Hawaii’s patent numbers can be deceptive because of the multiyear lag time between when a patent application is filed and when it is awarded.

Some software engineers work on a project on the mainland, then retire and move to Hawaii before the patent is approved. When the patent is awarded several years later, the patent office records it as going to a Hawaii inventor.

Such was the case with Greg Marriott, a former Apple software designer who left California in 2005 to move to Honolulu. Marriott was listed as one of the inventors on five patents awarded to Apple last year.

Marriott, who was on the team that developed the iPod, continued to work for Apple after moving to Hawaii but decided to retire from the company about a year later because of the extensive traveling that was required.

While some of his work on the iPod was done from Honolulu, much of the what was recognized in the patents was for work he did at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, said Marriott, 47.

Marriott was managing Apple’s iPod applications software group at the time. Marriott said he initially thought he could do the job remotely. "I worked it out with my bosses at Apple. Working for the iPod group and living in Hawaii — it was a dream job for me."

But when Apple began developing an iPod fitness product with Nike, Marriott found himself traveling back to Cupertino frequently to do demonstrations for Apple executives, including Steve Jobs. "I’m glad I had a chance to work with him," Marriott said. "But the travel was just too much — I had to let it go."

Presenting test products to Jobs was about as demanding as it gets, Marriott said on his blog, Greggy’s Bits. "Any kind of product review with SJ can be brutal for the presenter, but iPod reviews were especially intimidating."

Marriott also worked with eBay founder and Honolulu resident Pierre Omidyar, who Marriott describes as a billionaire philanthropist. "I remember him as that funny and kinda goofy guy I worked with at General Magic (an Apple spinoff)," Marriott wrote on the blog. "Maybe if I’d shown a little more interest (in Omidyar’s idea for eBay) instead of trying to find a way to be needed someplace else, I would have had a chance to become a billionaire philanthropist, too."

Instead, Marriott tried managing a project for Apple while living in Hawaii.

"Working remotely for a company like Apple can work. It all depends on what kind of work you are doing," he said. "I could have done it if I were just a contributing engineer. We found that a manager can’t work on a fast-moving project and live somewhere else."

Marriott said he has two to three "personal projects" he is working on and takes on freelance contracting jobs from time to time.