Where does Qualcomm Incorporated rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Qualcomm Incorporated ranks #7 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 Qualcomm Incorporated hold?

Qualcomm Incorporated holds 30,354 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 209 technology areas.

What is Qualcomm Incorporated's Innovation Score?

Qualcomm Incorporated has an Innovation Score of 85.4 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 Qualcomm Incorporated focus on?

Qualcomm Incorporated's top technology area is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks) with 17,987 patents, ranking #1 of 5,904 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 209 CPC subclasses total.

Is Qualcomm Incorporated's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Qualcomm Incorporated's recent grant velocity is +10% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). The company is maintaining or growing its granted-patent output.

What does claim depth mean for Qualcomm Incorporated's patents?

Qualcomm Incorporated's patents average 29.1 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 Qualcomm 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

Qualcomm Incorporated

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 30,354 granted patents across 209 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: H04W (Wireless Communication Networks).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Qualcomm ranks #7 of 49,997 US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 30,354 patents across 209 technology areas.

#7
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (85.4/100): 29.1
avg claims per patent: +10%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R7 · US Corporation #7 · 30,354 grants

GRANTS-MEGA · TOP-DECILE · CLEAR-GAP · CPC-BROAD · INNOV-ELITE · CLAIMS-DENSE · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-UP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MEGA 30K grants
TOP-DECILE #7/49,997
CLEAR-GAP Apple
CPC-BROAD H04W · 209 areas
INNOV-ELITE 85.4/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 29.1 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-UP +10% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Apple Inc. (±206 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 Qualcomm’s 85.4 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 35.7 pts (42%) Velocity 9.8 pts (11%) Breadth 25.0 pts (29%) Claim depth 15.0 pts (18%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · this assignee

85
Snap · near

82
Cilag International · near

82
Kioxia · near

82
Taiwan Semiconductor… · near

82
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Qualcomm's Innovation Score is 85.4/100 (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 Qualcomm?

Each dot is one of Qualcomm’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). Qualcomm’s own 29.1 claims/patent is ABOVE the 16.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Qualcomm's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Qualcomm Incorporated received 14,391 grants versus 13,128 in 2015–2019 (+10% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2023 at 3,871 grants and bottomed in 2021 at 2,156. Lead class H04W accounts for 59.3% of the portfolio across 209 subclasses.

Qualcomm's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Qualcomm Incorporated moved from 6,800 to 9,950 grants (1.46x 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 #480. See the growth leaderboard.

Samsung

106,890
International Bus…

72,926
Canon

34,378
LG

32,607
Taiwan Semiconduc…

31,041
Apple

30,560
Qualcomm Incorpor… ◀

30,354
Intel

27,498
Microsoft Technol…

24,392

What this shows Qualcomm sits among the ten largest US patent holders, a tier dominated by electronics and semiconductor multinationals.

Other top-10 patent holders

The other largest US assignees by granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04W (Wireless Communication Networks)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Qualcomm, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04W (Wireless Communication Networks), Qualcomm ranks #1 of 5,904 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (85 here).

Snap Inc. 82 Cilag GmbH International 82 Kioxia Corporation 82 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. 82

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (29.1 here).

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 29.1 avg Centripetal Networks, LLC 29.0 avg Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation 28.9 avg Prothena Biosciences Limited 28.9 avg

Qualcomm's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

85 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

Qualcomm Incorporated patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	2,909	9.6%
2016	2,912	9.6%
2017	2,640	8.7%
2018	2,308	7.6%
2019	2,359	7.8%
2020	2,285	7.5%
2021	2,156	7.1%
2022	2,637	8.7%
2023	3,871	12.8%
2024	3,442	11.3%
2025partial year	2,835	9.3%

Which technologies does Qualcomm Incorporated patent most?

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 17,987

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 13,594

H04B - Transmission 6,670

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 3,712

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 2,587

Y02D - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN Information AND Communication Technologies [ICT], I.E. Information AND Communication Technologies Aiming AT THE Reduction OF Their OWN Energy USE 2,369

G01S - Radio DIRECTION-FINDING; Radio NAVIGATION; Determining Distance OR Velocity BY USE OF Radio WAVES; Locating OR Presence-detecting BY USE OF THE Reflection OR Reradiation OF Radio WAVES; Analogous Arrangements Using Other Waves 1,673

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 1,233

H04J - Multiplex Communication 920

H01L - Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10 916

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 746

G11C - Static Stores 677

H10D - Inorganic Electric Semiconductor Devices 634

H03K - Pulse Technique 614

H03M - CODING; DECODING; Code Conversion IN General 613

Top 15 of 209 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

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

Qualcomm Incorporated's lead technology class is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks), 59.3% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04W
Ranked #7 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Qualcomm Incorporated is a top-10 global holder - see how it stacks up against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., another of the largest patent portfolios. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 85.4/100 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.