Where does Smiths Detection Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Smiths Detection Inc. ranks #9,875 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 Smiths Detection Inc. hold?

Smiths Detection Inc. holds 32 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 20 technology areas.

What is Smiths Detection Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Smiths Detection Inc. has an Innovation Score of 41.5 out of 100 (top 33% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Smiths Detection Inc. focus on?

Smiths Detection Inc.'s top technology area is G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties) with 16 patents, ranking #956 of 7,863 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 20 CPC subclasses total.

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

Smiths Detection Inc.'s recent grant velocity is -64% 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 Smiths Detection Inc.'s patents?

Smiths Detection Inc.'s patents average 19.8 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 Smiths Detection 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

Smiths Detection Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 32 granted patents across 20 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: G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Smiths ranks #9,875 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 32 patents across 20 technology areas.

#9,875
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 33%
by Innovation Score (41.5/100): 19.8
avg claims per patent: -64%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R9875 · US Corporation #9,875 · 32 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · UPPER-Q · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 32 grants
UPPER-Q #9,875/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH SeeQC
CPC-FOCUS G01N · 20 areas
INNOV-PAR 41.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 19.8 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -64% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: SeeQC, 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 Smiths’s 41.5 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 12.1 pts (29%) Velocity 1.7 pts (4%) Breadth 15.8 pts (38%) Claim depth 11.9 pts (29%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
DigiCert · near

41
Franka Emika · near

41
Oklahoma Medical… · near

41
Printed Energy Pty · near

41
Smiths Detection · this assignee

41
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Smiths's Innovation Score is 41.5/100 (top 33% 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 Smiths?

Each dot is one of Smiths’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). Smiths’s own 19.8 claims/patent is ABOVE the 13.3 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Smiths's grants concentrate

Smiths Detection Inc. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 20 CPC subclasses with 50% of grants classified under G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties). Peak complete grant year is 2018 (11 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2022. By volume, Smiths sits between SeeQC, Inc. and SprintRay, Inc..

Smiths's three-year grant acceleration

Smiths Detection Inc. shows 2 grants in 2022–2024 against only 8 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.

Seeqc

32
Shenzhen Goldsun…

32
Skier's Choice

32
Smith's Consumer…

32
Spansion

32
Spiber

32
Spineology

32
Sprintray

32
Smiths Detection ◀

32

What this shows Smiths holds 32 patents at rank #9,884, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Smiths

By rank, the assignees closest to #9,884 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their…)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Smiths, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their…), Smiths ranks #956 of 7,863 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (41 here).

Franka Emika GmbH 41 Printed Energy Pty Ltd 41 Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation 41 DigiCert, Inc. 41

Smiths's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

41 Top 33% higher than 67% 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

Smiths Detection Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	2	6.3%
2016	2	6.3%
2017	5	15.6%
2018	11	34.4%
2019	2	6.3%
2020	4	12.5%
2021	2	6.3%
2022	1	3.1%
2023	1	3.1%
2025partial year	2	6.3%

Which technologies does Smiths Detection Inc. patent most?

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 16

H01J - Electric Discharge Tubes OR Discharge Lamps 12

G01V - GEOPHYSICS; Gravitational MEASUREMENTS; Detecting Masses OR OBJECTS; Tags 6

G16C - Computational CHEMISTRY; CHEMOINFORMATICS; Computational Materials Science 5

G01J - Measurement OF Intensity, Velocity, Spectral Content, Polarisation, Phase OR Pulse Characteristics OF Infrared, Visible OR Ultraviolet LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; Radiation Pyrometry 4

A61B - DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification 3

H01F - MAGNETS; INDUCTANCES; TRANSFORMERS; Selection OF Materials FOR Their Magnetic Properties 2

G01T - Measurement OF Nuclear OR X-radiation 2

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 2

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 1

G05B - Control OR Regulating Systems IN GENERAL; Functional Elements OF Such SYSTEMS; Monitoring OR Testing Arrangements FOR Such Systems OR Elements 1

H02P - Control OR Regulation OF Electric Motors, Electric Generators OR Dynamo-electric CONVERTERS; Controlling Transformers, Reactors OR Choke Coils 1

G11B - Information Storage Based ON Relative Movement Between Record Carrier AND Transducer 1

B01D - Separation 1

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 1

Top 15 of 20 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

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

Smiths Detection Inc.'s lead technology class is G01N (Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties), 50% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore G01N
Ranked #9,875 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Smiths Detection Inc. against SeeQC, Inc., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 41.5/100 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.