The National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association ranked Drexel No. 49 among universities worldwide and No. 37 among U.S. institutions for universities granted U.S. patents. This puts the University ahead of such prestigious institutions as Princeton (No. 54), Yale (No. 71) and Northeastern (No. 80).
Officially, the Top 100 Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents 2015 list credits Drexel with 42 total patents. Drexel reached this achievement despite having lower research expenditures of any of the higher-ranked universities. The average reported research expenditures in 2014 for institutions higher up on the list, such as the University of California and the University of Texas systems, is more than $900 million, compared with Drexel’s $111 million.