Where does General Electric Company rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), General Electric Company ranks #21 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 General Electric Company hold?

General Electric Company holds 14,436 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 429 technology areas.

What is General Electric Company's Innovation Score?

General Electric Company has an Innovation Score of 71.7 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%).

Is General Electric Company's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

General Electric Company'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 General Electric Company's patents?

General Electric Company's patents average 17.1 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 General Electric Company 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

General Electric Company

Q: What technology areas does General Electric Company focus on?

General Electric Company's top technology area is F05D (Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-displacement Machines OR Engines, Gas-turbines OR Jet-propulsion Plants) with 4,320 patents, ranking #1 of 744 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 429 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 14,436 granted patents across 429 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: F05D (Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-displacement Machines OR Engines, Gas-turbines OR Jet-propulsion Plants).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, General ranks #21 of 49,997 US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 14,436 patents across 429 technology areas.

#21
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (71.7/100): 17.1
avg claims per patent: -41%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R21 · US Corporation #21 · 14,436 grants

GRANTS-MEGA · TOP-DECILE · CLEAR-GAP · CPC-BROAD · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MEGA 14K grants
TOP-DECILE #21/49,997
CLEAR-GAP Seiko Epson
CPC-BROAD F05D · 429 areas
INNOV-STRONG 71.7/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.1 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -41% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Seiko Epson Corporation (±201 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 General’s 71.7 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 33.1 pts (46%) Velocity 3.3 pts (5%) Breadth 25.0 pts (35%) Claim depth 10.3 pts (14%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Aptiv · near

72
Beijing BOE Sensor… · near

72
General Electric · this assignee

72
Milwaukee Electric… · near

72
Robert Bosch · near

72
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows General's Innovation Score is 71.7/100 (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 General?

Each dot is one of General’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). General’s own 17.1 claims/patent is ABOVE the 11.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How General's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, General Electric Company received 5,189 grants versus 8,727 in 2015–2019 (-41% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 1,864 grants and bottomed in 2024 at 617. Lead class F05D accounts for 29.9% of the portfolio across 429 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ) (#17) and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (#25).

General's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, General Electric Company moved from 4,725 to 2,328 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 #2,709. See the growth leaderboard.

Telefonaktiebolag…

15,598
Micron Technology

15,200
Mitsubishi Electr…

15,053
Hyundai Motor

15,033
General Electric ◀

14,436
Seiko Epson

14,235
Panasonic Intelle…

13,148
Toshiba

12,848
Honda Motor

12,454

What this shows General holds 14,436 patents at rank #21, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near General

By rank, the assignees closest to #21 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in F05D (Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-disp…)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for General, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In F05D (Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-disp…), General ranks #1 of 744 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (72 here).

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation 72 Robert Bosch GmbH 72 Aptiv Technologies AG 72 Beijing BOE Sensor Technology Co., Ltd. 72

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (17.1 here).

Baker Hughes, a GE company, LLC 17.1 avg The Curators of the University of Missouri 17.1 avg GE Avio S.R.L. 17.1 avg Materion Corporation 17.1 avg

General's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

72 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

General Electric Company patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	1,817	12.6%
2016	1,703	11.8%
2017	1,657	11.5%
2018	1,686	11.7%
2019	1,864	12.9%
2020	1,785	12.4%
2021	1,076	7.5%
2022	878	6.1%
2023	833	5.8%
2024	617	4.3%
2025partial year	520	3.6%

Which technologies does General Electric Company patent most?

F05D - Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-displacement Machines OR Engines, Gas-turbines OR Jet-propulsion Plants 4,320

F01D - Non-positive Displacement Machines OR Engines, e.g. Steam Turbines 3,837

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 2,396

F02C - Gas-turbine PLANTS; AIR Intakes FOR Jet-propulsion PLANTS; Controlling Fuel Supply IN Air-breathing Jet-propulsion Plants 2,381

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 1,650

A61B - DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification 1,161

F23R - Generating Combustion Products OF High Pressure OR High Velocity, e.g. Gas-turbine Combustion Chambers 1,090

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 931

B33Y - Additive Manufacturing, i.e. Manufacturing OF Three-dimensional [3-D] Objects BY Additive Deposition, Additive Agglomeration OR Additive Layering, e.g. BY 3-D Printing, Stereolithography OR Selective Laser Sintering 840

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 832

F03D - Wind Motors 806

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 759

F05B - Indexing Scheme Relating TO Wind, Spring, Weight, Inertia OR Like Motors, TO Machines OR Engines FOR Liquids Covered BY Subclasses F03b, F03d AND F03g 685

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 659

F04D - Non-positive-displacement Pumps 654

Top 15 of 429 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

General Electric Company's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

General Electric Company's lead technology class is F05D (Indexing Scheme FOR Aspects Relating TO Non-positive-displacement Machines OR Engines, Gas-turbines OR Jet-propulsion Plants), 29.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore F05D
Ranked #21 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare General Electric Company against Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ), an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 71.7/100 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.