Patent Intelligence · Vintage Analysis
Which year produced the best patents?
Like wine, patents have vintages. The year a patent was granted tells you something about the competitive landscape it entered, the technology wave it rode, and how much time the industry has had to build on it. These charts track citation quality over grant years.
Best vintage year
2010
Global avg citations
130.7
Total patents
837
Avg Forward Citations by Grant Year
Patents granted in earlier years naturally accumulate more citations — discount recent years accordingly. The "vintage premium" shows how each year compares to the global average.
292.1
2010
60.1
2011
62.9
2012
30.4
2013
96.0
2014
27.1
2015
22.3
2016
16.0
2017
13.7
2018
12.0
2019
7.3
2020
6.5
2021
8.0
2022
1.2
2023
0.7
2024
Avg citations (quality)
Patent count (volume)
Detailed Vintage Statistics
| Year | Patents | Avg cit. | Median | % High-impact | Premium vs avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 31 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0% | 0.01× |
| 2023 | 29 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0% | 0.01× |
| 2022 | 20 | 8.0 | 1.0 | 25% | 0.06× |
| 2021 | 19 | 6.5 | 1.0 | 11% | 0.05× |
| 2020 | 27 | 7.3 | 1.0 | 19% | 0.06× |
| 2019 | 41 | 12.0 | 3.0 | 24% | 0.09× |
| 2018 | 36 | 13.7 | 5.5 | 33% | 0.10× |
| 2017 | 29 | 16.0 | 4.0 | 28% | 0.12× |
| 2016 | 24 | 22.3 | 6.5 | 46% | 0.17× |
| 2015 | 22 | 27.1 | 5.0 | 41% | 0.21× |
| 2014 | 24 | 96.0 | 23.0 | 83% | 0.73× |
| 2013 | 24 | 30.4 | 16.0 | 54% | 0.23× |
| 2012 | 17 | 62.9 | 24.0 | 77% | 0.48× |
| 2011 | 14 | 60.1 | 11.0 | 57% | 0.46× |
| 2010 ★ | 17 | 292.1 | 46.0 | 77% | 2.23× |
Vintage Trends by Domain
Best and worst grant years per domain. Trend = recent 3 years vs. earliest 3 years in our data.
Telecommunications
Best vintage year
2010 (590.0 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2024 (0.0 avg cit.)
Consumer Electronics
Best vintage year
2010 (423.5 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.1 avg cit.)
Biotechnology
Best vintage year
2014 (269.8 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.2 avg cit.)
Pharmaceuticals
Best vintage year
2014 (269.8 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2018 (4.2 avg cit.)
Software
Best vintage year
2010 (262.5 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.1 avg cit.)
AI & Machine Learning
Best vintage year
2015 (48.5 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.1 avg cit.)
E-Commerce
Best vintage year
2011 (41.8 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2024 (0.0 avg cit.)
Semiconductors
Best vintage year
2016 (39.7 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2024 (0.0 avg cit.)
finance
Best vintage year
2020 (24.0 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2019 (6.0 avg cit.)
Mechanical Engineering
Best vintage year
2015 (11.5 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.0 avg cit.)
aerospace
Best vintage year
2024 (2.4 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.0 avg cit.)
Automotive
Best vintage year
2024 (2.0 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.0 avg cit.)
materials
Best vintage year
2024 (1.2 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2024 (1.2 avg cit.)
Clean Energy
Best vintage year
2025 (0.0 avg cit.)
Lowest year
2025 (0.0 avg cit.)
The vintage recency discount
A patent granted in 2022 has had 2 years to accumulate citations; one from 2012 has had 12 years. This means recent patents will always appear to underperform older ones. The 'vintage premium' metric tries to account for global average, but recency discount is an inherent bias in all forward-citation analysis.
What drives year-to-year variation
Patent citation quality varies by year for several reasons: which major technology waves were peaking (more patents in a hot field = more cross-citation opportunities), the composition of our database (we add patents on rolling basis), and genuine quality variation in what was filed and granted that year.
Domain trends matter more than global
A declining trend in software vintage quality is more actionable than global averages. It might mean the domain is maturing (fewer fundamental patents, more incremental filings), or that our database coverage of recent software patents is incomplete. Domain-level trends are the real signal here.