NetApp has a total of 4694 patents globally, out of which 3412 have been granted. Of these 4694 patents, more than 67% patents are active. The United States of America is where NetApp has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by Europe and Japan. Parallelly, United States of America seems to be the main focused R&D centre and also United States of America is the origin country of NetApp.
NetApp was founded in 1992 by James Lau, Michael Malcolm, David Hitz. NetApp provides storage and data management solutions. The Company’s storage solutions include specialized hardware, software, and services that provide storage management for open network environments. NetApp serves enterprises, government agencies, and universities worldwide. As of August 2022, NetApp has a market cap of $16.16 Billion.
Do read about some of the most popular patents of NetApp which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find NetApp patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over NetApp patent portfolio.
How many patents does the Founder and CEO of NetApp have?
The Founder James Lau has 66 patents, Michael Malcolm has 41 patents, David Hitz has 90 patents and CEO George Kurian has 0 patents.
How many patents does NetApp have?
NetApp has a total of 4694 patents globally. These patents belong to 2450 unique patent families. Out of 4694 patents, 3169 patents are active.
How Many Patents did NetApp File Every Year?
Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
| Year of Patents Filing or Grant | NetApp Applications Filed | NetApp Patents Granted |
| 2011 | 140 | 282 |
| 2012 | 158 | 241 |
| 2013 | 270 | 223 |
| 2014 | 420 | 223 |
| 2015 | 363 | 190 |
| 2016 | 276 | 269 |
| 2017 | 189 | 257 |
| 2018 | 93 | 136 |
| 2019 | 201 | 204 |
| 2020 | 141 | 171 |
| 2021 | 100 | 143 |
| 2022 | 18 | 100 |
How many NetApp patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents
How Many Patents did NetApp File in Different Countries?
Countries in which NetApp Filed Patents
| Country | Patents |
| United States Of America | 3486 |
| Europe | 282 |
| Japan | 128 |
| Germany | 127 |
| China | 114 |
| India | 37 |
| Australia | 49 |
| Canada | 17 |
| Korea (South) | 16 |
| Israel | 14 |
| Hong Kong (S.A.R.) | 13 |
| Taiwan | 3 |
| France | 2 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| United Kingdom | 1 |
| Mexico | 1 |
| Russia | 1 |
Where are Research Centers of NetApp Patents Located?
10 Best NetApp Patents
US6718361B1 is the most popular patent in the NetApp portfolio. It has received 1954 citations so far from companies like Sun Microsystems, Secretseal, IBM.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of NetApp:
| Publication Number | Citation Count |
| US6718361B1 | 1954 |
| US6389432B1 | 1340 |
| US6728748B1 | 478 |
| US6480901B1 | 393 |
| US6594744B1 | 384 |
| US6944785B2 | 382 |
| US6604118B2 | 373 |
| US6691245B1 | 360 |
| US7039827B2 | 358 |
| US20100088296A1 | 355 |
Which Companies are using NetApp Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the NetApp patent portfolio are IBM, Microsoft and Bank of New York.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
| Company | Number of Patents |
| IBM | 752 |
| Bank Of New York Mellon Trust Co Na | 481 |
| Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc | 196 |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development Lp | 157 |
| Vmware | 150 |
| Hitachi | 140 |
| Intel | 114 |
| Amazon Technologies Inc | 97 |
| Fujitsu | 96 |
| The Bank Of New York Mellon Trust | 91 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on NetApp Patents
Top NetApp Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
| Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
| US8321645B2 | 52 |
| US8386610B2 | 38 |
| US8321648B2 | 32 |
| US8412682B2 | 30 |
| US9395929B2 | 25 |
| US20110191522A1 | 25 |
| US6944785B2 | 25 |
| US20160140868A1 | 23 |
| US8315984B2 | 22 |
| US8086799B2 | 22 |
| US7783666B1 | 22 |
| US8566821B2 | 21 |
| US8775718B2 | 21 |
| US6728748B1 | 21 |
| US7472242B1 | 20 |
What Percentage of NetApp US Patent Applications were Granted?
NetApp (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 2458 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 2090 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 88.9%.
Below are the key stats of NetApp patent prosecution at the USPTO.
Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for NetApp?
| Law Firm | Total Applications | Success Rate |
| Cooper Legal Group Llc | 437 | 95.83% |
| Haynes And Boone Llp | 412 | 85.64% |
| Cesari And Mckenna Llp | 357 | 94.12% |
| Klein O Neill & Singh Llp | 321 | 82.80% |
| Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders Llp | 286 | 85.98% |
| Gilliam Ip Pllc Netapp | 254 | 83.33% |
| Netapp Inc | 151 | 100.00% |
| Nixon Peabody Llp | 109 | 85.32% |
| George Simion | 86 | 94.19% |
| Mahamedi Ip | 8 | 62.50% |
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