Where does Eaton Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Eaton Corporation ranks #480 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 Eaton Corporation hold?

Eaton Corporation holds 924 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2021, spanning 157 technology areas.

What is Eaton Corporation's Innovation Score?

Eaton Corporation has an Innovation Score of 57.8 out of 100 (top 5% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Eaton Corporation focus on?

Eaton Corporation's top technology area is H01H (Electric SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; Emergency Protective Devices) with 211 patents, ranking #7 of 1,006 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 157 CPC subclasses total.

Is Eaton Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Eaton Corporation's recent grant velocity is -97% 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 Eaton Corporation's patents?

Eaton Corporation's patents average 15.3 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 Eaton Corporation 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

Eaton Corporation

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 924 granted patents across 157 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2021. 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: H01H (Electric SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; Emergency Protective Devices).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Eaton ranks #480 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 924 patents across 157 technology areas.

#480
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 5%
by Innovation Score (57.8/100): 15.3
avg claims per patent: -97%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R480 · US Corporation #480 · 924 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 924 grants
TOP-DECILE #480/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Baidu USA
CPC-WIDE H01H · 157 areas
INNOV-PAR 57.8/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.3 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -97% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Baidu USA LLC (±2 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 Eaton’s 57.8 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 23.6 pts (41%) Velocity 0.0 pts (0%) Breadth 25.0 pts (43%) Claim depth 9.2 pts (16%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Eaton · this assignee

58
HCL · near

58
Howard University · near

58
Silanna UV Pte · near

58
Solvay Specialty… · near

58
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Eaton's Innovation Score is 57.8/100 (top 5% 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 Eaton?

Each dot is one of Eaton’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). Eaton’s own 15.3 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Eaton's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Eaton Corporation received 28 grants versus 896 in 2015–2019 (-97% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2017 at 314 grants and bottomed in 2021 at 9. Lead class H01H accounts for 22.8% of the portfolio across 157 subclasses. Volume neighbours: IHI Corporation (#476) and Baidu Online Network Technology (BEIJING) Co., Ltd. (#484).

IHI

928
Level 3 Communica…

928
Verily Life Scien…

926
Zeon

926
Eaton ◀

924
Baidu USA

922
THE University OF…

920
Battelle Memorial…

917
Baidu Online Netw…

916

What this shows Eaton holds 924 patents at rank #480, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Eaton

By rank, the assignees closest to #480 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H01H (Electric Switches)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Eaton, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H01H (Electric Switches), Eaton ranks #7 of 1,006 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (58 here).

Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy S.P.A. 58 HCL Technologies Limited 58 Howard University 58 Silanna UV Technologies Pte Ltd 58

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.3 here).

Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC 15.3 avg St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Inc. 15.3 avg Interroll Holding AG 15.3 avg Otto Bock Healthcare Products GmbH 15.3 avg

Eaton's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

58 Top 5% higher than 95% 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 · 2015–2021

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Eaton Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	203	22.0%
2016	252	27.3%
2017	314	34.0%
2018	101	10.9%
2019	26	2.8%
2020	19	2.1%
2021	9	1.0%

Which technologies does Eaton Corporation patent most?

H01H - Electric SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; Emergency Protective Devices 211

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 136

H02H - Emergency Protective Circuit Arrangements 74

F16H - Gearing 70

H02B - Boards, Substations OR Switching Arrangements FOR THE Supply OR Distribution OF Electric Power 69

G01R - Measuring Electric VARIABLES; Measuring Magnetic Variables 68

F01L - Cyclically Operating Valves FOR Machines OR Engines 59

H02J - Circuit Arrangements OR Systems FOR Supplying OR Distributing Electric POWER; Systems FOR Storing Electric Energy 50

F16D - Couplings FOR Transmitting ROTATION; CLUTCHES; Brakes 47

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 46

H01R - Electrically-conductive CONNECTIONS; Structural Associations OF A Plurality OF Mutually-insulated Electrical Connecting ELEMENTS; Coupling DEVICES; Current Collectors 45

F15B - Systems Acting BY Means OF Fluids IN GENERAL; Fluid-pressure Actuators, e.g. SERVOMOTORS; Details OF Fluid-pressure Systems, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 41

F16L - PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General 38

F16K - VALVES; TAPS; COCKS; ACTUATING-FLOATS; Devices FOR Venting OR Aerating 37

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 34

Top 15 of 157 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

Eaton Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Eaton Corporation's lead technology class is H01H (Electric SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; Emergency Protective Devices), 22.8% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H01H
Ranked #480 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Eaton Corporation against IHI Corporation, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 57.8/100 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.