Where does Sprint Communications Company, L.P. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Sprint Communications Company, L.P. ranks #271 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 Sprint Communications Company, L.P. hold?

Sprint Communications Company, L.P. holds 1,574 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2023, spanning 66 technology areas.

What is Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s Innovation Score?

Sprint Communications Company, L.P. has an Innovation Score of 63.3 out of 100 (top 2% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Sprint Communications Company, L.P. focus on?

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s top technology area is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks) with 1,062 patents, ranking #35 of 5,904 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 66 CPC subclasses total.

Is Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s recent grant velocity is -69% 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 Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s patents?

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s patents average 17.7 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 Sprint Communications Company, L.P. 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

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,574 granted patents across 66 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2023. 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

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Sprint ranks #271 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,574 patents across 66 technology areas.

#271
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 2%
by Innovation Score (63.3/100): 17.7
avg claims per patent: -69%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R271 · US Corporation #271 · 1,574 grants

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

GRANTS-LARGE 1.6K grants
TOP-DECILE #271/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Wuhan China Star…
CPC-WIDE H04W · 66 areas
INNOV-STRONG 63.3/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.7 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -69% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (±2 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 Sprint’s 63.3 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 25.4 pts (40%) Velocity 2.2 pts (3%) Breadth 25.0 pts (40%) Claim depth 10.6 pts (17%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Entegris · near

63
Kohler · near

63
Sprint Communications · this assignee

63
The Hong Kong… · near

63
The University of… · near

63
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Sprint's Innovation Score is 63.3/100 (top 2% 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 Sprint?

Each dot is one of Sprint’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). Sprint’s own 17.7 claims/patent is ABOVE the 12.6 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Sprint's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Sprint Communications Company, L.P. received 371 grants versus 1,203 in 2015–2019 (-69% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2015 at 311 grants and bottomed in 2023 at 8. Lead class H04W accounts for 67.5% of the portfolio across 66 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Kohler Co. (#267) and Colgate-Palmolive Company (#275).

Sprint's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Sprint Communications Company, L.P. moved from 389 to 129 grants (0.33x 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 #2,965. See the growth leaderboard.

Kohler

1,594
Henkel & Kgaa

1,592
Changxin Memory

1,589
Here Global B V

1,589
Sprint Communicat… ◀

1,574
Wuhan China Star…

1,572
Meta Platforms

1,569
Acushnet

1,567
Colgate-palmolive

1,565

What this shows Sprint holds 1,574 patents at rank #271, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Sprint

By rank, the assignees closest to #271 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04W (Wireless Communication Networks)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Sprint, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04W (Wireless Communication Networks), Sprint ranks #35 of 5,904 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (63 here).

Kohler Co. 63 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 63 Entegris, Inc. 63 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 63

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (17.7 here).

Sprint Spectrum LLC 17.7 avg Cypress Semiconductor Corporation 17.7 avg Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. 17.7 avg Mellanox Technologies TLV Ltd. 17.7 avg

Sprint's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

63 Top 2% higher than 98% 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 · 2015–2023

Grants by year

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

View data table

Sprint Communications Company, L.P. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	311	19.8%
2016	296	18.8%
2017	221	14.0%
2018	228	14.5%
2019	147	9.3%
2020	133	8.4%
2021	109	6.9%
2022	121	7.7%
2023	8	0.5%

Which technologies does Sprint Communications Company, L.P. patent most?

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 1,062

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 774

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 321

H04B - Transmission 218

H04M - Telephonic Communication 191

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 163

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 44

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 41

H01Q - Antennas, i.e. Radio Aerials 37

H04J - Multiplex Communication 26

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 21

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 18

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 13

G10L - Speech Analysis Techniques OR Speech SYNTHESIS; Speech RECOGNITION; Speech OR Voice Processing TECHNIQUES; Speech OR Audio Coding OR Decoding 11

H04Q - Selecting 10

Top 15 of 66 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

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Sprint Communications Company, L.P.'s lead technology class is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks), 67.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04W
Ranked #271 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Sprint Communications Company, L.P. against Kohler Co., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 63.3/100 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.