Data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark offices shows that 726 patents were issued in 2019 that have at least one inventor from Rochester listed on them. That may be down from 2018’s 767, but Rochester is still ranking high.
Most of the lists for the cities with the most inventive residents have different metrics for counting, but Rochester usually features strongly on the lists anyway. Other cities that are known to have particularly inventive populaces include Burlington, Poughkeepsie, and Santa Clara.
Inventors from Med City have been responsible for more than 12,000 patents over the past 40 years. IBM is behind 9,000 of those patents, while 1,000 went to the Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic and IBM are leading the pack in patents from Rochester, although a number of local inventors are also making their mark too. Patents from local inventors include devices that teach people how to play musical instruments, and designs for placemats for toddlers. Techniques for creating and printing specific graphic designs could be patented.
Randy Stroetz is the Rochester man behind a patent that teaches people how to play the trombone. Stroetz has played this instrument his whole life after being taught how by his father.
Most students learn by watching the instrument’s slide, but this is generally considered to be a bad practice. Stroetz’s solution for this problem is a device that uses magnets to let players know when the slider reaches one of the seven positions on the slide.
