Where does Blackhawk Network, Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Blackhawk Network, Inc. ranks #4,077 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 Blackhawk Network, Inc. hold?

Blackhawk Network, Inc. holds 88 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 17 technology areas.

What is Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Blackhawk Network, Inc. has an Innovation Score of 48.2 out of 100 (top 17% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s recent grant velocity is +73% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s patents?

Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s patents average 17.8 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 Blackhawk Network, 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

Blackhawk Network, Inc.

Q: What technology areas does Blackhawk Network, Inc. focus on?

Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s top technology area is G06Q (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) with 77 patents. Grants appear in 17 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 88 granted patents across 17 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: G06Q (Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative,).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Blackhawk ranks #4,077 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 88 patents across 17 technology areas.

#4,077
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 17%
by Innovation Score (48.2/100): 17.8
avg claims per patent: +73%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R4077 · US Corporation #4,077 · 88 grants

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

GRANTS-SMALL 88 grants
TOP-DECILE #4,077/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Acres Technology
CPC-FOCUS G06Q · 17 areas
INNOV-PAR 48.2/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.8 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-SURGE +73% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Acres Technology (±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.

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Aktiebolaget… · near

48
Blackhawk Network · this assignee

48
Eurokera S N C · near

48
Iovance Biotherapeut… · near

48
Jiangsu Favored… · near

48
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Blackhawk's Innovation Score is 48.2/100 (top 17% 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.

Where Blackhawk's grants concentrate

Blackhawk Network, Inc. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 17 CPC subclasses with 87.5% of grants classified under G06Q (Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative,). Peak complete grant year is 2020 (12 grants) versus a trough of 2 in 2016. By volume, Blackhawk sits between Acres Technology and Fositek Corporation.

Blackhawk's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Blackhawk Network, Inc. moved from 28 to 31 grants (1.11x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). See the growth leaderboard.

Acres Technology

88
Aerohive Networks

88
Altman Specialty…

88
American Air Liqu…

88
Brady Worldwide

88
Dwango

88
Derrick

88
Fositek

88
Blackhawk Network ◀

88

What this shows Blackhawk holds 88 patents at rank #4,077, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Blackhawk

By rank, the assignees closest to #4,077 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in G06Q (Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially…)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Blackhawk, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above).

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (48 here).

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. 48 Aktiebolaget Electrolux 48 Eurokera S.N.C. 48 Jiangsu Favored Nanotechnology Co., Ltd. 48

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (17.8 here).

Roller Bearing Company of America, Inc. 17.8 avg Total Marketing Services 17.8 avg L&P Property Management Company 17.8 avg Technion Research & Development Foundation Limited 17.8 avg

Blackhawk's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

48 Top 17% higher than 83% 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

Blackhawk Network, Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	7	8.0%
2016	2	2.3%
2017	8	9.1%
2018	6	6.8%
2019	7	8.0%
2020	12	13.6%
2021	9	10.2%
2022	10	11.4%
2023	11	12.5%
2024	10	11.4%
2025partial year	6	6.8%

Which technologies does Blackhawk Network, Inc. patent most?

G06Q - 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 77

G07F - Coin-freed OR Like Apparatus 22

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 14

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 7

B65D - Containers FOR Storage OR Transport OF Articles OR Materials, e.g. Bags, Barrels, Bottles, Boxes, Cans, Cartons, Crates, Drums, Jars, Tanks, Hoppers, Forwarding CONTAINERS; Accessories, Closures, OR Fittings THEREFOR; Packaging ELEMENTS; Packages 6

G09F - DISPLAYING; ADVERTISING; SIGNS; Labels OR NAME-PLATES; Seals 4

C09D - Coating Compositions, e.g. Paints, Varnishes OR LACQUERS; Filling PASTES; Chemical Paint OR INK REMOVERS; INKS; Correcting FLUIDS; WOODSTAINS; Pastes OR Solids FOR Colouring OR PRINTING; USE OF Materials Therefor 4

C08G - Macromolecular Compounds Obtained Otherwise Than BY Reactions Only Involving Unsaturated Carbon-to-carbon Bonds 4

B32B - Layered Products, i.e. Products Built-up OF Strata OF Flat OR Non-flat, e.g. Cellular OR Honeycomb, Form 4

C08L - Compositions OF Macromolecular Compounds 4

H04M - Telephonic Communication 3

A47L - Domestic Washing OR Cleaning ; Suction Cleaners IN General 3

G09C - Ciphering OR Deciphering Apparatus FOR Cryptographic OR Other Purposes Involving THE Need FOR Secrecy 3

B42D - BOOKS; Book COVERS; Loose LEAVES; Printed Matter Characterised BY Identification OR Security FEATURES; Printed Matter OF Special Format OR Style NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Devices FOR USE Therewith AND NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Movable-strip Writing OR Reading Apparatus 3

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 3

Top 15 of 17 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#4,077

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

48.2 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Blackhawk Network, Inc.'s lead technology class is G06Q (Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative,), 87.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore G06Q
Ranked #4,077 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Blackhawk Network, Inc. against Acres Technology, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 48.2/100 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.