Where does Pfenex Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Pfenex Inc. ranks #15,532 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 Pfenex Inc. hold?

Pfenex Inc. holds 19 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2022, spanning 9 technology areas.

What is Pfenex Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Pfenex Inc. has an Innovation Score of 37.3 out of 100 (top 44% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is Pfenex Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Pfenex Inc.'s recent grant velocity is -54% 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 Pfenex Inc.'s patents?

Pfenex Inc.'s patents average 28.4 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 Pfenex 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

Pfenex Inc.

Q: What technology areas does Pfenex Inc. focus on?

Pfenex Inc.'s top technology area is C12N (Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media) with 15 patents, ranking #709 of 4,144 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 9 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 19 granted patents across 9 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2022. 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: C12N (Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Pfenex ranks #15,532 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 19 patents across 9 technology areas.

#15,532
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 44%
by Innovation Score (37.3/100): 28.4
avg claims per patent: -54%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R15532 · US Corporation #15,532 · 19 grants

GRANTS-MICRO · MID-PACK · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-NARROW · INNOV-THIN · CLAIMS-DENSE · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MICRO 19 grants
MID-PACK #15,532/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Parmigiani Fleurier
CPC-NARROW C12N · 9 areas
INNOV-THIN 37.3/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 28.4 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -54% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Parmigiani Fleurier S.A. (±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 Pfenex’s 37.3 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 10.3 pts (28%) Velocity 1.3 pts (3%) Breadth 10.6 pts (28%) Claim depth 15.0 pts (40%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Airspan Networks · near

37
Asana BioSciences · near

37
Kuroda Precision… · near

37
NEC Energy Devices · near

37
Pfenex · this assignee

37
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Pfenex's Innovation Score is 37.3/100 (top 44% 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 Pfenex?

Each dot is one of Pfenex’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). Pfenex’s own 28.4 claims/patent is ABOVE the 16.9 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Pfenex's grants concentrate

Pfenex Inc. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 9 CPC subclasses with 78.9% of grants classified under C12N (Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media). Peak complete grant year is 2016 (4 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2022. By volume, Pfenex sits between Parmigiani Fleurier S.A. and Postle Industries, Inc..

Pfenex's three-year grant acceleration

Pfenex Inc. shows 1 grants in 2022–2024 against only 5 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.

Parmigiani Fleuri…

19
Patroness

19
Peck & Hale L L C

19
Perfect Sense

19
Pipeline Medical

19
Polyic & KG

19
Pop Test Oncology

19
Postle Industries

19
Pfenex ◀

19

What this shows Pfenex holds 19 patents at rank #15,544, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Pfenex

By rank, the assignees closest to #15,544 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in C12N (Microorganisms OR Enzymes)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Pfenex, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In C12N (Microorganisms OR Enzymes), Pfenex ranks #709 of 4,144 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (37 here).

Airspan Networks Inc. 37 Kuroda Precision Industries Ltd. 37 Asana BioSciences, LLC 37 NEC Energy Devices, Ltd. 37

Pfenex's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

37 Top 44% higher than 56% 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 · 2015–2022

Grants by year

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

View data table

Pfenex Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	3	15.8%
2016	4	21.1%
2017	4	21.1%
2018	2	10.5%
2020	3	15.8%
2021	2	10.5%
2022	1	5.3%

Which technologies does Pfenex Inc. patent most?

C12N - Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media 15

C07K - Peptides 9

C12Y - Enzymes 9

C12P - Fermentation OR Enzyme-using Processes TO Synthesise A Desired Chemical Compound OR Composition OR TO Separate Optical Isomers From A Racemic Mixture 8

Y02A - Technologies FOR Adaptation TO Climate Change 6

A61K - Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes 4

C12R - Indexing Scheme Associated With Subclasses C12c - C12q, Relating TO Microorganisms 4

A61P - Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations 2

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 1

Top 9 of 9 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

Pfenex Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Pfenex Inc.'s lead technology class is C12N (Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media), 78.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore C12N
Ranked #15,532 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Pfenex Inc. against Parmigiani Fleurier S.A., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 37.3/100 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.