Innovation is not evenly distributed. A handful of states dominate US patent output, with California leading by a wide margin. Internationally, the landscape has shifted dramatically as Asian economies have become major sources of US patent filings.
US Patent Activity by State
Total utility patents by primary inventor state, 1976-2025. Darker shading indicates higher patent counts.
The coastal concentration of patent activity reflects the clustering of technology firms, research universities, and venture capital in a handful of innovation ecosystems.
State Rankings
US States by Patent Count
Total utility patents by primary inventor state, 1976-2025.
California alone accounts for roughly one-fifth of all US patent activity, driven by the Silicon Valley ecosystem of venture capital, universities, and tech firms.
California, the home of Silicon Valley, accounts for more US patents than any other state. Other technology hubs -- New York, Texas, New Jersey, and Massachusetts -- round out the top five. The concentration reflects the clustering of technology companies and research universities.
City Level
US Cities by Patent Count
Total utility patents by primary inventor city, 1976-2025.
City-level data reveals even more extreme concentration than state-level figures, with a handful of tech hubs accounting for a vastly disproportionate share of national innovation output.
At the city level, the concentration is even more extreme. A handful of tech hubs -- San Jose, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston -- dominate patent output. These cities have maintained their positions for decades, suggesting that geographic clustering in innovation is highly persistent.
International
Top Countries: Patents Over Time
Annual utility patent grants by primary inventor country (top 8 countries by total).
Japan's dominant position reflects decades of corporate R&D investment, while South Korea's rapid rise mirrors Samsung and LG's aggressive patent strategies.
The United States has seen its share of its own patents decline over the decades as inventors from Japan, South Korea, Germany, and China have dramatically increased their patent filings. By the 2010s, foreign-origin inventors accounted for more than half of all US patent grants.
Inventor Mobility
Beyond static snapshots of where patents originate, tracking individual inventors across their patent histories reveals patterns of geographic mobility -- how innovators move between states and countries over their careers.
Innovation Diffusion
How do new technologies spread geographically from early hubs to secondary cities? Tracking patent activity in AI, Biotech & Pharma, and Clean Energy across cities reveals the diffusion pattern: innovations typically emerge in a few pioneering locations before spreading as knowledge and talent disperse.
Regional Specialization
Which cities punch above their weight in specific technologies? The Location Quotient (LQ) measures a city's relative specialization: an LQ above 1 means the city has a higher share of that technology than the national average. High LQ values reveal distinctive innovation ecosystems.
Having explored where innovation happens, the next chapter examines how inventors and organizations connect across these geographic boundaries. The collaboration networks that link inventors, firms, and countries are the channels through which knowledge flows -- and their structure reveals whether the innovation ecosystem is becoming more interconnected or more fragmented.
Geographic data uses the primary inventor (sequence 0) location from PatentsView disambiguated records. Only utility patents with valid location data are included. Inventor mobility is inferred from changes in reported location between sequential patents by the same disambiguated inventor. Innovation diffusion tracks patent activity in AI, Biotech & Pharma, and Clean Energy across cities with 5+ patents per period. Regional specialization uses Location Quotient (LQ) computed for US cities with 500+ patents (2010-2025).