In 1999 (the latest year for which data is currently available), the Rochester MSA ranked 14th nationally for the number of patents produced.This placed it ahead of markets such as Phoenix, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill.
That same year, the Rochester MSA ranked 5th among all U.S. metros for patents per 100,000 people.
Monroe County, Greater Rochester's largest county, ranked 1st among New York's counties for patent production with 1,358 patents in 1999. This is more than double the number in Westchester County, which ranked 2nd in the state.
Over the period 1995-1999, the top patent-producing firms in the Rochester MSA were Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb, followed by Johnson and Johnson's Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and General Motors.