Where does IMEC rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), IMEC ranks #2,440 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 IMEC hold?

IMEC holds 160 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2023, spanning 76 technology areas.

What is IMEC's Innovation Score?

IMEC has an Innovation Score of 52.4 out of 100 (top 10% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does IMEC focus on?

IMEC's top technology area is H01L (Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10) with 60 patents, ranking #272 of 3,373 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 76 CPC subclasses total.

Is IMEC's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

IMEC's recent grant velocity is -98% 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 IMEC's patents?

IMEC'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 IMEC 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

IMEC

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 160 granted patents across 76 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2023. 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: H01L (Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, IMEC ranks #2,440 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 160 patents across 76 technology areas.

#2,440
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 10%
by Innovation Score (52.4/100): 15.3
avg claims per patent: -98%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R2440 · Foreign Corporation #2,440 · 160 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 160 grants
TOP-DECILE #2,440/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Fronius International
CPC-WIDE H01L · 76 areas
INNOV-PAR 52.4/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.3 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -98% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Fronius International GmbH (±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.

How IMEC’s 52.4 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 17.6 pts (34%) Velocity 0.7 pts (1%) Breadth 25.0 pts (48%) Claim depth 9.2 pts (18%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
IMEC · this assignee

52
Quanzhou Sanan… · near

52
Software · near

52
Universite DE Nantes · near

52
UPL · near

52
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows IMEC's Innovation Score is 52.4/100 (top 10% 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 IMEC?

Each dot is one of IMEC’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). IMEC’s own 15.3 claims/patent is ABOVE the 12.2 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How IMEC's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, IMEC received 3 grants versus 157 in 2015–2019 (-98% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2015 at 66 grants and bottomed in 2020 at 1. Lead class H01L accounts for 37.5% of the portfolio across 76 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Fronius International GmbH (#2,436) and Mujin, Inc. (#2,444).

IMEC's three-year grant acceleration

IMEC shows 1 grants in 2022–2024 against only 10 in 2019–2021. That prior window is too thin for a growth multiple (rename and spin-out assignees look artificially high when the baseline is near zero), so PlainPatent withholds a ranked acceleration claim here.

Fronius Internati…

160
GE Global Sourcing

160
Globe (Jiangsu)

160
Hitachi Koki

160
Innovative Techno…

160
Karl Storz Imaging

160
Mitsubishi Pencil

160
Mujin

160
IMEC ◀

160

What this shows IMEC holds 160 patents at rank #2,440, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near IMEC

By rank, the assignees closest to #2,440 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H01L (Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for IMEC, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H01L (Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10), IMEC ranks #272 of 3,373 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (52 here).

Software GMBH 52 Universite DE Nantes 52 UPL Ltd 52 Quanzhou Sanan Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd 52

Similar claim depth

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

Lisa Draexlmaier GmbH 15.3 avg Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG 15.3 avg Vale S.A. 15.3 avg Unilin Bvba 15.3 avg

IMEC's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

52 Top 10% higher than 90% 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 · 2015–2023

Grants by year

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

View data table

IMEC patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	66	41.3%
2016	53	33.1%
2017	23	14.4%
2018	7	4.4%
2019	8	5.0%
2020	1	0.6%
2021	1	0.6%
2023	1	0.6%

Which technologies does IMEC patent most?

H01L - Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10 60

H10D - Inorganic Electric Semiconductor Devices 40

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 22

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 16

H10F - Inorganic Semiconductor Devices Sensitive TO Infrared Radiation, Light, Electromagnetic Radiation OF Shorter Wavelength OR Corpuscular Radiation 13

B82Y - Specific Uses OR Applications OF NANOSTRUCTURES; Measurement OR Analysis OF NANOSTRUCTURES; Manufacture OR Treatment OF Nanostructures 12

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 11

H10N - Electric Solid-state Devices NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 11

G01J - Measurement OF Intensity, Velocity, Spectral Content, Polarisation, Phase OR Pulse Characteristics OF Infrared, Visible OR Ultraviolet LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; Radiation Pyrometry 10

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 9

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 8

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 8

B01L - Chemical OR Physical Laboratory Apparatus FOR General USE 7

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 7

G11C - Static Stores 7

Top 15 of 76 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

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

IMEC's lead technology class is H01L (Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10), 37.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H01L
Ranked #2,440 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare IMEC against Fronius International GmbH, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 52.4/100 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.