Where does International Business Machines Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), International Business Machines Corporation ranks #2 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 International Business Machines Corporation hold?

International Business Machines Corporation holds 72,926 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 449 technology areas.

What is International Business Machines Corporation's Innovation Score?

International Business Machines Corporation has an Innovation Score of 75.7 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%).

What technology areas does International Business Machines Corporation focus on?

International Business Machines Corporation's top technology area is G06F (Electric Digital Data Processing) with 42,717 patents, ranking #1 of 13,878 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 449 CPC subclasses total.

Is International Business Machines Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

International Business Machines Corporation's recent grant velocity is -34% 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 International Business Machines Corporation's patents?

International Business Machines Corporation's patents average 15.7 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.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView US Corporation

International Business Machines Corporation

Q: How is the International Business Machines 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 PatentsView assignee record - 72,926 granted patents across 449 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: G06F (Electric Digital Data Processing).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, International ranks #2 of 49,997 US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 72,926 patents across 449 technology areas.

#2
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (75.7/100): 15.7
avg claims per patent: -34%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R2 · US Corporation #2 · 72,926 grants

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

GRANTS-MEGA 73K grants
TOP-DECILE #2/49,997
CLEAR-GAP Samsung
CPC-BROAD G06F · 449 areas
INNOV-STRONG 75.7/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.7 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DOWN -34% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (±33,964 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 International’s 75.7 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 38.7 pts (51%) Velocity 2.6 pts (3%) Breadth 25.0 pts (33%) Claim depth 9.4 pts (12%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Microsoft Technology… · near

76
Huawei Digital Power · near

76
Capital ONE Services · near

76
International… · this assignee

76
Marathon Petroleum · near

76
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows International's Innovation Score is 75.7/100 (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 International?

Each dot is one of International’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). International’s own 15.7 claims/patent is at or below the 19.1 median for these volume peers. Volume here does not track with deeper claims; several lower-volume peers claim more thoroughly per patent.

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

How International's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, International Business Machines Corporation received 28,356 grants versus 42,902 in 2015–2019 (-34% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 9,268 grants and bottomed in 2024 at 2,466. Lead class G06F accounts for 58.6% of the portfolio across 449 subclasses.

International's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, International Business Machines Corporation moved from 27,095 to 10,529 grants (0.39x 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 #2,900. See the growth leaderboard.

Samsung

106,890
International Bus… ◀

72,926
Canon

34,378
LG

32,607
Taiwan Semiconduc…

31,041
Apple

30,560
Qualcomm Incorpor…

30,354
Intel

27,498
Microsoft Technol…

24,392

What this shows International sits among the ten largest US patent holders, a tier dominated by electronics and semiconductor multinationals.

Other top-10 patent holders

The other largest US assignees by granted patent volume.

Leaders in G06F (Electric Digital Data Processing)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for International, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In G06F (Electric Digital Data Processing), International ranks #1 of 13,878 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (76 here).

Capital ONE Services, LLC 76 Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co., Ltd. 76 Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC 76 Marathon Petroleum Company LP 76

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.7 here).

Kone Corporation 15.7 avg Shionogi & Co., Ltd. 15.7 avg Helmholtz Zentrum München Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt (GmbH) 15.7 avg Rockwell Automation Asia Pacific Business Center Pte. Ltd. 15.7 avg

International's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

76 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

International Business Machines Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	7,372	10.1%
2016	8,108	11.1%
2017	9,049	12.4%
2018	9,105	12.5%
2019	9,268	12.7%
2020	9,137	12.5%
2021	8,690	11.9%
2022	4,402	6.0%
2023	3,661	5.0%
2024	2,466	3.4%
2025partial year	1,668	2.3%

Which technologies does International Business Machines Corporation patent most?

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 42,717

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 15,969

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 7,479

H01L - Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10 7,298

G06Q - Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory Purposes, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 6,621

H10D - Inorganic Electric Semiconductor Devices 6,204

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 3,257

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 2,565

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 2,281

G11C - Static Stores 1,554

G10L - Speech Analysis Techniques OR Speech SYNTHESIS; Speech RECOGNITION; Speech OR Voice Processing TECHNIQUES; Speech OR Audio Coding OR Decoding 1,520

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 1,511

H05K - Printed CIRCUITS; Casings OR Constructional Details OF Electric APPARATUS; Manufacture OF Assemblages OF Electrical Components 1,469

H10N - Electric Solid-state Devices NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 1,422

G11B - Information Storage Based ON Relative Movement Between Record Carrier AND Transducer 1,279

Top 15 of 449 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

International Business Machines Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

International Business Machines Corporation's lead technology class is G06F (Electric Digital Data Processing), 58.6% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore G06F
Ranked #2 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
International Business Machines Corporation is a top-10 global holder - see how it stacks up against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., another of the largest patent portfolios. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 75.7/100 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.