Where does Continental Automotive GMBH rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Continental Automotive GMBH ranks #236 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 Continental Automotive GMBH hold?

Continental Automotive GMBH holds 1,748 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 201 technology areas.

What is Continental Automotive GMBH's Innovation Score?

Continental Automotive GMBH has an Innovation Score of 61.5 out of 100 (top 3% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Continental Automotive GMBH focus on?

Continental Automotive GMBH's top technology area is F02D (Controlling Combustion Engines) with 295 patents. Grants appear in 201 CPC subclasses total.

Is Continental Automotive GMBH's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Continental Automotive GMBH's recent grant velocity is -41% 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 Continental Automotive GMBH's patents?

Continental Automotive GMBH's patents average 12.3 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 Continental Automotive GMBH 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 Foreign Corporation

Continental Automotive GMBH

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,748 granted patents across 201 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: F02D (Controlling Combustion Engines).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Continental ranks #236 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,748 patents across 201 technology areas.

#236
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (61.5/100): 12.3
avg claims per patent: -41%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R236 · Foreign Corporation #236 · 1,748 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-BROAD · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 1.7K grants
TOP-DECILE #236/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Signify Holding B V
CPC-BROAD F02D · 201 areas
INNOV-STRONG 61.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 12.3 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -41% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Signify Holding B.V. (±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
FCA US · near

62
Mitsubishi Gas… · near

62
Adobe Systems… · near

62
Continental Automotive · this assignee

62
The Governing… · near

62
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Continental's Innovation Score is 61.5/100 (top 3% 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 Continental's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Continental Automotive GMBH received 641 grants versus 1,091 in 2015–2019 (-41% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 247 grants and bottomed in 2024 at 76. Lead class F02D accounts for 16.9% of the portfolio across 201 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Arris Enterprises LLC (#232) and Airbus Operations SAS (#240).

Continental's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Continental Automotive GMBH moved from 590 to 298 grants (0.51x 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 #2,686. See the growth leaderboard.

Arris Enterprises

1,761
Sumitomo Chemical

1,758
Carrier

1,756
ZF Friedrichshafen

1,756
Signify Holding B…

1,748
Continental Autom… ◀

1,748
Baker Hughes Hold…

1,746
AT&T Mobility II

1,742
Airbus Operations…

1,734

What this shows Continental holds 1,748 patents at rank #236, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Continental

By rank, the assignees closest to #236 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in F02D (Controlling Combustion Engines)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

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

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (62 here).

Adobe Systems Incorporated 62 The Governing Council of the University of Toronto 62 FCA US LLC. 62 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. 62

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (12.3 here).

L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude 12.3 avg Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. 12.3 avg Phillips 66 Company 12.3 avg Valeo Systemes DE Controle Moteur 12.3 avg

Continental's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

62 Top 3% higher than 97% 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

Continental Automotive GMBH patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	171	9.8%
2016	183	10.5%
2017	246	14.1%
2018	244	14.0%
2019	247	14.1%
2020	222	12.7%
2021	121	6.9%
2022	143	8.2%
2023	79	4.5%
2024	76	4.3%
2025partial year	16	0.9%

Which technologies does Continental Automotive GMBH patent most?

F02D - Controlling Combustion Engines 295

F02M - Supplying Combustion Engines IN General With Combustible Mixtures OR Constituents Thereof 291

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 245

B60R - Vehicles, Vehicle Fittings, OR Vehicle Parts, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 200

G07C - Time OR Attendance REGISTERS; Registering OR Indicating THE Working OF MACHINES; Generating Random NUMBERS; Voting OR Lottery APPARATUS; Arrangements, Systems OR Apparatus FOR Checking NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere 122

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 120

B60C - Vehicle TYRES; Tyre INFLATION; Tyre CHANGING; Connecting Valves TO Inflatable Elastic Bodies IN GENERAL; Devices OR Arrangements Related TO Tyres 114

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 110

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 101

F01N - Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Machines OR Engines IN GENERAL; Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Internal-combustion Engines 100

H04B - Transmission 95

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 91

G01R - Measuring Electric VARIABLES; Measuring Magnetic Variables 87

G01D - Measuring NOT Specially Adapted FOR A Specific VARIABLE; Arrangements FOR Measuring TWO OR More Variables NOT Covered IN A Single Other SUBCLASS; Tariff Metering APPARATUS; Measuring OR Testing NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 81

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 74

Top 15 of 201 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#236

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

61.5 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

Continental Automotive GMBH's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Continental Automotive GMBH's lead technology class is F02D (Controlling Combustion Engines), 16.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore F02D
Ranked #236 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Continental Automotive GMBH against Arris Enterprises LLC, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 61.5/100 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.