The 2020 report by 1790 Analytics LLC examined patents filed with the U.S. Patent Office between 1999–2019 by the year's 50 top-patenting organizations. The report revealed that IEEE journals, standards, and conference proceedings received over 580,000 patent citations—more than three times the number of citations of any other publisher.

Top 20 Publishers Referenced Most Frequently by the Top 50 Patenting Organizations

Source: 1790 Analytics LLC, Copyright 2020.

The current 1790 Analytics LLC study shows: 

• IEEE journals, standards, and conference proceedings received more than three times the number of citations of any other publisher.
• Referencing of IEEE papers in patents has increased 963% since 1997.
• Patents that reference IEEE are cited more often than patents that do not.
• In the overall patent database patented technologies are increasingly referencing scientific articles and IEEE provides an increasing portion of that science base.
• Not only do IEEE publications frequently provide the science base for new inventions, but inventions that build upon IEEE publications are more likely to be valuable in the future than inventions that do not.

In its annual study of patent references, 1790 Analytics LLC reveals a wealth of data that places IEEE as the number-one most-cited publisher by technical researchers, as well as a leading source of information and research that is used by industries not central to the IEEE mission.

Download "Analysis of Patent Referencing to IEEE Papers, Conferences, and Standards 1999–2019" (PDF, 5.6 MB)