Patent Transfers by University/Research Institutes in the US (2018-2020)

We studied the patent reassignment activities by the Universities in the US between 2018-20. A total of 5201 patents were transferred by various universities and research institutes to 684 different assignees and 145 groups of individual inventors.

Most of the university/research institutes transferred their patent rights to federal agencies. The share of federal agencies in university patent reassignment is more than 65% where NIH alone is part of more than 36% of reassignments.

Top 50 University/Research Institutes with Most Patent Transfers

University/Research Institute	No. of Patents
Johns Hopkins University	210
University Of California	200
University Of Pennsylvania	125
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology	121
University Of Utah	109
Duke University	105
University Of Colorado	101
University Of Michigan	93
Ohio State University	85
Arizona State University	85
Harvard University	69
State University Of New York	67
University Of Wisconsin Madison	67
California Institute Of Technology	62
University Of New Mexico	58
University Of Virginia	58
University Of Alabama At Birmingham	56
The Feinstein Institute For Medical Research	53
University Of Pittsburgh	53
Georgia Institute Of Technology	51
Cornell University	51
Vanderbilt University	49
Battelle Memorial Institute	45
University Of Washington	42
Howard Hughes Medical Institute	42
University Of Texas Medical Anderson Cancer Center	39
Emory University	38
Yale University	37
University Of Florida	36
University Of Illinois	36
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	35
Augusta University	35
Purdue University	34
Texas A&M University System	33
Industrial Technology Research Institute	33
Indiana University	33
Washington University	32
Columbia University	31
The University Of Chicago	30
University Of Rochester	30
University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill	30
Scripps Research Institute	29
University Of Arizona	28
University Of Notre Dame	28
Institute Of Virology Of The Slovak Academy Of Sciences	28
University Industry Foundation Yonsei University	26
Case Western Reserve University	26
Princeton University	25
Wayne State University	25
University Of South Florida	25
Boston University	25

Year-wise Patent Transfer by the Top 5 Universities/Research Institutes

The number of patents transactions by universities/research institutes has shown a declining trend over the year. In 2020, there were 688 patent reassignments by universities in the US which is 73.6% less than in 2018.

Year	No. of Patent
2018	2615
2019	1898
2020	688

The table below provides details of number of patent reassignment deals by the top 5 universities/research institutes.

Year	Johns Hopkins	University Of California	University Of Pennsylvania	MIT	University Of Utah
2018	93	107	85	76	39
2019	87	63	23	40	63
2020	30	30	17	5	7

Assignees of the Top 3 Universities/Research Institutes Patents

Johns Hopkins University (210 Patents)

Assignee	Patent Count
NIH	178
National Science Foundation	19
United States Department Of The Navy	4
United States Department Of Energy	4
United States Department Of The Army	2
Midiagnostics Nv	1
Mrdc	1
United States Department Of The Air Force	1

University of California (200 Patents)

Assignee	Patent Count
NIH	85
United States Department Of Energy	52
National Science Foundation	30
United States Department Of Veterans Affairs | University Of California	10
United States Department Of The Army	9
United States Department Of Veterans Affairs	5
Individual Inventors	3
United States Department Of The Navy	3
King Abdulaziz City For Science And Technology | University Of California	1
Youhealth Biotech Limited	1
California Institute Of Technology	1

University Of Pennsylvania (125 Patents)

Assignee	Patent Count
NIH	101
National Science Foundation	16
United States Department Of Energy	5
Novartis | University Of Pennsylvania	2
Agios Pharmaceuticals	1

Top 50 Organizations that purchased/licensed university/research institutes patents

The table below provides detail of the top 50 organizations that get patent rights transferred from various universities/research institutes in the US.

Assignees	Patents
NIH	1914
National Science Foundation	858
United States Department Of Energy	344
Independent Inventor	145
United States Department Of The Navy	54
The Feinstein Institute For Medical Research	53
United States Department Of The Army	52
NASA	45
STC UNM	43
United States Department Of Veterans Affairs	38
Technion Research & Development Foundation Limited	23
Defense Threat Reduction Agency	23
Scripps Research Institute	20
LBL Biotechnology, Inc	20
Enedym Inc	19
NUtech Ventures	18
Cambridge Display Technology	18
Musc Foundation For Research Development	17
Crowpierce Technologies Llc	14
Cyberdyne Inc	14
Hkbu R&D Licensing Limited	13
Myriota Pty Ltd	12
Technological Resources Pty Limited	11
Personal Genomics Taiwan Inc	10
Samsung	9
Immunova LLC	9
Ebt Medical Inc	9
Superd Technology Co Ltd	8
FotoNation Inc	8
CapitalBio Corporation	8
NDSU Research Foundation	7
Imagineoptix Corporation	7
Huawei	7
C2Cnt LLC	7
Dedrone Holdings Inc	7
Air Force Office Of Scientific Research	7
Realta Holdings Llc	6
ReNeuron	6
Nagoya University	6
Procter & Gamble	6
SK Hynix	6
Claremont Biosolutions Inc	6
Blackbird Tech Llc	6
Acer	6
S Biomedics	5
Nxtsens Microsystems Inc	5
Toyota	5
Seattle Children’S Hospital	5
Changchun Flexible Display Technology Co Ltd	5
Chongqing Gigachip Technology Co Ltd	5