Where does U.S. Department of Energy rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), U.S. Department of Energy ranks #2,295 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 U.S. Department of Energy hold?

U.S. Department of Energy holds 171 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 140 technology areas.

What is U.S. Department of Energy's Innovation Score?

U.S. Department of Energy has an Innovation Score of 54.0 out of 100 (top 8% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is U.S. Department of Energy's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

U.S. Department of Energy's recent grant velocity is -65% 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 U.S. Department of Energy's patents?

U.S. Department of Energy's patents average 15.6 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 U.S. Department of Energy 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

U.S. Department of Energy

Q: What technology areas does U.S. Department of Energy focus on?

U.S. Department of Energy's top technology area is B01J (Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus) with 31 patents. Grants appear in 140 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 171 granted patents across 140 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: B01J (Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, U.s. ranks #2,295 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 171 patents across 140 technology areas.

#2,295
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 8%
by Innovation Score (54.0/100): 15.6
avg claims per patent: -65%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R2295 · US Corporation #2,295 · 171 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 171 grants
TOP-DECILE #2,295/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH MerchSource
CPC-WIDE B01J · 140 areas
INNOV-PAR 54.0/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.6 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -65% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: MerchSource, LLC (±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.

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Sage Products · near

54
Geberit International · near

54
Sparq Systems · near

54
U S Department of… · this assignee

54
EM Microelectronic-M… · near

54
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows U.s.'s Innovation Score is 54.0/100 (top 8% 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.

How U.s.'s grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, U.S. Department of Energy received 43 grants versus 124 in 2015–2019 (-65% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 34 grants and bottomed in 2023 at 2. Lead class B01J accounts for 18.1% of the portfolio across 140 subclasses. Volume neighbours: MerchSource, LLC (#2,291) and ITT Manufacturing Enterprises LLC (#2,299).

U.s.'s three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, U.S. Department of Energy moved from 60 to 17 grants (0.28x 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 #3,016. See the growth leaderboard.

Merchsource

171
Shanghai Zhaoxin…

171
TTI (Macao Commer…

171
Terra Nova Nurser…

171
U S Department of… ◀

171
CKD

170
Cyntec

170
Energizer Brands

170
ITT Manufacturing…

170

What this shows U.S. holds 171 patents at rank #2,295, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near US

By rank, the assignees closest to #2,295 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in B01J (Chemical OR Physical Processes)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for US, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above).

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (54 here).

Geberit International AG 54 Sparq Systems Inc. 54 Sage Products, LLC 54 EM Microelectronic-Marin SA 54

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.6 here).

Cryovac, LLC 15.6 avg Evonik Degussa GMBH 15.6 avg Colopl, Inc. 15.6 avg Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited 15.6 avg

U.s.'s Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

54 Top 8% higher than 92% 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

U.S. Department of Energy patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	30	17.5%
2016	21	12.3%
2017	22	12.9%
2018	17	9.9%
2019	34	19.9%
2020	11	6.4%
2021	15	8.8%
2022	8	4.7%
2023	2	1.2%
2024	7	4.1%
2025partial year	4	2.3%

Which technologies does U.S. Department of Energy patent most?

B01J - Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus 31

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 30

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 26

B01D - Separation 23

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 19

C01B - Non-metallic ELEMENTS; Compounds THEREOF; ; Metalloids OR Compounds Thereof NOT Covered BY Subclass C01c 16

Y02C - Capture, Storage, Sequestration OR Disposal OF Greenhouse Gases [GHG] 11

C22C - Alloys 11

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 8

G21C - Nuclear Reactors 8

C22B - Production AND Refining OF Metals ; Pretreatment OF RAW Materials 8

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 8

B32B - Layered Products, i.e. Products Built-up OF Strata OF Flat OR Non-flat, e.g. Cellular OR Honeycomb, Form 7

Y02A - Technologies FOR Adaptation TO Climate Change 7

H01F - MAGNETS; INDUCTANCES; TRANSFORMERS; Selection OF Materials FOR Their Magnetic Properties 7

Top 15 of 140 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#2,295

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

54.0 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

U.S. Department of Energy's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

U.S. Department of Energy's lead technology class is B01J (Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus), 18.1% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore B01J
Ranked #2,295 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare U.S. Department of Energy against MerchSource, LLC, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 54.0/100 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.