Caltech Second in Patents among All American Universities and University Systems

PASADENA, Calif.-For the second consecutive year, the California Institute of Technology has finished in second place among all American universities and university systems in the number of annual patents awarded, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

For 2004, Caltech was awarded 135 patents and was once again was slightly ahead of MIT, which in 2004 had 132 patents. The entire University of California system with its nine campuses was in first place with 424 patents.

Caltech is the smallest institution in the top five on the list--the fourth and fifth-ranked institutions this year being the entire University of Texas system and Johns Hopkins University, respectively.

Rich Wolf, Caltech's director of technology transfer, said the fact that this year's results are virtually identical to last year's rankings indicates the institute's commitment to a high-level technology transfer operation. In referring to the relatively small size of Caltech, Wolf said, "I think this ranking shows that Caltech has produced a significant amount of intellectual property, which on a per capita basis is staggering.

"More importantly, roughly two-thirds of the inventions were licensed, which we expect will one day result in products that will benefit the public, in fields ranging from nanotechnology for clinical diagnostic chip, to fuel cells for improving the environment, to inexpensive power amplifiers for mobile handheld devices," Wolf added.