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World IP Day 2026 — Recognized Innovator

Mark Groden

  • Founder & CEO
  • Skyryse, Inc.

Recognized for founder-led innovation in aviation safety and automation.

Mark Groden set out to make aircrafts as easy and safe to fly as cars, and built Skyryse around SkyOS, a universal operating system designed to bring advanced automation to helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and defense platforms.

Certificate of Recognition

Top IP Innovator, Aviation Automation & Flight Safety · 2026

Skyryse Patents (last 5 years)
0 +
First Filing
2016
USPTO Art Unit Focus
3658 / 3666
Role
Founder & CEO
Presented by InspireIP

World IP Day Recognition Series · 2026

Skyryse patents, last 5 years
0 +
Filed in 2023 alone
0 +
Recognition category
0 Transport & E-Commerce
The Recognition

Building the world's first universal operating system for flight

On World IP Day 2026, InspireIP recognizes Mark Groden, founder and CEO of Skyryse, for founder-led innovation in aviation safety and automation.

The recognition is based on Skyryse’s patent activity and Mark’s personal inventor footprint. Skyryse’s broader portfolio includes 50+ filings in the last five years, protecting the technologies behind SkyOS and Skyryse One.

Mark came to aviation as both an engineer and a pilot. He earned his PhD in sensor data fusion from the University of Michigan, then founded Skyryse in 2016 around a simple idea: pilots should have access to the same safety and simplicity that drivers now expect from cars.

That idea has since turned into a flight automation platform with major firsts. SkyOS has demonstrated automated helicopter takeoff, hover, landing, and engine-out autorotation landing. In 2025, it also performed an automated pickup, hover, and setdown of a Black Hawk helicopter.

His recognitions include Forbes 30 Under 30 for Science, Vanity Fair’s Future Innovators Index, and Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.

Flight Automation
Universal Operating System for Flight
Helicopter Autoland
Engine-Out Autorotation
Sensor Data Fusion
Defense & Civil Aviation
Patent Footprint

A portfolio shaped around making any aircraft fly itself, safely

2016–2019

Mark Groden founds Skyryse in El Segundo, California, with the vision of bringing universal automation to aircraft. Early filings cover aerial vehicle automation, sensor fusion, and flight control architectures.

2020–2021

Skyryse files 15 patents across two years while building the foundation of SkyOS. The company also begins securing aviation partnerships, including work with major operators.

2022–2023

Patent activity accelerates, with 25 patents across two years and 17 filings in 2023 alone. Skyryse demonstrates automated helicopter takeoff, hover, landing, and engine-out autorotation landing controlled through a simplified interface.

2024-2026

Skyryse closes a $300 million Series C at a $1.15 billion valuation. The company performs an automated pickup, hover, and setdown of a Black Hawk and announces emergency autoland for helicopters as a SkyOS feature.

Aviation Automation & Flight Safety

A small-entity company filing like a much larger one

Aviation Automation & Flight Safety Sector card title: A small-entity company filing like a much larger one

Skyryse is classified by the USPTO as a Small Entity, yet its five-year filing volume of 50 patents sits well above what is typical for aviation startups of its size. Much of that activity is concentrated in the transport art units that protect aircraft control systems, automated flight architectures, and sensor fusion methods for aerial vehicles.

Patents, last 5 years
+
Peak year (2023)
+ Filings
USPTO entity status
Small Entity
Art unit focus
3658 / 3666
"Leading an innovation program is harder than inventing on your own. It means choosing what to file, who to credit, and where to invest, over and over, for years. The leaders we recognize on World IP Day have done that consistently, and built something that compounds."

Sam Zellner

Founder, InspireIP · Inventor · Innovation Leader

About Skyryse

Built in El Segundo, redefining what every aircraft can do

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in El Segundo, California, Skyryse develops aviation hardware and software for helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and defense platforms.

Its flagship technology, SkyOS, is designed as a universal operating system for flight. It replaces complex mechanical controls with a simplified human-machine interface built around a single control stick and flight displays.

SkyOS powers Skyryse One and is also being adapted for existing aircraft platforms, including the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.

The company has raised over $605 million in total funding and reached a valuation above $1.15 billion. Its partners and customers include Air Methods, Ace Aeronautics, CAL FIRE, Mitsubishi Corporation, United Rotorcraft, and the U.S. Army.

IP Day 2027

Know an IP innovator who deserves recognition?

Each year we recognize the inventors and IP leaders behind the portfolios that protect what their companies create. That includes founder-inventors whose contributions often go unmarked. Nominate someone for next year’s list.

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