Google Founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed patent for page-rank algorithm while they were studying at Stanford. The patent was assigned to Stanford University.
Later, Stanford University received 1.8 million shares of Google stock in exchange for a long-term patent license to Google.
Patent Information
Patent number: US6285999 B1
Patent title: Method for node ranking in a linked database
Publication type: Grant
Application number: US 09/004,827
Publication date: 4 Sep 2001
Filing date: 9 Jan 1998
Priority date: 10 Jan 1997
Fee status: Paid
Also published as: US6799176, US7058628, US7908277, US8126884, US8131715, US8131717, US8195651, US8521730, US8725726
Inventors: Lawrence Page
Original Assignee: The Board Of Trustees Of The Leland Stanford Junior University