The government grants funds to a variety of companies, universities, government organizations, and others to provide tools for innovation. Universities rank high among recipients of government-funded patents. With the exception of IBM, universities top the list of most received government-funded patents for the first ten months of this year.

Using our sister company’s proprietary patent analytics tool, ipAnalytx, we identified leading universities that receive the most government-funded patents. They are as follows:

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with 150 patents.
  • Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with 108 patents.
  • The Regents of the University of California with 100 patents.
  • The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University with 81 patents.
  • The California Institute of Technology with 81 patents.

In addition to government-funded patents, these same universities are among the top universities that receive the most patents overall. For the first ten months of 2014, MIT had 263 patent grants and 286 patent applications; Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation had 131 patent grants and nearly 149 patent applications; the Regents of the University of California had 194 patent grants and 517 patent applications; the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University had 134 patent grants and 124 patent applications; and the California Institute of Technology had 151 patent grants and 171 patent applications.

These universities delve into a variety of fields including chemistry, plants, amplifiers, surgery, television, data processing, optics, electricity, and much more. To disregard the role of universities in innovation would be a huge disservice. With just the five universities we have listed, they represent more than 870 patent grants and more than 1,200 patent applications in the first ten months of this year. According toAUTM (Association of University Technology Managers), in 2012, academic TTOs filed 22,750 patent applications. Without realizing it, many people rely on the innovations that universities and the government provide.