Where does Caterpillar Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Caterpillar Inc. ranks #83 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 Caterpillar Inc. hold?

Caterpillar Inc. holds 4,178 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 277 technology areas.

What is Caterpillar Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Caterpillar Inc. has an Innovation Score of 69.9 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 Caterpillar Inc. focus on?

Caterpillar Inc.'s top technology area is E02F (DREDGING; Soil-shifting) with 1,041 patents, ranking #1 of 348 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 277 CPC subclasses total.

Is Caterpillar Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Caterpillar Inc.'s recent grant velocity is -21% 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 Caterpillar Inc.'s patents?

Caterpillar Inc.'s patents average 15.5 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 Caterpillar 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

Caterpillar Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 4,178 granted patents across 277 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: E02F (DREDGING; Soil-shifting).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Caterpillar ranks #83 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 4,178 patents across 277 technology areas.

#83
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (69.9/100): 15.5
avg claims per patent: -21%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R83 · US Corporation #83 · 4,178 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · NEAR-PEER · CPC-BROAD · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 4.2K grants
TOP-DECILE #83/49,997
NEAR-PEER Basf SE
CPC-BROAD E02F · 277 areas
INNOV-STRONG 69.9/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.5 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DOWN -21% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Basf SE (±13 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 Caterpillar’s 69.9 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 28.8 pts (41%) Velocity 6.8 pts (10%) Breadth 25.0 pts (36%) Claim depth 9.3 pts (13%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Rheem Manufacturing · near

70
Schlumberger… · near

70
Caterpillar · this assignee

70
Shandong University · near

70
HI · near

70
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Caterpillar's Innovation Score is 69.9/100 (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 Caterpillar?

Each dot is one of Caterpillar’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). Caterpillar’s own 15.5 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.8 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Caterpillar's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Caterpillar Inc. received 1,734 grants versus 2,202 in 2015–2019 (-21% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2015 at 531 grants and bottomed in 2020 at 318. Lead class E02F accounts for 24.9% of the portfolio across 277 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. (#79) and United Microelectronics Corp. (#87).

Caterpillar's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Caterpillar Inc. moved from 1,044 to 1,061 grants (1.02x 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 #1,143. See the growth leaderboard.

Guangdong Oppo Mo…

4,374
Commissariat A L'…

4,218
ZTE

4,193
Basf SE

4,191
Caterpillar ◀

4,178
Konica Minolta

4,158
Kyocera

4,151
United

4,091
United Microelect…

4,034

What this shows Caterpillar holds 4,178 patents at rank #83, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Caterpillar

By rank, the assignees closest to #83 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in E02F (Dredging)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Caterpillar, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In E02F (Dredging), Caterpillar ranks #1 of 348 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (70 here).

Shandong University 70 HI LLC 70 Schlumberger Technology Corporation 70 Rheem Manufacturing Company 70

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.5 here).

Rivian IP Holdings, LLC 15.5 avg Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy S.P.A. 15.5 avg Widex A/S 15.5 avg A. Raymond ET CIE 15.5 avg

Caterpillar's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

70 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

Caterpillar Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	531	12.7%
2016	420	10.1%
2017	474	11.3%
2018	406	9.7%
2019	371	8.9%
2020	318	7.6%
2021	355	8.5%
2022	362	8.7%
2023	348	8.3%
2024	351	8.4%
2025partial year	242	5.8%

Which technologies does Caterpillar Inc. patent most?

E02F - DREDGING; Soil-shifting 1,041

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 613

F02M - Supplying Combustion Engines IN General With Combustible Mixtures OR Constituents Thereof 474

F02D - Controlling Combustion Engines 414

B62D - Motor VEHICLES; Trailers 358

F02B - Internal-combustion Piston ENGINES; Combustion Engines IN General 309

F01N - Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Machines OR Engines IN GENERAL; Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Internal-combustion Engines 223

B01D - Separation 194

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 189

F15B - Systems Acting BY Means OF Fluids IN GENERAL; Fluid-pressure Actuators, e.g. SERVOMOTORS; Details OF Fluid-pressure Systems, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 185

B60W - Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type OR Different FUNCTION; Control Systems Specially Adapted FOR Hybrid VEHICLES; Road Vehicle Drive Control Systems FOR Purposes NOT Related TO THE Control OF A Particular Sub-unit 181

F16H - Gearing 175

G05D - Systems FOR Controlling OR Regulating Non-electric Variables 152

B60K - Arrangement OR Mounting OF Propulsion Units OR OF Transmissions IN VEHICLES; Arrangement OR Mounting OF Plural Diverse Prime-movers IN VEHICLES; Auxiliary Drives FOR VEHICLES; Instrumentation OR Dashboards FOR VEHICLES; Arrangements IN Connection With Cooling, AIR Intake, GAS Exhaust OR Fuel Supply 140

B60Y - Indexing Scheme Relating TO Aspects Cross-cutting Vehicle Technology 138

Top 15 of 277 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

Caterpillar Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Caterpillar Inc.'s lead technology class is E02F (DREDGING; Soil-shifting), 24.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore E02F
Ranked #83 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Caterpillar Inc. against Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 69.9/100 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.