Where does A. O. Smith Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), A. O. Smith Corporation ranks #3,670 of 49,997 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does A. O. Smith Corporation hold?

A. O. Smith Corporation holds 99 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 45 technology areas.

What is A. O. Smith Corporation's Innovation Score?

A. O. Smith Corporation has an Innovation Score of 54.0 out of 100 (top 8% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does A. O. Smith Corporation focus on?

A. O. Smith Corporation's top technology area is F24H (Fluid Heaters, e.g. Water OR AIR Heaters, Having Heat-generating Means, e.g. Heat Pumps, IN General) with 63 patents, ranking #4 of 303 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 45 CPC subclasses total.

Is A. O. Smith Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

A. O. Smith Corporation's recent grant velocity is +29% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). The company is maintaining or growing its granted-patent output.

What does claim depth mean for A. O. Smith Corporation's patents?

A. O. Smith Corporation's patents average 14.9 claims each. This is an aggregate descriptive count from the grant record; it does not establish claim scope, legal strength, enforceability, or design-around risk.

How is the A. O. Smith Corporation patent data sourced?

All patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering US granted utility patents from 2015 to 2025.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView US Corporation

A. O. Smith Corporation

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 99 granted patents across 45 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2025. Grant-trend analysis is cross-referenced to USPTO Patent Public Search; it does not measure application filings, current R&D, or legal strength. Primary class: F24H (Fluid Heaters, e.g. Water OR AIR Heaters, Having Heat-generating Means, e.g. Heat Pumps, IN General).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, A. ranks #3,670 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 99 patents across 45 technology areas.

#3,670
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 8%
by Innovation Score (54.0/100): 14.9
avg claims per patent: +29%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R3670 · US Corporation #3,670 · 99 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-UP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 99 grants
TOP-DECILE #3,670/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Air Distribution IP
CPC-WIDE F24H · 45 areas
INNOV-PAR 54.0/100
CLAIMS-RICH 14.9 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-UP +29% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Air Distribution Technologies IP, LLC (±0 grants)

Instrument codes from this assignee’s USPTO PatentsView grant sheet: volume band, corpus rank, photo-finish peer, lead CPC, Innovation Score, claim depth, assignee type, velocity, and book completeness. Not a USPTO rating of patent strength.

How A.’s 54.0 Innovation Score adds up

The same four weighted components behind every Innovation Score on PlainPatent: portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth.

Volume 15.9 pts (29%) Velocity 5.4 pts (10%) Breadth 23.7 pts (44%) Claim depth 8.9 pts (17%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
A O Smith · this assignee

54
emz-Hanauer & KGaA · near

54
NuFlare Technology · near

54
Creative Technology · near

54
DigiLens · near

54
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows A.'s Innovation Score is 54.0/100 (top 8% of the PatentsView-derived corpus). The chart places that score against the nearest Innovation Score peers plus corpus poles, not a reprint of the volume ranking.

Does more volume mean deeper claims for A.?

Each dot is one of A.’s 8 nearest volume peers (same corpus rank neighbourhood as the chart above), placed by total granted patents (horizontal) against average claims per patent (vertical). A.’s own 14.9 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

A. vs its 8 nearest volume peers: granted patents vs average claims per patent. Source: USPTO PatentsView.

Where A.'s grants concentrate

A. O. Smith Corporation is a focused PatentsView assignee: 45 CPC subclasses with 63.6% of grants classified under F24H (Fluid Heaters, e.g. Water OR AIR Heaters, Having Heat-generating Means, e.g. Heat Pumps, IN General). Peak complete grant year is 2020 (16 grants) versus a trough of 4 in 2015. By volume, A. sits between Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and BorgWarner Ludwigsburg GmbH.

A.'s three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, A. O. Smith Corporation moved from 37 to 30 grants (0.81x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). See the growth leaderboard.

Research Institut…

100
SAP Portals Israel

100
Shenzhen Futaihon…

100
Technische Univer…

100
Air Distribution…

99
B&R Industrial Au…

99
Bolton Medical

99
Borgwarner Ludwig…

99
A O Smith ◀

99

What this shows A. holds 99 patents at rank #3,670, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near A

By rank, the assignees closest to #3,670 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in F24H (Fluid Heaters)

Other assignees with the most granted patents in A's primary technology class.

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for A, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In F24H (Fluid Heaters), A ranks #4 of 303 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (54 here).

emz-Hanauer GmbH & Co. KGaA 54 NuFlare Technology, Inc. 54 DigiLens Inc. 54 Creative Technology Corporation 54

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (14.9 here).

Beijing E-Town Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. 14.9 avg Nobel Biocare Services AG 14.9 avg Indian Institute OF Technology Bombay 14.9 avg China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. 14.9 avg

A.'s Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

Composite of portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth (0–100)

54 Top 8% higher than 92% of 49,997 US assignees

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US assignees. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USPTO PatentsView, PlainPatent Innovation Score · 2015–2025

USPTO utility patent grants by year · 2015–2025

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

A. O. Smith Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	4	4.0%
2016	13	13.1%
2017	6	6.1%
2018	6	6.1%
2019	13	13.1%
2020	16	16.2%
2021	8	8.1%
2022	7	7.1%
2023	10	10.1%
2024	13	13.1%
2025partial year	3	3.0%

Which technologies does A. O. Smith Corporation patent most?

F24H - Fluid Heaters, e.g. Water OR AIR Heaters, Having Heat-generating Means, e.g. Heat Pumps, IN General 63

F24D - Domestic- OR Space-heating Systems, e.g. Central Heating SYSTEMS; Domestic Hot-water Supply SYSTEMS; Elements OR Components Therefor 18

C02F - Treatment OF Water, Waste Water, Sewage, OR Sludge 15

Y02B - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Buildings, e.g. Housing, House Appliances OR Related End-user Applications 15

F23N - Regulating OR Controlling Combustion 10

B01D - Separation 8

F23D - Burners 8

F28D - Heat-exchange Apparatus, NOT Provided FOR IN Another Subclass, IN Which THE Heat-exchange Media DO NOT Come Into Direct Contact 6

G05D - Systems FOR Controlling OR Regulating Non-electric Variables 5

F28F - Details OF Heat-exchange AND Heat-transfer Apparatus, OF General Application 5

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 5

B23P - Metal-working NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Combined OPERATIONS; Universal Machine Tools 5

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 4

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 4

F24F - AIR-CONDITIONING; AIR-HUMIDIFICATION; VENTILATION; USE OF AIR Currents FOR Screening 3

Top 15 of 45 technology areas

More on this record

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

View all rankings → How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

A. O. Smith Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

A. O. Smith Corporation's lead technology class is F24H (Fluid Heaters, e.g. Water OR AIR Heaters, Having Heat-generating Means, e.g. Heat Pumps, IN General), 63.6% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore F24H
Ranked #3,670 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare A. O. Smith Corporation against Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 54.0/100 blends volume, velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth. How it's calculated

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through May 2026; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView - official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the USPTO PatentsView database. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sources used on this page

USPTO PatentsView - the disambiguated bulk patent-grant, assignee, and CPC data this page's figures are derived from. patentsview.org
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) - the joint USPTO/EPO classification scheme used to group patents by technology area. cooperativepatentclassification.org
USPTO Patent Public Search - the official interface to verify the status of any individual patent. ppubs.uspto.gov

Compiled by PlainPatent , US Patent Intelligence Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

Every figure on PlainPatent is rendered directly from USPTO source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on USPTO source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2026.