62% of the top 100 patenting universities are in the US.
When it comes to safeguarding their research, US universities lead the way, according to a new report by the Intellectual Property Owners Association. A total of 62% of the top 100 patenting universities are hailing from the North American country, with China following in second place at 18%.
The University of California system (UC) towers of the rest with 399 patents awarded in 2013, more than any other university in the world and 42% more than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at 281. It has to be considered, however, that UC is made up of ten campuses and counts 23 times more students and 18 times more faculty staff than MIT.
Of the top ten universities nine are American. Tsinghua University takes third place at 193. It is followed by Stanford University, the University of Texas system, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, and Michigan University.
Only one European institution made the list, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The Swiss university secured 72nd place with 28 patents granted.
The report fails to disclose any correlation between the size of research grants and the amount of intellectual property generated.
