Where does Merck Patent GmbH rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Merck Patent GmbH ranks #243 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 Merck Patent GmbH hold?

Merck Patent GmbH holds 1,728 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 159 technology areas.

What is Merck Patent GmbH's Innovation Score?

Merck Patent GmbH has an Innovation Score of 66.5 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 Merck Patent GmbH focus on?

Merck Patent GmbH's top technology area is C09K (Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications, NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere) with 719 patents, ranking #3 of 1,605 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 159 CPC subclasses total.

Is Merck Patent GmbH's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Merck Patent GmbH's recent grant velocity is -23% 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 Merck Patent GmbH's patents?

Merck Patent GmbH's patents average 17.5 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 Merck Patent GmbH 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

Merck Patent GmbH

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,728 granted patents across 159 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: C09K (Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications, NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Merck ranks #243 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,728 patents across 159 technology areas.

#243
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (66.5/100): 17.5
avg claims per patent: -23%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R243 · Foreign Corporation #243 · 1,728 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 1.7K grants
TOP-DECILE #243/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Globus Medical
CPC-WIDE C09K · 159 areas
INNOV-STRONG 66.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.5 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -23% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Globus Medical, 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 Merck’s 66.5 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 25.8 pts (39%) Velocity 5.3 pts (8%) Breadth 25.0 pts (38%) Claim depth 10.5 pts (16%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Driv Automotive · near

67
Kepler Computing · near

67
Vitesco · near

67
UNM Rainforest… · near

66
Merck Patent · this assignee

66
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Merck's Innovation Score is 66.5/100 (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 Merck?

Each dot is one of Merck’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). Merck’s own 17.5 claims/patent is ABOVE the 16.3 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Merck's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Merck Patent GmbH received 722 grants versus 939 in 2015–2019 (-23% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2017 at 205 grants and bottomed in 2023 at 119. Lead class C09K accounts for 41.6% of the portfolio across 159 subclasses. Volume neighbours: AT&T Mobility II LLC (#239) and Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co., Ltd. (#247).

Merck's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Merck Patent GmbH moved from 504 to 397 grants (0.79x 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 #1,881. See the growth leaderboard.

AT&T Mobility II

1,742
Airbus Operations…

1,734
Northwestern Univ…

1,734
Globus Medical

1,728
Merck Patent ◀

1,728
THE Johns Hopkins…

1,727
Hitachi Automotiv…

1,718
Xilinx

1,718
Wuhan China Star…

1,717

What this shows Merck holds 1,728 patents at rank #243, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Merck

By rank, the assignees closest to #243 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in C09K (Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Merck, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In C09K (Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications), Merck ranks #3 of 1,605 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (66 here).

UNM Rainforest Innovations 66 Vitesco Technologies GMBH 67 Kepler Computing Inc. 67 Driv Automotive Inc. 67

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (17.5 here).

Vestas Wind Systems A/S 17.5 avg Arctic Cat Inc. 17.5 avg E.G.O. Elektro-Geraetebau GmbH 17.5 avg ST. Jude Medical International Holding S.Á R.L. 17.5 avg

Merck's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

66 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

Merck Patent GmbH patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	199	11.5%
2016	170	9.8%
2017	205	11.9%
2018	186	10.8%
2019	179	10.4%
2020	167	9.7%
2021	158	9.1%
2022	157	9.1%
2023	119	6.9%
2024	121	7.0%
2025partial year	67	3.9%

Which technologies does Merck Patent GmbH patent most?

C09K - Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications, NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere 719

C07D - Heterocyclic Compounds 587

H10K - Organic Electric Solid-state Devices 545

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 439

A61P - Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations 354

A61K - Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes 330

C07C - Acyclic OR Carbocyclic Compounds 205

G02F - Optical Devices OR Arrangements FOR THE Control OF Light BY Modification OF THE Optical Properties OF THE Media OF THE Elements Involved THEREIN; Non-linear OPTICS; Frequency-changing OF LIGHT; Optical Logic ELEMENTS; Optical ANALOGUE/DIGITAL Converters 197

C07F - Acyclic, Carbocyclic OR Heterocyclic Compounds Containing Elements Other Than Carbon, Hydrogen, Halogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Selenium OR Tellurium 197

C09D - Coating Compositions, e.g. Paints, Varnishes OR LACQUERS; Filling PASTES; Chemical Paint OR INK REMOVERS; INKS; Correcting FLUIDS; WOODSTAINS; Pastes OR Solids FOR Colouring OR PRINTING; USE OF Materials Therefor 138

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 136

C08G - Macromolecular Compounds Obtained Otherwise Than BY Reactions Only Involving Unsaturated Carbon-to-carbon Bonds 135

C09B - Organic Dyes OR Closely-related Compounds FOR Producing Dyes ; , e.g. PIGMENTS; MORDANTS; Lakes 125

C07K - Peptides 88

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 73

Top 15 of 159 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

Merck Patent GmbH's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Merck Patent GmbH's lead technology class is C09K (Materials FOR Miscellaneous Applications, NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere), 41.6% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore C09K
Ranked #243 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Merck Patent GmbH against AT&T Mobility II LLC, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 66.5/100 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.