Where does Key Technology, Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Key Technology, Inc. ranks #8,233 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 Key Technology, Inc. hold?

Key Technology, Inc. holds 39 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2024, spanning 23 technology areas.

What is Key Technology, Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Key Technology, Inc. has an Innovation Score of 44.0 out of 100 (top 27% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Key Technology, Inc. focus on?

Key Technology, Inc.'s top technology area is B07C (Postal SORTING; Sorting Individual Articles, OR Bulk Material FIT TO BE Sorted Piece-meal, e.g. BY Picking) with 16 patents, ranking #15 of 282 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 23 CPC subclasses total.

Is Key Technology, Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Key Technology, Inc.'s recent grant velocity is -78% 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 Key Technology, Inc.'s patents?

Key Technology, Inc.'s patents average 19.1 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 Key Technology, Inc. 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

Key Technology, Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 39 granted patents across 23 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2024. 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: B07C (Postal SORTING; Sorting Individual Articles, OR Bulk Material FIT TO BE Sorted Piece-meal, e.g. BY Picking).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Key ranks #8,233 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 39 patents across 23 technology areas.

#8,233
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 27%
by Innovation Score (44.0/100): 19.1
avg claims per patent: -78%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R8233 · US Corporation #8,233 · 39 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · UPPER-Q · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 39 grants
UPPER-Q #8,233/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Kason Industries
CPC-FOCUS B07C · 23 areas
INNOV-PAR 44.0/100
CLAIMS-RICH 19.1 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -78% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Kason Industries, Inc. (±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 Key’s 44.0 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 12.7 pts (29%) Velocity 2.8 pts (6%) Breadth 17.0 pts (39%) Claim depth 11.5 pts (26%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Daktronics · near

44
Innovative Timing… · near

44
Key Technology · this assignee

44
Power Design · near

44
Winston Products · near

44
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Key's Innovation Score is 44.0/100 (top 27% 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 Key?

Each dot is one of Key’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). Key’s own 19.1 claims/patent is ABOVE the 11.6 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Key's grants concentrate

Key Technology, Inc. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 23 CPC subclasses with 41% of grants classified under B07C (Postal SORTING; Sorting Individual Articles, OR Bulk Material FIT TO BE Sorted Piece-meal, e.g. BY Picking). Peak complete grant year is 2019 (10 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2024. By volume, Key sits between Kotobuki & Co., Ltd. and Lingdong Technology (BEIJING) Co. Ltd..

Key's three-year grant acceleration

Key Technology, Inc. shows 5 grants in 2022–2024 against only 12 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.

Kotobuki &

39
KSB Aktiengesells…

39
Kuang-chi Innovat…

39
Kason Industries

39
Kid Stuff Marketi…

39
Lacks Enterprises

39
Lamberti SPA

39
Lingdong Technolo…

39
Key Technology ◀

39

What this shows Key holds 39 patents at rank #8,235, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Key

By rank, the assignees closest to #8,235 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in B07C (Postal Sorting)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Key, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In B07C (Postal Sorting), Key ranks #15 of 282 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (44 here).

Innovative Timing Systems, LLC 44 Electronic Power Design, Inc. 44 Winston Products LLC 44 Daktronics, Inc. 44

Key's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

44 Top 27% higher than 73% 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 · 2015–2024

Grants by year

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

View data table

Key Technology, Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	7	17.9%
2016	8	20.5%
2017	3	7.7%
2018	4	10.3%
2019	10	25.6%
2020	2	5.1%
2022	2	5.1%
2023	2	5.1%
2024	1	2.6%

Which technologies does Key Technology, Inc. patent most?

B07C - Postal SORTING; Sorting Individual Articles, OR Bulk Material FIT TO BE Sorted Piece-meal, e.g. BY Picking 16

B65G - Transport OR Storage Devices, e.g. Conveyors FOR Loading OR Tipping, Shop Conveyor Systems OR Pneumatic Tube Conveyors 11

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 9

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 6

B26D - CUTTING; Details Common TO Machines FOR Perforating, Punching, Cutting-out, Stamping-out OR Severing 5

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 4

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 4

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 3

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 3

B26F - PERFORATING; PUNCHING; CUTTING-OUT; STAMPING-OUT; Severing BY Means Other Than Cutting 2

B25B - Tools OR Bench Devices NOT Otherwise Provided FOR, FOR Fastening, Connecting, Disengaging OR Holding 2

Y10S - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former Uspc Cross-reference ART Collections [XRACs] AND Digests 1

H10D - Inorganic Electric Semiconductor Devices 1

G01J - Measurement OF Intensity, Velocity, Spectral Content, Polarisation, Phase OR Pulse Characteristics OF Infrared, Visible OR Ultraviolet LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; Radiation Pyrometry 1

H01L - Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10 1

Top 15 of 23 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

Key Technology, Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Key Technology, Inc.'s lead technology class is B07C (Postal SORTING; Sorting Individual Articles, OR Bulk Material FIT TO BE Sorted Piece-meal, e.g. BY Picking), 41% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore B07C
Ranked #8,233 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Key Technology, Inc. against Kotobuki & Co., Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 44.0/100 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.