Where does Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated ranks #8,635 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 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated hold?

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated holds 37 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 11 technology areas.

What is Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's Innovation Score?

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has an Innovation Score of 38.8 out of 100 (top 40% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated focus on?

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's top technology area is A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations) with 34 patents, ranking #560 of 6,058 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 11 CPC subclasses total.

Is Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's recent grant velocity is -38% 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 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's patents?

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's patents average 15.5 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 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated 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

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 37 granted patents across 11 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: A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Ligand ranks #8,635 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 37 patents across 11 technology areas.

#8,635
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 40%
by Innovation Score (38.8/100): 15.5
avg claims per patent: -38%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R8635 · US Corporation #8,635 · 37 grants

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

GRANTS-SMALL 37 grants
UPPER-Q #8,635/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Lamplight Farms…
CPC-FOCUS A61P · 11 areas
INNOV-THIN 38.8/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.5 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DOWN -38% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Lamplight Farms Incorporated (±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 Ligand’s 38.8 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 12.6 pts (32%) Velocity 5.2 pts (13%) Breadth 11.7 pts (30%) Claim depth 9.3 pts (24%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Advanced Architectur… · near

39
Guangdong Jiamei… · near

39
Leo Pharma A/S · near

39
Ligand Pharmaceutica… · this assignee

39
Venatorx Pharmaceuti… · near

39
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Ligand's Innovation Score is 38.8/100 (top 40% 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 Ligand?

Each dot is one of Ligand’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). Ligand’s own 15.5 claims/patent is at or below the 16.6 median for these volume peers. Volume here does not track with deeper claims; several lower-volume peers claim more thoroughly per patent.

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

Where Ligand's grants concentrate

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is a focused PatentsView assignee: 11 CPC subclasses with 91.9% of grants classified under A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations). Peak complete grant year is 2018 (8 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2021. By volume, Ligand sits between Lamplight Farms Incorporated and Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc..

Ligand's three-year grant acceleration

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated shows 7 grants in 2022–2024 against only 9 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.

Lamplight Farms I…

37
Lenovo (United St…

37
Liebert

37
Life AS

37
Luminar

37
Maruzen Petrochem…

37
Match Group

37
Mitsui Chemicals…

37
Ligand Pharmaceut… ◀

37

What this shows Ligand holds 37 patents at rank #8,634, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Ligand

By rank, the assignees closest to #8,634 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Me…)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Ligand, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Me…), Ligand ranks #560 of 6,058 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (39 here).

Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 39 Advanced Architectural Products, LLC 39 Leo Pharma A/S 39 Guangdong Jiamei Ceramics Co., Ltd. 39

Ligand's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

39 Top 40% higher than 60% 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

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	2	5.4%
2016	4	10.8%
2017	4	10.8%
2018	8	21.6%
2019	3	8.1%
2020	5	13.5%
2021	1	2.7%
2022	3	8.1%
2023	2	5.4%
2024	2	5.4%
2025partial year	3	8.1%

Which technologies does Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated patent most?

A61P - Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations 34

A61K - Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes 31

C07D - Heterocyclic Compounds 26

Y02A - Technologies FOR Adaptation TO Climate Change 11

C07F - Acyclic, Carbocyclic OR Heterocyclic Compounds Containing Elements Other Than Carbon, Hydrogen, Halogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Selenium OR Tellurium 7

A61N - ELECTROTHERAPY; MAGNETOTHERAPY; Radiation THERAPY; Ultrasound Therapy 6

C07H - SUGARS; Derivatives THEREOF; NUCLEOSIDES; NUCLEOTIDES; Nucleic Acids 4

C07C - Acyclic OR Carbocyclic Compounds 4

C12Q - Measuring OR Testing Processes Involving Enzymes, Nucleic Acids OR Microorganisms ; Compositions OR Test Papers THEREFOR; Processes OF Preparing Such COMPOSITIONS; Condition-responsive Control IN Microbiological OR Enzymological Processes 4

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 3

C07B - General Methods OF Organic CHEMISTRY; Apparatus Therefor 2

Top 11 of 11 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

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated's lead technology class is A61P (Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations), 91.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A61P
Ranked #8,635 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated against Lamplight Farms Incorporated, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 38.8/100 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.