Where does Philip Morris USA Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Philip Morris USA Inc. ranks #1,484 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 Philip Morris USA Inc. hold?

Philip Morris USA Inc. holds 280 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 71 technology areas.

What is Philip Morris USA Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Philip Morris USA Inc. has an Innovation Score of 60.3 out of 100 (top 3% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Philip Morris USA Inc. focus on?

Philip Morris USA Inc.'s top technology area is A24B (Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff) with 125 patents, ranking #4 of 93 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 71 CPC subclasses total.

Is Philip Morris USA Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Philip Morris USA Inc.'s recent grant velocity is -39% 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 Philip Morris USA Inc.'s patents?

Philip Morris USA Inc.'s patents average 16.1 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 Philip Morris USA 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

Philip Morris USA Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 280 granted patents across 71 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: A24B (Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Philip ranks #1,484 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 280 patents across 71 technology areas.

#1,484
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (60.3/100): 16.1
avg claims per patent: -39%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R1484 · US Corporation #1,484 · 280 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 280 grants
TOP-DECILE #1,484/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Board OF Regents OF…
CPC-WIDE A24B · 71 areas
INNOV-STRONG 60.3/100
CLAIMS-RICH 16.1 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DOWN -39% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Board OF Regents OF THE University OF Nebraska (±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 Philip’s 60.3 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 19.5 pts (32%) Velocity 6.1 pts (10%) Breadth 25.0 pts (41%) Claim depth 9.7 pts (16%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Amsted Rail · near

60
National Taiwan… · near

60
Philip Morris USA · this assignee

60
Texas Tech Universit… · near

60
Westinghouse Electric · near

60
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Philip's Innovation Score is 60.3/100 (top 3% 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 Philip?

Each dot is one of Philip’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). Philip’s own 16.1 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.7 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Philip's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Philip Morris USA Inc. received 103 grants versus 168 in 2015–2019 (-39% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2015 at 48 grants and bottomed in 2021 at 12. Lead class A24B accounts for 44.6% of the portfolio across 71 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Board OF Regents OF THE University OF Nebraska (#1,480) and Bridgestone Sports Co., Ltd. (#1,488).

Philip's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Philip Morris USA Inc. moved from 72 to 66 grants (0.92x 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 #1,420. See the growth leaderboard.

Board OF Regents…

280
Danfoss A/S

280
Government of the…

280
Nova Chemicals (I…

280
Senko Advanced Co…

280
THE Invention Sci…

280
Philip Morris USA ◀

280
Astrazeneca AB

279
Bridgestone Sports

279

What this shows Philip holds 280 patents at rank #1,484, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Philip

By rank, the assignees closest to #1,484 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A24B (Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR Chewing)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Philip, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In A24B (Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR Chewing), Philip ranks #4 of 93 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (60 here).

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC 60 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology 60 Texas Tech University System 60 Amsted Rail Company, Inc. 60

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (16.1 here).

Shanghai Avic Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. 16.1 avg Fina Technology, Inc. 16.1 avg Altria Client Services LLC 16.1 avg Trinity Bay Equipment Holdings, LLC 16.1 avg

Philip's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

60 Top 3% higher than 97% 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

Philip Morris USA Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	48	17.1%
2016	29	10.4%
2017	31	11.1%
2018	25	8.9%
2019	35	12.5%
2020	25	8.9%
2021	12	4.3%
2022	21	7.5%
2023	21	7.5%
2024	24	8.6%
2025partial year	9	3.2%

Which technologies does Philip Morris USA Inc. patent most?

A24B - Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff 125

A24D - CIGARS; CIGARETTES; Tobacco Smoke FILTERS; Mouthpieces FOR Cigars OR CIGARETTES; Manufacture OF Tobacco Smoke Filters OR Mouthpieces 96

A24F - Smokers' REQUISITES; Match BOXES; Simulated Smoking Devices 76

B65D - Containers FOR Storage OR Transport OF Articles OR Materials, e.g. Bags, Barrels, Bottles, Boxes, Cans, Cartons, Crates, Drums, Jars, Tanks, Hoppers, Forwarding CONTAINERS; Accessories, Closures, OR Fittings THEREFOR; Packaging ELEMENTS; Packages 34

A23L - Foods, Foodstuffs OR Non-alcoholic Beverages, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Preparation OR Treatment Thereof 33

B65B - Machines, Apparatus OR Devices FOR, OR Methods OF, Packaging Articles OR MATERIALS; Unpacking 30

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 29

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 27

A23V - Indexing Scheme Relating TO Foods, Foodstuffs OR Non-alcoholic Beverages AND Lactic OR Propionic Acid Bacteria Used IN Foodstuffs OR Food Preparation 27

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 24

A61M - Devices FOR Introducing Media Into, OR Onto, THE Body ; Devices FOR Transducing Body Media OR FOR Taking Media From THE Body ; Devices FOR Producing OR Ending Sleep OR Stupor 24

A24C - Machines FOR Making Cigars OR Cigarettes 22

A23P - Shaping OR Working OF Foodstuffs, NOT Fully Covered BY A Single Other Subclass 17

H02J - Circuit Arrangements OR Systems FOR Supplying OR Distributing Electric POWER; Systems FOR Storing Electric Energy 15

B01J - Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus 13

Top 15 of 71 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

Philip Morris USA Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Philip Morris USA Inc.'s lead technology class is A24B (Manufacture OR Preparation OF Tobacco FOR Smoking OR CHEWING; TOBACCO; Snuff), 44.6% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A24B
Ranked #1,484 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Philip Morris USA Inc. against Board OF Regents OF THE University OF Nebraska, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 60.3/100 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.