University of Georgia

Patent powerhouse

UGA research scientist in lab

UGA is among the top 100 universities ranked worldwide for the numbers of U.S. patents granted in 2014, according to a list compiled by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

The patents issued to UGA in 2014 involved, for example, antimicrobial coatings for textiles, a candidate HIV treatment, a biomarker that may signal early detection of breast cancer, two poultry vaccines and a method for neutralizing munitions residue. UGA now has more than 500 active patents protecting its inventions.

The top-100 list, derived from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data, illustrates the important role that patents play in moving university-based discoveries to the marketplace.

Other U.S. universities on the list include the University of California’s 10-campus system, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, as well as our own state’s Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.