Where does Waymo LLC rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Waymo LLC ranks #211 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 Waymo LLC hold?

Waymo LLC holds 1,901 US utility patents granted between 2017 and 2025, spanning 130 technology areas.

What is Waymo LLC's Innovation Score?

Waymo LLC has an Innovation Score of 74.0 out of 100 (top 1% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is Waymo LLC's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Waymo LLC's recent grant velocity is +320% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Waymo LLC's patents?

Waymo LLC's patents average 18.2 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 Waymo LLC 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

Waymo LLC

Q: What technology areas does Waymo LLC focus on?

Waymo LLC's top technology area is B60W (Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type OR Different FUNCTION; Control Systems Specially Adapted FOR Hybrid VEHICLES; Road Vehicle Drive Control Systems FOR Purposes NOT Related TO THE Control OF A Particular Sub-unit) with 709 patents, ranking #10 of 1,122 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 130 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,901 granted patents across 130 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: B60W (Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type OR Different FUNCTION; Control Systems Specially Adapted FOR Hybrid VEHICLES; Road Vehicle Drive Control Systems FOR Purposes NOT Related TO THE).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Waymo ranks #211 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,901 patents across 130 technology areas.

#211
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (74.0/100): 18.2
avg claims per patent: +320%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R211 · US Corporation #211 · 1,901 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · NEAR-PEER · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-SURGE · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 1.9K grants
TOP-DECILE #211/49,997
NEAR-PEER Bridgestone
CPC-WIDE B60W · 130 areas
INNOV-STRONG 74.0/100
CLAIMS-RICH 18.2 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-SURGE +320% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Bridgestone Corporation (±6 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 Waymo’s 74.0 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 26.1 pts (35%) Velocity 12.0 pts (16%) Breadth 25.0 pts (34%) Claim depth 10.9 pts (15%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Applied Materials · near

74
Skydio · near

74
Waymo · this assignee

74
Wolfspeed · near

74
Verizon Patent and… · near

74
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Waymo's Innovation Score is 74.0/100 (top 1% 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 Waymo?

Each dot is one of Waymo’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). Waymo’s own 18.2 claims/patent is ABOVE the 13.2 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How Waymo's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Waymo LLC received 1,355 grants versus 323 in 2015–2019 (+320% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2023 at 372 grants and bottomed in 2017 at 71. Lead class B60W accounts for 37.3% of the portfolio across 130 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Facebook Technologies, LLC (#207) and Microsoft Corporation (#215).

Waymo's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Waymo LLC moved from 536 to 966 grants (1.80x 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 #268. See the growth leaderboard.

Facebook

1,950
Casio Computer

1,949
Mazda Motor

1,922
Sonos

1,911
Waymo ◀

1,901
Bridgestone

1,895
L'oreal

1,890
Tsinghua Universi…

1,881
Microsoft

1,880

What this shows Waymo holds 1,901 patents at rank #211, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Waymo

By rank, the assignees closest to #211 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in B60W (Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type O…)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Waymo, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In B60W (Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type O…), Waymo ranks #10 of 1,122 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (74 here).

Wolfspeed, Inc. 74 Skydio, Inc. 74 Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. 74 Applied Materials, Inc. 74

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (18.2 here).

Flir Systems, Inc. 18.2 avg Astec International Limited 18.2 avg Liebherr-Components Biberach GmbH 18.2 avg Norton (Waterford) Limited 18.2 avg

Waymo's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

74 Top 1% higher than 99% 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

Waymo LLC patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2017	71	3.7%
2018	105	5.5%
2019	147	7.7%
2020	176	9.3%
2021	213	11.2%
2022	236	12.4%
2023	372	19.6%
2024	358	18.8%
2025partial year	223	11.7%

Which technologies does Waymo LLC patent most?

B60W - Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type OR Different FUNCTION; Control Systems Specially Adapted FOR Hybrid VEHICLES; Road Vehicle Drive Control Systems FOR Purposes NOT Related TO THE Control OF A Particular Sub-unit 709

G05D - Systems FOR Controlling OR Regulating Non-electric Variables 698

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 655

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 453

G08G - Traffic Control Systems 346

G01C - Measuring Distances, Levels OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; Gyroscopic INSTRUMENTS; Photogrammetry OR Videogrammetry 310

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 210

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 186

B60R - Vehicles, Vehicle Fittings, OR Vehicle Parts, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 183

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 160

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 158

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 129

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 125

B62D - Motor VEHICLES; Trailers 96

H01Q - Antennas, i.e. Radio Aerials 79

Top 15 of 130 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

Waymo LLC's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Waymo LLC's lead technology class is B60W (Conjoint Control OF Vehicle Sub-units OF Different Type OR Different FUNCTION; Control Systems Specially Adapted FOR Hybrid VEHICLES; Road Vehicle Drive Control Systems FOR Purposes NOT Related TO THE), 37.3% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore B60W
Ranked #211 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Waymo LLC against Facebook Technologies, LLC, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 74.0/100 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.