Duke University, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill are among the top universities globally in holding U.S. patents, according to a recent ranking.
The Triangle schools each landed spots in a ranking of the top 100 universities holding U.S. utility patents. This is an annual list from the National Academy of Inventors, a group comprising universities, governmental agencies and nonprofit research institutes.
Duke had the highest ranking, landing at No. 29 with 92 patents. N.C. State ranked No. 60 with 53 patents and UNC ranked No. 94 with 36 patents. No other North Carolina university made the academy's 2023 rankings, which were released in February.
In the academy's 2022 report, Duke ranked No. 19 with 126 patents and UNC ranked No. 68 with 49 patents. N.C. State was at No. 71 with 48 patents.
The new rankings represent improvement over the long term. N.C. State did not make the academy's 2014 list, while Duke ranked at No. 46 with 47 patents. UNC-Chapel Hill meanwhile ranked No. 44 in that list with 48 patents.
The regents of the University of California — which includes multiple institutes in the statewide system — topped the list with 546 patents. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked No. 2 at 365 patents, followed by the University of Texas system with 235 patents. Other U.S. universities to make the top 10 include Stanford, Purdue, Harvard, Arizona State and California Institute of Technology.
Paul Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors, said in a statement that the list highlights the essential role that universities play in developing patented technologies that benefit society.
"At the academy, it is important for us to recognize and celebrate research and commercialization happening at the university level, as well as spread awareness on how intellectual property can benefit innovators and their institutions," Sanberg said.
UNC has made the rankings — which the academy has produced annually since 2013 — for 10 consecutive years. Expanding the university's efforts in innovation and commercialization is a goal of Dedric Carter, the university's newly appointed chief innovation officer and vice chancellor for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development.
"UNC is a place of enormous opportunity," Carter recently told Triangle Business Journal. "If you think about research, it really is sort of new and novel findings and discovering things, but innovation, commercialization and translation — the entrepreneurial effort is about taking those things and applying them to the human condition."
Patents are not the only way to measure innovation at universities. The number of invention disclosures and startups created are also metrics that universities evaluate.
How Duke, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill fared in 2023:
Invention disclosures
- Duke: 325
- N.C. State: 159
- UNC-Chapel Hill: 144
Startups formed
- Duke: 15
- N.C. State: 14
- UNC-Chapel Hill: six
