Where does Align Technology, Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Align Technology, Inc. ranks #439 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 Align Technology, Inc. hold?

Align Technology, Inc. holds 1,029 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 71 technology areas.

What is Align Technology, Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Align Technology, Inc. has an Innovation Score of 71.6 out of 100 (top 1% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Align Technology, Inc. focus on?

Align Technology, Inc.'s top technology area is A61C (DENTISTRY; Apparatus OR Methods FOR Oral OR Dental Hygiene) with 941 patents, ranking #1 of 546 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 71 CPC subclasses total.

Is Align Technology, Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Align Technology, Inc.'s recent grant velocity is +176% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Align Technology, Inc.'s patents?

Align Technology, Inc.'s patents average 20.6 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 Align Technology, Inc. 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

Align Technology, Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,029 granted patents across 71 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: A61C (DENTISTRY; Apparatus OR Methods FOR Oral OR Dental Hygiene).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Align ranks #439 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,029 patents across 71 technology areas.

#439
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (71.6/100): 20.6
avg claims per patent: +176%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R439 · US Corporation #439 · 1,029 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-DENSE · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-SURGE · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 1.0K grants
TOP-DECILE #439/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Contemporary…
CPC-WIDE A61C · 71 areas
INNOV-STRONG 71.6/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 20.6 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-SURGE +176% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (±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 Align’s 71.6 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 24.0 pts (34%) Velocity 10.3 pts (14%) Breadth 25.0 pts (35%) Claim depth 12.3 pts (17%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
AT&T Intellectual… · near

72
Align Technology · this assignee

72
Nuvoton Technology… · near

72
SAP SE · near

72
Guangdong Oppo… · near

72
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Align's Innovation Score is 71.6/100 (top 1% 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 Align?

Each dot is one of Align’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). Align’s own 20.6 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.4 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Align's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Align Technology, Inc. received 656 grants versus 238 in 2015–2019 (+176% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2024 at 166 grants and bottomed in 2015 at 31. Lead class A61C accounts for 91.4% of the portfolio across 71 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Jidoshokki (#435) and Aptiv Technologies AG (#443).

Align's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Align Technology, Inc. moved from 286 to 441 grants (1.54x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). Among 3,296 tracked assignees with ≥100 grants and ≥20 prior-period grants, that multiple ranks #417. See the growth leaderboard.

Toyota Jidoshokki

1,041
Mitsubishi Chemic…

1,040
Genentech

1,039
Seoul National Un…

1,030
Contemporary Ampe…

1,029
Align Technology ◀

1,029
Carl Zeiss SMT

1,028
DSM IP Assets B V

1,027
Aptiv

1,025

What this shows Align holds 1,029 patents at rank #439, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Align

By rank, the assignees closest to #439 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A61C (Dentistry)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Align, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In A61C (Dentistry), Align ranks #1 of 546 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (72 here).

Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan 72 SAP SE 72 Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. 72 AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. 72

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (20.6 here).

Autodesk, Inc. 20.6 avg Intel IP Corporation 20.6 avg Gracenote, Inc. 20.6 avg DeepMind Technologies Limited 20.6 avg

Align's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

72 Top 1% higher than 99% 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

Align Technology, Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	31	3.0%
2016	41	4.0%
2017	47	4.6%
2018	48	4.7%
2019	71	6.9%
2020	105	10.2%
2021	110	10.7%
2022	116	11.3%
2023	159	15.5%
2024	166	16.1%
2025partial year	135	13.1%

Which technologies does Align Technology, Inc. patent most?

A61C - DENTISTRY; Apparatus OR Methods FOR Oral OR Dental Hygiene 941

A61B - DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification 316

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 286

G16H - Healthcare Informatics, i.e. Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR THE Handling OR Processing OF Medical OR Healthcare Data 260

B33Y - Additive Manufacturing, i.e. Manufacturing OF Three-dimensional [3-D] Objects BY Additive Deposition, Additive Agglomeration OR Additive Layering, e.g. BY 3-D Printing, Stereolithography OR Selective Laser Sintering 227

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 184

B29C - Shaping OR Joining OF PLASTICS; Shaping OF Material IN A Plastic State, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; After-treatment OF THE Shaped Products, e.g. Repairing 126

B29L - Indexing Scheme Associated With Subclass B29c, Relating TO Particular Articles 94

G01B - Measuring Length, Thickness OR Similar Linear DIMENSIONS; Measuring ANGLES; Measuring AREAS; Measuring Irregularities OF Surfaces OR Contours 89

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 81

G05B - Control OR Regulating Systems IN GENERAL; Functional Elements OF Such SYSTEMS; Monitoring OR Testing Arrangements FOR Such Systems OR Elements 62

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 54

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 53

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 52

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 39

Top 15 of 71 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

Align Technology, Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Align Technology, Inc.'s lead technology class is A61C (DENTISTRY; Apparatus OR Methods FOR Oral OR Dental Hygiene), 91.4% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A61C
Ranked #439 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Align Technology, Inc. against Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Jidoshokki, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 71.6/100 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.