Where does British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited ranks #1,776 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 British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited hold?

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited holds 229 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 68 technology areas.

What is British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's Innovation Score?

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited has an Innovation Score of 56.4 out of 100 (top 6% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's recent grant velocity is -37% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). Grant activity has slowed relative to earlier years.

What does claim depth mean for British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's patents?

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's patents average 15.6 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.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView Foreign Corporation

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited

Q: What technology areas does British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited focus on?

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's top technology area is A24D (CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces) with 92 patents. Grants appear in 68 CPC subclasses total.

Q: How is the British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited 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 PatentsView assignee record - 229 granted patents across 68 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: A24D (CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, British ranks #1,776 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 229 patents across 68 technology areas.

#1,776
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 6%
by Innovation Score (56.4/100): 15.6
avg claims per patent: -37%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R1776 · Foreign Corporation #1,776 · 229 grants

GRANTS-MID · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MID 229 grants
TOP-DECILE #1,776/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH ABB Research
CPC-WIDE A24D · 68 areas
INNOV-PAR 56.4/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.6 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -37% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: ABB Research Ltd. (±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
British American… · this assignee

56
Kent State University · near

56
Matthews International · near

56
Varian Semiconductor… · near

56
Verint Americas · near

56
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows British's Innovation Score is 56.4/100 (top 6% 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.

How British's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited received 83 grants versus 132 in 2015–2019 (-37% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 36 grants and bottomed in 2023 at 9. Lead class A24D accounts for 40.2% of the portfolio across 68 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Tianjin University (#1,772) and Intercontinental Great Brands LLC (#1,780).

British's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited moved from 80 to 39 grants (0.49x 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 #2,725. See the growth leaderboard.

Tianjin University

230
Washington State…

230
Wake Forest Unive…

230
ABB Research

229
Dai-ichi Seiko

229
Global Graphene G…

229
Hirose Electric

229
Intercontinental…

229
British American… ◀

229

What this shows British holds 229 patents at rank #1,776, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near British

By rank, the assignees closest to #1,776 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A24D (Cigars)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

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

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (56 here).

Verint Americas Inc. 56 Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. 56 Kent State University 56 Matthews International Corporation 56

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.6 here).

GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC 15.6 avg Ingersoll-Rand Industrial U.S., Inc. 15.6 avg Washington University 15.6 avg Korrus, Inc. 15.6 avg

British's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

56 Top 6% higher than 94% 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

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	23	10.0%
2016	18	7.9%
2017	30	13.1%
2018	25	10.9%
2019	36	15.7%
2020	31	13.5%
2021	13	5.7%
2022	16	7.0%
2023	9	3.9%
2024	14	6.1%
2025partial year	14	6.1%

Which technologies does British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited patent most?

A24D - CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces 92

A24B - Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff 54

A24F - Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices 48

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 32

A24C - Machines FOR Making Cigars OR Cigarettes 26

A61M - Devices FOR Introducing Media Into, OR Onto, THE Body ; Devices FOR Transducing Body Media OR FOR Taking Media From THE Body ; Devices FOR Producing OR Ending Sleep OR Stupor 16

C12N - Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media 12

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 11

B01J - Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus 10

B65B - Machines, Apparatus OR Devices FOR, OR Methods OF, Packaging Articles OR MATERIALS; Unpacking 9

B01D - Separation 8

C07K - Peptides 5

B65G - Transport OR Storage Devices, e.g. Conveyors FOR Loading OR Tipping, Shop Conveyor Systems OR Pneumatic Tube Conveyors 5

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 5

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 4

Top 15 of 68 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#1,776

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

56.4 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

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited's lead technology class is A24D (CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces), 40.2% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A24D
Ranked #1,776 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited against Tianjin University, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 56.4/100 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.