Most Cited U.S. Patents
and Published Patent Applications
by Year and WIPO Classification
2025 | 2024 (Call for data from previous years.)
Introduction
"Peaches and plums do not speak, yet a path is naturally formed beneath them." (Ancient Chinese proverb.)
And so it is with patents. Citations are the trodden paths. Highly cited patents are the fruit‑bearing trees. The elusive product‑market fit with new technologies is the much sought-after fruit.
FAMOUS PATENTS - SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGIES
Patents that receive a high number of citations describe foundational, commercially successful technologies. In other words, patents that are currently being highly cited provide a strong signal of the most valuable technologies in the market today.
Whether you are a decision maker or a product designer, look at these patents to learn what is hot today in every technology field. Be inspired to innovate in your own tech area. Explore the opportunity to apply technology from one industry in another industry.
Patents are cited for what they teach and disclose, not for what they claim. That is an important distinction. In addition, in my experience, it is often the case that an inventor's merit in a given field is recognized such that their patents are favored when there is a need for a citation.
CITATION PARAMETERS
The analysis highlights the most cited U.S. patents and published patent applications by U.S. patents issued in a given year, organized by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) categories and whether the citation was made by the examiner or the applicant.
WIPO TECHNOLOGY FIELDS
Patent classification is a system for organizing all U.S. patent documents and other technical documents into specific technology groupings based on common subject matter.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) classifies every granted utility patent. Utility patents are classified according to several different schemes, including:
the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) and the United States Patent Classification (USPC).
A data set provided by the USPTO also classifies utility patents according to the World Intellectual Property Organization scheme (WIPO).
I chose the WIPO classification for this analysis because it strikes the right balance between resolution and practicality—providing sufficient detail to be meaningful without overwhelming complexity that would hinder analysis.
EXAMINER AND APPLICANT CITATIONS
A common question I get is: why do these citations exist? What forces impel the generation of these citations?
The citations in U.S. patents result from and are a consequence of patent law and USPTO rules. Which brings us to a second variable used in our citation analysis, whether the citation was made by the patent applicant or the examiner, as different rules apply to applicants and examiners during the patent procurement process (aka patent prosecution).
Examiner citations are made according to and pursuant to 37 C.F.R. 1.104 ("Nature of examination") and Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 707.05 ("Citation of References").
Applicant citations are mandated be 37 C.F.R. 1.56 ("Duty to disclose information material to patentability") and MPEP 2000 ("Duty of Disclosure").
Examiner and applicant citations are printed on the front page of issued patents in the "Reference Cited" section, pursuant to MPEP 1302.12.
Copyright 2026
Published: May 7, 2026
Updated: June 4, 2026; July 21, 2026
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