Where does Sony Europe Limited rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Sony Europe Limited ranks #5,887 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 Sony Europe Limited hold?

Sony Europe Limited holds 58 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2022, spanning 23 technology areas.

What is Sony Europe Limited's Innovation Score?

Sony Europe Limited 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 Sony Europe Limited focus on?

Sony Europe Limited's top technology area is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television) with 33 patents, ranking #528 of 5,951 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 23 CPC subclasses total.

Is Sony Europe Limited's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Sony Europe Limited's recent grant velocity is -93% 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 Sony Europe Limited's patents?

Sony Europe Limited's patents average 16.5 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 Sony Europe 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

Sony Europe Limited

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 58 granted patents across 23 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: H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Sony ranks #5,887 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 58 patents across 23 technology areas.

#5,887
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 33%
by Innovation Score (41.5/100): 16.5
avg claims per patent: -93%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R5887 · Foreign Corporation #5,887 · 58 grants

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

GRANTS-SMALL 58 grants
UPPER-Q #5,887/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Safran Seats
CPC-FOCUS H04N · 23 areas
INNOV-PAR 41.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 16.5 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -93% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Safran Seats (±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 Sony’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 14.1 pts (34%) Velocity 0.6 pts (1%) Breadth 17.0 pts (41%) Claim depth 9.9 pts (24%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Jacobs Vehicle Systems · near

41
Mastercard ASIA/PACI… · near

41
New Balance Athletics · near

41
Sony Europe · this assignee

41
vArmour Networks · near

41
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Sony'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 Sony?

Each dot is one of Sony’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). Sony’s own 16.5 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.4 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Sony's grants concentrate

Sony Europe Limited is a focused PatentsView assignee: 23 CPC subclasses with 56.9% of grants classified under H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television). Peak complete grant year is 2015 (18 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2021. By volume, Sony sits between Safran Seats and THE Timken Company.

Sony's three-year grant acceleration

Sony Europe Limited shows 1 grants in 2022–2024 against only 12 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.

Safran Seats

58
Sartorius Stedim…

58
Seasonal Specialt…

58
Sony Computer Ent…

58
Speedtech Lights

58
Superior Essex In…

58
THE Queen's Unive…

58
THE Timken

58
Sony Europe ◀

58

What this shows Sony holds 58 patents at rank #5,888, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Sony

By rank, the assignees closest to #5,888 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04N (Pictorial Communication)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Sony, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04N (Pictorial Communication), Sony ranks #528 of 5,951 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (41 here).

Mastercard ASIA/PACIFIC PTE. Ltd. 41 New Balance Athletics, Inc. 41 Jacobs Vehicle Systems, Inc. 41 vArmour Networks, Inc. 41

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (16.5 here).

Meritor Heavy Vehicle Braking Systems (UK) Limited 16.5 avg Vertiv Corporation 16.5 avg Heatcraft Refrigeration Products LLC 16.5 avg Oberthur Technologies 16.5 avg

Sony'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 · 2015–2022

Grants by year

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

View data table

Sony Europe Limited patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	18	31.0%
2016	13	22.4%
2017	10	17.2%
2018	4	6.9%
2019	9	15.5%
2020	2	3.4%
2021	1	1.7%
2022	1	1.7%

Which technologies does Sony Europe Limited patent most?

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 33

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 14

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 13

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 9

B60R - Vehicles, Vehicle Fittings, OR Vehicle Parts, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 7

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 5

G11B - Information Storage Based ON Relative Movement Between Record Carrier AND Transducer 5

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 5

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 4

G09G - Arrangements OR Circuits FOR Control OF Indicating Devices Using Static Means TO Present Variable Information 3

H04H - Broadcast Communication 2

A63F - Card, Board, OR Roulette GAMES; Indoor Games Using Small Moving Playing BODIES; Video GAMES; Games NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 1

G01L - Measuring Force, Stress, Torque, Work, Mechanical Power, Mechanical Efficiency, OR Fluid Pressure 1

G10H - Electrophonic Musical INSTRUMENTS; Instruments IN Which THE Tones ARE Generated BY Electromechanical Means OR Electronic Generators, OR IN Which THE Tones ARE Synthesised From A Data Store 1

G09B - Educational OR Demonstration APPLIANCES; Appliances FOR Teaching, OR Communicating With, THE Blind, Deaf OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; Diagrams 1

Top 15 of 23 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

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

Sony Europe Limited's lead technology class is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television), 56.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04N
Ranked #5,887 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Sony Europe Limited against Safran Seats, 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.