Our list of patenting activity at top academic centers again has the University of California system in the number one slot (Table 1), with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Stanford University trailing. Institut Pasteur sits atop the list of research foundations (Table 2). Figure 1 details the continued increase in overall research patent grants in both the United States and Europe, attributable to offices working through backlogs (Fig. 2), an increase in startup launches and a rising recognition of patent value in research.

Table 1 Top 20 academic centers ranked by number of issued biotech patents, 2010–2014
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Table 2 Top 5 research institutes ranked by number of issued biotech patents, 2010–2014
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Figure 1: Research biotech patent trends, 2010–2014.
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Source: IP Checkups.

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Figure 2: Application dates of research patents issued in 2014.
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The bulk of biotech patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2014 were filed in 2011–2012. For the European Patent Office, the majority were filed in 2007–2008. Source: IP Checkups.

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