Where does Imperial Tobacco Limited rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Imperial Tobacco Limited ranks #6,905 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 Imperial Tobacco Limited hold?

Imperial Tobacco Limited holds 48 US utility patents granted between 2016 and 2025, spanning 27 technology areas.

What is Imperial Tobacco Limited's Innovation Score?

Imperial Tobacco Limited has an Innovation Score of 61.7 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 Imperial Tobacco Limited focus on?

Imperial Tobacco Limited's top technology area is A24F (Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices) with 44 patents, ranking #21 of 214 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 27 CPC subclasses total.

Is Imperial Tobacco Limited's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Imperial Tobacco Limited's recent grant velocity is +380% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Imperial Tobacco Limited's patents?

Imperial Tobacco Limited's patents average 16.5 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 Imperial Tobacco Limited 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

Imperial Tobacco Limited

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 48 granted patents across 27 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2016–2025. 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: A24F (Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Imperial ranks #6,905 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 48 patents across 27 technology areas.

#6,905
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (61.7/100): 16.5
avg claims per patent: +380%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R6905 · Foreign Corporation #6,905 · 48 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · UPPER-Q · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-SURGE · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 48 grants
UPPER-Q #6,905/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Hampton Products…
CPC-FOCUS A24F · 27 areas
INNOV-STRONG 61.7/100
CLAIMS-RICH 16.5 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-SURGE +380% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Hampton Products International Corporation (±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 Imperial’s 61.7 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 13.4 pts (22%) Velocity 20.0 pts (32%) Breadth 18.4 pts (30%) Claim depth 9.9 pts (16%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Imperial Tobacco · this assignee

62
PGS Geophysical AS · near

62
Taiwan Textile… · near

62
Tektronix · near

62
STMicroelectronics… · near

62
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Imperial's Innovation Score is 61.7/100 (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.

Does more volume mean deeper claims for Imperial?

Each dot is one of Imperial’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). Imperial’s own 16.5 claims/patent is ABOVE the 13.0 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Imperial's grants concentrate

Imperial Tobacco Limited is a focused PatentsView assignee: 27 CPC subclasses with 91.7% of grants classified under A24F (Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices). Peak complete grant year is 2024 (22 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2017. By volume, Imperial sits between Hytera Communications Corporation Limited and Kempharm, Inc..

Imperial's three-year grant acceleration

Imperial Tobacco Limited shows 24 grants in 2022–2024 against only 1 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.

Hytera Communicat…

48
Hampton Products…

48
Industrial Cooper…

48
Ip2ipo Innovations

48
Innophase

48
J A Woollam

48
Jrsk

48
Kempharm

48
Imperial Tobacco ◀

48

What this shows Imperial holds 48 patents at rank #6,906, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Imperial

By rank, the assignees closest to #6,906 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A24F (Smokers' Requisites)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Imperial, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In A24F (Smokers' Requisites), Imperial ranks #21 of 214 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (62 here).

Taiwan Textile Research Institute 62 Tektronix, Inc. 62 PGS Geophysical AS 62 STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd 62

Imperial'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 · 2016–2025

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2016–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Imperial Tobacco Limited patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2016	2	4.2%
2017	1	2.1%
2018	1	2.1%
2019	1	2.1%
2023	2	4.2%
2024	22	45.8%
2025partial year	19	39.6%

Which technologies does Imperial Tobacco Limited patent most?

A24F - Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices 44

A24D - CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces 7

A61M - Devices FOR Introducing Media Into, OR Onto, THE Body ; Devices FOR Transducing Body Media OR FOR Taking Media From THE Body ; Devices FOR Producing OR Ending Sleep OR Stupor 7

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 5

H04M - Telephonic Communication 5

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 3

B05B - Spraying APPARATUS; Atomising APPARATUS; Nozzles 3

B65D - Containers FOR Storage OR Transport OF Articles OR Materials, e.g. Bags, Barrels, Bottles, Boxes, Cans, Cartons, Crates, Drums, Jars, Tanks, Hoppers, Forwarding CONTAINERS; Accessories, Closures, OR Fittings THEREFOR; Packaging ELEMENTS; Packages 3

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 2

H02J - Circuit Arrangements OR Systems FOR Supplying OR Distributing Electric POWER; Systems FOR Storing Electric Energy 2

A24B - Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff 2

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 2

A24C - Machines FOR Making Cigars OR Cigarettes 2

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 1

B29L - Indexing Scheme Associated With Subclass B29c, Relating TO Particular Articles 1

Top 15 of 27 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

Imperial Tobacco Limited's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Imperial Tobacco Limited's lead technology class is A24F (Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices), 91.7% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A24F
Ranked #6,905 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Imperial Tobacco Limited against Hytera Communications Corporation Limited, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 61.7/100 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.