Where does Tesla, Inc. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Tesla, Inc. ranks #873 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 Tesla, Inc. hold?

Tesla, Inc. holds 518 US utility patents granted between 2017 and 2025, spanning 150 technology areas.

What is Tesla, Inc.'s Innovation Score?

Tesla, Inc. has an Innovation Score of 61.0 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 Tesla, Inc. focus on?

Tesla, Inc.'s top technology area is Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution) with 148 patents, ranking #99 of 5,963 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 150 CPC subclasses total.

Is Tesla, Inc.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Tesla, Inc.'s recent grant velocity is +76% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Tesla, Inc.'s patents?

Tesla, Inc.'s patents average 15.4 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 Tesla, 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

Tesla, Inc.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 518 granted patents across 150 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2017–2025. 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: Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Tesla ranks #873 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 518 patents across 150 technology areas.

#873
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (61.0/100): 15.4
avg claims per patent: +76%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R873 · US Corporation #873 · 518 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 518 grants
TOP-DECILE #873/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Open Text ULC
CPC-WIDE Y02E · 150 areas
INNOV-STRONG 61.0/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.4 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-SURGE +76% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Open Text SA ULC (±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 Tesla’s 61.0 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 21.6 pts (35%) Velocity 5.2 pts (9%) Breadth 25.0 pts (41%) Claim depth 9.2 pts (15%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Nova Chemicals… · near

61
UNIST(ULSAN… · near

61
BorgWarner US · near

61
Semiconductor… · near

61
Tesla · this assignee

61
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Tesla's Innovation Score is 61.0/100 (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 Tesla?

Each dot is one of Tesla’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). Tesla’s own 15.4 claims/patent is ABOVE the 14.8 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Tesla's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Tesla, Inc. received 301 grants versus 171 in 2015–2019 (+76% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 84 grants and bottomed in 2017 at 34. Lead class Y02E accounts for 28.6% of the portfolio across 150 subclasses. Volume neighbours: University of Virginia Patent Foundation (#869) and Xi'an Zhongxing NEW Software Co., Ltd. (#877).

Tesla's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Tesla, Inc. moved from 217 to 168 grants (0.77x 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 #1,919. See the growth leaderboard.

University of Vir…

520
Micromass UK

519
Open Text ULC

518
Pepsico

518
Tesla ◀

518
Daicel

517
Graco Minnesota

517
The Florida Inter…

517
Xi'an Zhongxing N…

517

What this shows Tesla holds 518 patents at rank #873, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Tesla

By rank, the assignees closest to #873 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Tesla, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions), Tesla ranks #99 of 5,963 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (61 here).

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corporation 61 BorgWarner US Technologies LLC 61 Nova Chemicals (International) S.A. 61 UNIST(ULSAN National Institute OF Science AND TECHNOLOGY) 61

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.4 here).

Bostik SA 15.4 avg Epistar Corporation 15.4 avg HP Indigo B.V. 15.4 avg Deka Products Limited Parternship 15.4 avg

Tesla's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

61 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 · 2017–2025

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2017–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Tesla, Inc. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2017	34	6.6%
2018	53	10.2%
2019	84	16.2%
2020	70	13.5%
2021	63	12.2%
2022	57	11.0%
2023	59	11.4%
2024	52	10.0%
2025partial year	46	8.9%

Which technologies does Tesla, Inc. patent most?

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 148

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 75

H01M - Processes OR Means, e.g. Batteries, FOR THE Direct Conversion OF Chemical Energy Into Electrical Energy 73

H10F - Inorganic Semiconductor Devices Sensitive TO Infrared Radiation, Light, Electromagnetic Radiation OF Shorter Wavelength OR Corpuscular Radiation 57

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 48

H02S - Generation OF Electric Power BY Conversion OF Infrared Radiation, Visible Light OR Ultraviolet Light, e.g. Using Photovoltaic [PV] Modules 46

Y02B - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Buildings, e.g. Housing, House Appliances OR Related End-user Applications 43

H02J - Circuit Arrangements OR Systems FOR Supplying OR Distributing Electric POWER; Systems FOR Storing Electric Energy 40

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 39

B60R - Vehicles, Vehicle Fittings, OR Vehicle Parts, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 39

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 36

H02K - Dynamo-electric Machines 28

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 27

B60L - Propulsion OF Electrically-propelled Vehicles ; Supplying Electric Power FOR Auxiliary Equipment OF Electrically-propelled Vehicles ; Electrodynamic Brake Systems FOR Vehicles IN General ; Magnetic Suspension OR Levitation FOR VEHICLES; Monitoring Operating Variables OF Electrically-propelled Vehicl 26

B60K - Arrangement OR Mounting OF Propulsion Units OR OF Transmissions IN VEHICLES; Arrangement OR Mounting OF Plural Diverse Prime-movers IN VEHICLES; Auxiliary Drives FOR VEHICLES; Instrumentation OR Dashboards FOR VEHICLES; Arrangements IN Connection With Cooling, AIR Intake, GAS Exhaust OR Fuel Supply 25

Top 15 of 150 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

Tesla, Inc.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Tesla, Inc.'s lead technology class is Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution), 28.6% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore Y02E
Ranked #873 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Tesla, Inc. against University of Virginia Patent Foundation, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 61.0/100 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.