About
About PatentWorld
By Saerom (Ronnie) Lee (opens in new window), The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
PatentWorld is an interactive data exploration platform that presents 50 years of United States patent activity through quantitative visualizations. The project aims to render the complex dynamics of the patent system accessible to students, researchers, policymakers, and the broader public through rigorous, data-driven analysis.
Saerom (Ronnie) Lee (opens in new window) is an Assistant Professor of Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research examines organizational design, human capital acquisition, startup scaling, and high-growth entrepreneurship.
Chapters
PatentWorld presents 34 chapters organized into six acts, each examining a different dimension of the US patent system.
Act 1: The System— How the patent landscape took shape
Act 2: The Organizations— Firms and institutions driving innovation
Act 3: The Inventors— Who invents and how they differ
Act 4: The Geography— Where innovation happens
Act 5: The Mechanics— How knowledge flows through organizations, inventors, and places
Act 6: Deep Dives— Established and emerging technology domains
- 233D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
- 24Agricultural Technology
- 25Artificial Intelligence
- 26Autonomous Vehicles & Advanced Driver Assistance
- 27Biotechnology & Gene Editing
- 28Blockchain & Decentralized Systems
- 29Cybersecurity
- 30Digital Health & Medical Devices
- 31Green Innovation
- 32Quantum Computing
- 33Semiconductors
- 34Space Technology
Data Source & Attribution
All data are derived from PatentsView (opens in new window), a patent data platform supported by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The dataset covers 9.36 million granted patents from 1976 to 2025 (through September).
Data source: USPTO PatentsView bulk data download, accessed February 2026. Temporal coverage: January 1976 – September 2025.
Methodology
Raw data were obtained as tab-separated value (TSV) files from PatentsView's bulk data downloads. These files were processed using DuckDB, an analytical SQL database engine, to compute aggregated statistics for each visualization. The analysis encompasses all USPTO-granted patents from January 1976 through September 2025, including utility, design, plant, and reissue patents.
Principal data processing steps:
- Joining patent records with inventor, assignee, location, and classification data
- Aggregating by year, technology category, geography, and organization
- Computing derived metrics: citation counts, team sizes, concentration ratios, diversity indices
- Filtering to primary classifications (sequence = 0) to avoid double-counting
For detailed metric definitions, the standard quality metrics suite, disambiguation reliability details, and data limitations, see the Methodology page. For known data limitations, see the Limitations section.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of patents does PatentWorld cover?
All USPTO-granted patents from 1976 through September 2025, including utility, design, plant, and reissue patents — 9.36 million grants in total. Unless otherwise noted, figures and statistics reflect all patent types.
How current is the data?
The underlying data were downloaded from PatentsView in February 2026 and cover grants through September 2025. All references to 2025 data include a “through September” qualifier to indicate partial-year coverage.
Can I download the data?
The derived JSON datasets powering each visualization are served as static files under the /data/ path (e.g., /data/chapter1/patents_per_year.json). Each figure's “Cite this figure” widget includes the dataset path. The raw patent data are available directly from PatentsView (opens in new window).
How are gender and inventor identities determined?
Gender is inferred from inventor first names using established name-based classification methods. This approach is binary-limited and has lower accuracy for non-Western naming traditions. Inventor identities rely on PatentsView's disambiguation algorithm. See the Methodology limitations for details on these measurement constraints.
How should I cite PatentWorld?
See the Citation section below. Individual figures can be cited using the “Cite this figure” widget on each visualization.
Suggested Citation
Lee, Saerom (Ronnie). 2026. “PatentWorld: 50 Years of US Patent Data.” The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Available at: https://patentworld.vercel.app/
License
The text, visualizations, and derived datasets on PatentWorld are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (opens in new window). You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given. The underlying patent data are provided by the USPTO via PatentsView and are in the public domain.
Technical Details
Technology
The platform is built with Next.js 14 and employs Recharts and D3.js for interactive visualizations. All data are pre-computed and served as static JSON files, requiring no backend server. The interface uses Tailwind CSS with dark and light theme support.
AI-Assisted Development
The data analyses, visualizations, and platform development for PatentWorld were conducted with the assistance of Claude AI (opens in new window) (Anthropic). Claude was employed for data pipeline development, statistical computations, analytical writing, and front-end implementation. All analytical findings and interpretations were reviewed for accuracy and scholarly rigor.