Leaderboards

Who's winning the patent race?

The most-cited patents in history. The most-litigated. The companies and inventors stacking patents the fastest. Curated from PatentBrief's index of U.S. utility patents.

1. 01
   How to Make Many Copies of a Specific DNA Segment

   Cetus CorpUS 4683195
   6,227citations
2. 02
   How Touchscreens Detect Multiple Finger Presses at Once

   Apple IncUS 7663607
   1,995citations
3. 03
   Inkjet Printing — How a Hot Wire Discovered the Bubble Jet

   Canon IncUS 4723129
   1,806citations
4. 04
   How Amazon's One-Click Online Ordering System Works

   Amazon com IncUS 5960411
   1,635citations
5. 05
   How Touchpads Detect Two Fingers for Mouse Clicks and Drags

   Logitech IncUS 5825352
   1,577citations
6. 06
   How the iPhone's Slide-to-Unlock Gesture Worked

   Apple IncUS 7657849
   1,267citations
7. 07
   How to Use CRISPR-Cas9 to Edit Genes in Human Cells

   Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUS 8697359
   1,265citations
8. 08
   How Touchscreens Tell the Difference Between Your Finger Gestures

   Apple IncUS 7479949
   1,119citations
9. 09
   How RSA Public-Key Encryption Secures Digital Messages

   Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUS 4405829
   1,015citations
10. 10
    How Online Stores Suggest 'You Might Also Like' Products

    Amazon com IncUS 6266649
    899citations
11. 11
    How Websites Get Ranked by Counting Links and Their Importance

    Leland Stanford Junior UniversityUS 6285999
    817citations
12. 12
    How Early Online Services Delivered Applications Using Networked 'Objects'

    Prodigy Services CoUS 5347632
    808citations
13. 13
    How Computers Agree on a Secret Code Without Meeting First

    Leland Stanford Junior UniversityUS 4200770
    708citations
14. 14
    OncoMouse — The First Patented Animal, Built to Get Cancer

    Harvard UniversityUS 4736866
    643citations
15. 15
    Microsoft's Browser Patent — At the Center of the Biggest Antitrust Case in Tech

    University of California San Diego UCSDUS 5838906
    577citations

02 — Top Patent Holders

Companies with the most patents in our index

The companies stacking patent grants. Click any company to see their full portfolio on PatentBrief.

04 — Most Prolific Inventors

The names behind the most patents in our index

The most prolific inventors PatentBrief tracks. Click a name to see their career patent portfolio.

Rankings are derived from PatentBrief's index of U.S. utility patents. Counts reflect only patents currently in the index — large companies may have more total patents than shown here. Data refreshed daily.