Where does PFU Limited rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), PFU Limited ranks #1,308 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 PFU Limited hold?

PFU Limited holds 324 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 39 technology areas.

What is PFU Limited's Innovation Score?

PFU Limited has an Innovation Score of 54.6 out of 100 (top 8% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does PFU Limited focus on?

PFU Limited's top technology area is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television) with 150 patents, ranking #148 of 5,951 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 39 CPC subclasses total.

Is PFU Limited's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

PFU Limited's recent grant velocity is -20% 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 PFU Limited's patents?

PFU Limited's patents average 8.8 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 PFU Limited 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

PFU Limited

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 324 granted patents across 39 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: H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, PFU ranks #1,308 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 324 patents across 39 technology areas.

#1,308
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 8%
by Innovation Score (54.6/100): 8.8
avg claims per patent: -20%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R1308 · Foreign Corporation #1,308 · 324 grants

GRANTS-MID · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-PAR · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MID 324 grants
TOP-DECILE #1,308/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Ablic
CPC-FOCUS H04N · 39 areas
INNOV-PAR 54.6/100
CLAIMS-PAR 8.8 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -20% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Ablic 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 PFU’s 54.6 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 20.0 pts (37%) Velocity 7.3 pts (13%) Breadth 22.1 pts (40%) Claim depth 5.3 pts (10%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Furukawa Automotive… · near

55
Camso · near

55
ModernaTX · near

55
PFU · this assignee

55
Universitat Stuttgart · near

55
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows PFU's Innovation Score is 54.6/100 (top 8% 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 PFU?

Each dot is one of PFU’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). PFU’s own 8.8 claims/patent is at or below the 17.9 median for these volume peers. Volume here does not track with deeper claims; several lower-volume peers claim more thoroughly per patent.

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

Where PFU's grants concentrate

PFU Limited is a focused PatentsView assignee: 39 CPC subclasses with 46.3% of grants classified under H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television). Peak complete grant year is 2015 (47 grants) versus a trough of 18 in 2018. By volume, PFU sits between Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH and Crown Equipment Corporation.

PFU's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, PFU Limited moved from 78 to 85 grants (1.09x 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 #977. See the growth leaderboard.

Continental Reife…

325
Sony Interactive…

325
Ablic

324
Express Scripts S…

324
The Hong Kong Uni…

324
UAB 360 IT

324
Virginia Tech Int…

324
PFU ◀

324
Crown Equipment

323

What this shows PFU holds 324 patents at rank #1,308, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near PFU

By rank, the assignees closest to #1,308 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04N (Pictorial Communication)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for PFU, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04N (Pictorial Communication), PFU ranks #148 of 5,951 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (55 here).

ModernaTX, Inc. 55 Universitat Stuttgart 55 Camso Inc. 55 Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc. 55

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (8.8 here).

Sun Patent Trust 8.8 avg National Institute OF Information AND Communications Technology 8.8 avg Jahwa Electronics Co., Ltd. 8.8 avg Masonite Corporation 8.8 avg

PFU's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

55 Top 8% higher than 92% 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

PFU Limited patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	47	14.5%
2016	35	10.8%
2017	36	11.1%
2018	18	5.6%
2019	30	9.3%
2020	22	6.8%
2021	26	8.0%
2022	25	7.7%
2023	34	10.5%
2024	26	8.0%
2025partial year	25	7.7%

Which technologies does PFU Limited patent most?

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 150

B65H - Handling Thin OR Filamentary Material, e.g. Sheets, Webs, Cables 100

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 36

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 34

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 32

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 26

G03G - ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; Magnetography 14

G03B - Apparatus OR Arrangements FOR Taking Photographs OR FOR Projecting OR Viewing THEM; Apparatus OR Arrangements Employing Analogous Techniques Using Waves Other Than Optical WAVES; Accessories Therefor 9

B41J - TYPEWRITERS; Selective Printing Mechanisms, i.e. Mechanisms Printing Otherwise Than From A FORME; Correction OF Typographical Errors 8

G09G - Arrangements OR Circuits FOR Control OF Indicating Devices Using Static Means TO Present Variable Information 5

B66B - ELEVATORS; Escalators OR Moving Walkways 4

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 3

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 3

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 2

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 2

Top 15 of 39 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

PFU Limited's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

PFU Limited's lead technology class is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television), 46.3% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04N
Ranked #1,308 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare PFU Limited against Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 54.6/100 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.