US patent intelligence · USPTO PatentsView
Who's innovating in America?
We turn 3,420,542 US patents granted 2015–2025 into company Innovation Scores, technology-class rankings, and historical grant comparisons, drawn straight from the official USPTO PatentsView dataset.
US granted patents 2015-2025 aggregated into company Innovation Scores, technology-class rankings, and historical grant comparisons.
The national picture
US innovation is broad but concentrated: 49,997 assignees hold 3.4M granted patents since 2015, yet the 10 largest alone account for 12% of them.
- 3.4M
- US patents granted, 2015–2025
- 12%
- held by the top 10 assignees
- 49,997
- assignees tracked
- G06F
- most-patented class (Electric Digital Data Processing)
Who holds the most US patents?
Top 10 corporate assignees by granted patents, 2015–2025
- Samsung
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
106,890 patents
- International Busin…
International Business Machines Corporation
72,926 patents
- Canon 34,378
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
34,378 patents
- LG 32,607
LG Electronics Inc.
32,607 patents
- Taiwan Semiconducto… 31,041
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.
31,041 patents
- Apple 30,560
Apple Inc.
30,560 patents
- Qualcomm Incorporat… 30,354
Qualcomm Incorporated
30,354 patents
- Intel 27,498
Intel Corporation
27,498 patents
- Microsoft Technolog… 24,392
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
24,392 patents
- Google 24,290
Google LLC
24,290 patents
What this shows Samsung leads the field, with electronics and semiconductor multinationals dominating the top of the table.
How has US patenting changed since 2015?
US utility-patent grants per year to the assignees PlainPatent tracks, 2015–2025. The most recent year is partial, grants lag filing by 2–3 years. Read the trend analysis →
Innovation Score Leaders
Methodology →The bar shows each company's innovation score as a share of Qualcomm Incorporated's score, not a share of a fixed 0–100 scale. Hover a row for the exact share and rank.
Qualcomm Incorporated
30,354 patents · 209 tech areas
Snap Inc.
3,345 patents · 120 tech areas
Cilag GmbH International
2,210 patents · 125 tech areas
Kioxia Corporation
2,641 patents · 103 tech areas
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.
31,041 patents · 251 tech areas
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
106,890 patents · 435 tech areas
KIA Corporation
3,712 patents · 271 tech areas
Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
1,569 patents · 148 tech areas
Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.
2,399 patents · 137 tech areas
KLA Corporation
503 patents · 64 tech areas
Where the patents are: the technology landscape
View all 670 →Source: USPTO PatentsView, CPC classifications. The largest classes by far are computing (G06F) and electrical communication, the digital technologies that have driven the last decade of corporate R&D.
Electric Digital Data Processing
Leader: International Business Machines Corporation
Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication
Leader: International Business Machines Corporation
Wireless Communication Networks
Leader: Qualcomm Incorporated
Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television
Leader: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10
Leader: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.
DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification
Leader: Covidien LP
Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes
Leader: The Regents of the University of California
Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory Purposes, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR
Leader: International Business Machines Corporation
Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General
Leader: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations
Leader: The Regents of the University of California
Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution
Leader: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties
Leader: The Regents of the University of California
Why US Patent Data Matters
US utility-patent grants are a public historical record of inventions that completed examination. PlainPatent aggregates ten years of those grants from USPTO PatentsView so readers can compare recorded portfolios and technology classifications at scale. The record does not show application filings, current R&D, product plans, or legal strength.
We translate the raw PatentsView records into three useful views: per-company portfolios with Innovation Scores derived from grant volume, grant velocity, breadth, and claim depth; per-technology rankings showing the leading assignee in each CPC subclass; and trend research pages quantifying how recorded grant volume changed across the 2015–2025 window. Each view links back to the underlying USPTO data so analysts, investors, and journalists can verify the historical record. The 670 CPC subclasses covered span every major engineering discipline from semiconductor lithography (H01L) to mRNA therapeutics (A61K).
What is PlainPatent?
Innovation Intelligence
Track patent activity across 49,997 US and international companies. See who's innovating fastest and in which technology areas.
Technology Landscape
Explore 670 CPC technology classes, from semiconductors to biotechnology. Identify emerging innovation clusters.
Official USPTO Data
All data comes from USPTO's PatentsView dataset, peer-reviewed and machine-learning-disambiguated patent records updated through 2025.
Where to start
Reading 3,420,542 US patents at portfolio scale comes down to one question, which company, or which technology?
- Profiling a specific company? Open its portfolio for the Innovation Score and grant trend. Browse companies
- Mapping a technology class? Compare assignees with recorded grants in that CPC class. Browse technologies
- Want the big picture first? See who tops the volume and the Innovation-Score rankings. All rankings
Every figure is computed from the USPTO PatentsView dataset (granted US utility patents 2015–2025); design, plant, and foreign patents are excluded.
Related Guides
Editorial context for the plainpatent dataset, methodology, comparisons, and deep dives into the underlying records.
Explore the data
Live database-driven views into US patent intelligence, assignees, top filers, CPC subclasses, and rankings. See all rankings.
Browse Patent Assignees
Search the USPTO PatentsView database, every assignee with US patent grants, indexed by name and assignee type (corporation, individual, government).
RankingsTop 50 Companies by US Patent Grants
Live ranking of US patent assignees by total grants, drawn from PatentsView assignee table, refreshed quarterly with USPTO bulk data.
RankingsAll Patent Rankings
CPC subclass leaders, fastest-growing companies, foreign vs domestic assignee splits, every ranking pulls live from the patents database.
Research
Original analysis from our editorial process, every statistic derived from our own database. See all research.
How concentrated is US patent ownership?
The top 10 corporate assignees, the top 100, and the long tail, measuring how steep the patent-ownership curve really is across the assignees we track.
ResearchWho patents in America, domestic or foreign firms?
US corporations and foreign corporations hold nearly equal shares of US patents. A breakdown of the patent system by the origin of the organizations that own the grants.
ResearchUS patent grants by year, 2015–2025
The decade trajectory of granted-patent volume, and why the most recent year always looks artificially low because grants lag filing by two to three years.
About this data
How PlainPatent works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainPatent turns the USPTO's granted-patent record into company Innovation Scores, technology-class rankings, and historical grant comparisons. Every figure is drawn straight from the official USPTO PatentsView bulk dataset; it does not establish current R&D, product strategy, or legal strength.
Editorial process
- Source. Pull USPTO PatentsView bulk data exports: patent grants, disambiguated assignees, and CPC technology classifications, covering patents granted 2015-2025.
- Verify. Each patent, assignee, and classification record keeps its original USPTO identifiers, so every figure traces back to the exact upstream grant record.
- Publish. Compile per-company and per-technology-class pages with the documented Innovation Score formula (grant volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, claim depth) and a link back to PatentsView.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainPatent is an independent editorial operation; it is not affiliated with the United States Patent and Trademark Office or PatentsView, and does not accept sponsored placement from any company covered on the site. Found an error? Email hello@plainpatent.com. See our editorial and corrections policy for full detail.