Where does WhatsApp LLC rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), WhatsApp LLC ranks #2,494 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 WhatsApp LLC hold?

WhatsApp LLC holds 157 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 15 technology areas.

What is WhatsApp LLC's Innovation Score?

WhatsApp LLC has an Innovation Score of 45.5 out of 100 (top 23% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does WhatsApp LLC focus on?

WhatsApp LLC's top technology area is H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication) with 131 patents, ranking #302 of 8,956 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 15 CPC subclasses total.

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

WhatsApp LLC's recent grant velocity is +42% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). The company is maintaining or growing its granted-patent output.

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

WhatsApp 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 WhatsApp 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

WhatsApp LLC

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 157 granted patents across 15 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: H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Whatsapp ranks #2,494 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 157 patents across 15 technology areas.

#2,494
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 23%
by Innovation Score (45.5/100): 18.2
avg claims per patent: +42%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R2494 · US Corporation #2,494 · 157 grants

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

GRANTS-MID 157 grants
TOP-DECILE #2,494/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH SnapTrack
CPC-FOCUS H04L · 15 areas
INNOV-PAR 45.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 18.2 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-UP +42% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: SnapTrack, Inc. (±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 Whatsapp’s 45.5 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 17.5 pts (38%) Velocity 3.4 pts (7%) Breadth 13.7 pts (30%) Claim depth 10.9 pts (24%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Fisher & Paykel… · near

46
SOLiD · near

46
The Wistar Institute… · near

46
UDC Ireland · near

46
WhatsApp · this assignee

46
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Whatsapp's Innovation Score is 45.5/100 (top 23% 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 Whatsapp?

Each dot is one of Whatsapp’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). Whatsapp’s own 18.2 claims/patent is ABOVE the 16.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Whatsapp's grants concentrate

WhatsApp LLC is a focused PatentsView assignee: 15 CPC subclasses with 83.4% of grants classified under H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication). Peak complete grant year is 2020 (27 grants) versus a trough of 4 in 2015. By volume, Whatsapp sits between SnapTrack, Inc. and Applied Biosystems, LLC.

Whatsapp's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, WhatsApp LLC moved from 75 to 38 grants (0.51x 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 #2,679. See the growth leaderboard.

Snaptrack

157
Space Systems/Lor…

157
Tivo Solutions

157
Vallourec OIL AND…

157
Zhejiang Sunny Op…

157
Whatsapp ◀

157
Accedian Networks

156
Axalta Coating Sy…

156
Applied Biosystems

156

What this shows WhatsApp holds 157 patents at rank #2,494, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near WhatsApp

By rank, the assignees closest to #2,494 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for WhatsApp, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information), WhatsApp ranks #302 of 8,956 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (46 here).

UDC Ireland Limited 46 SOLiD, Inc. 46 The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology 46 Fisher & Paykel Appliances Limited 46

Similar claim depth

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

Mattson Technology, Inc. 18.2 avg Joy Global Underground Mining LLC 18.2 avg Hunter Douglas Inc. 18.2 avg Kent State University 18.2 avg

Whatsapp's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

46 Top 23% higher than 77% 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

WhatsApp LLC patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	4	2.5%
2016	9	5.7%
2017	8	5.1%
2018	16	10.2%
2019	25	15.9%
2020	27	17.2%
2021	23	14.6%
2022	14	8.9%
2023	19	12.1%
2024	5	3.2%
2025partial year	7	4.5%

Which technologies does WhatsApp LLC patent most?

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 131

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 53

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 49

H04M - Telephonic Communication 35

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 20

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 18

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 9

H04B - Transmission 6

G10L - Speech Analysis Techniques OR Speech SYNTHESIS; Speech RECOGNITION; Speech OR Voice Processing TECHNIQUES; Speech OR Audio Coding OR Decoding 3

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 2

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 1

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 1

B32B - Layered Products, i.e. Products Built-up OF Strata OF Flat OR Non-flat, e.g. Cellular OR Honeycomb, Form 1

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 1

G07C - Time OR Attendance REGISTERS; Registering OR Indicating THE Working OF MACHINES; Generating Random NUMBERS; Voting OR Lottery APPARATUS; Arrangements, Systems OR Apparatus FOR Checking NOT Provided FOR Elsewhere 1

Top 15 of 15 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

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

WhatsApp LLC's lead technology class is H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication), 83.4% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04L
Ranked #2,494 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare WhatsApp LLC against SnapTrack, Inc., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 45.5/100 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.