-reviewed papers than obtain patents, by about 60-fold on average.
US applicants filed the most international applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) from 2000 to 2021 when Chinese applications exceeded US applications for the first time. The number of patents granted internationally to Chinese inventors has increased exponentially since 2017, including patents for machine learning, personal devices and computing, and computer vision. To learn more about the PCT, please see our blog on foreign filing for patents.
How Are Critical and Emerging Technologies Covered in Patents?
A 2024 list of several critical or emerging technology categories has been prepared by the National Science and Technology Council (NTSC). Among the technologies listed are:
- Advanced Engineering Materials, Semiconductors and Microelectronics
- Biotechnologies
- Advanced Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Information and Enabling Technologies, Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies
- Clean Energy Generation and Storage
The NSF report found that semiconductor patents represented about 6% and biotechnology represented about 3% of total US patents in 2022. The largest number of semiconductor-related patents were awarded to inventors from the US, Taiwan, and Japan. US inventors obtained the highest number of patents in machine learning, personal devices, and telecommunications applications.
US inventors have led in climate change mitigation and adaptation patenting and the numbers have increased three-fold since 2000. Patents related to energy generation, transmission, or distribution technologies predominate. Yet only 32,000 US patents were granted in 2022 for environmental technologies. Interestingly, the NSF identified geographic specialization trends. For example, inventors in New Mexico tend to specialize in renewable energy generation and storage, while Louisianan inventors tend to specialize in environmental management.
Are you ready to join the trend? Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig’s Patents and Trademarks teams are here to help. To learn more, visit our Small Business and Inventor Hub.
