Where does ZF Friedrichshafen AG rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), ZF Friedrichshafen AG ranks #235 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 ZF Friedrichshafen AG hold?

ZF Friedrichshafen AG holds 1,756 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 165 technology areas.

What is ZF Friedrichshafen AG's Innovation Score?

ZF Friedrichshafen AG has an Innovation Score of 66.9 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%).

What technology areas does ZF Friedrichshafen AG focus on?

ZF Friedrichshafen AG's top technology area is F16H (Gearing) with 904 patents, ranking #3 of 1,603 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 165 CPC subclasses total.

Is ZF Friedrichshafen AG's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

ZF Friedrichshafen AG's recent grant velocity is +6% 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 ZF Friedrichshafen AG's patents?

ZF Friedrichshafen AG's patents average 13.7 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 ZF Friedrichshafen AG 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 Foreign Corporation

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,756 granted patents across 165 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: F16H (Gearing).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, ZF ranks #235 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,756 patents across 165 technology areas.

#235
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (66.9/100): 13.7
avg claims per patent: +6%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R235 · Foreign Corporation #235 · 1,756 grants

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

GRANTS-LARGE 1.8K grants
TOP-DECILE #235/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Carrier
CPC-WIDE F16H · 165 areas
INNOV-STRONG 66.9/100
CLAIMS-RICH 13.7 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-FLAT +6% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Carrier Corporation (±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 ZF’s 66.9 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 25.8 pts (39%) Velocity 7.8 pts (12%) Breadth 25.0 pts (37%) Claim depth 8.2 pts (12%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
LG Chem · near

67
Logistics and… · near

67
ZF Friedrichshafen · this assignee

67
Apollo Intelligent… · near

67
Beijing Dajia… · near

67
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows ZF's Innovation Score is 66.9/100 (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 ZF?

Each dot is one of ZF’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). ZF’s own 13.7 claims/patent is ABOVE the 13.1 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

How ZF's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, ZF Friedrichshafen AG received 837 grants versus 788 in 2015–2019 (+6% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2024 at 188 grants and bottomed in 2018 at 126. Lead class F16H accounts for 51.5% of the portfolio across 165 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Autonetworks Technologies, Ltd. (#231) and AT&T Mobility II LLC (#239).

ZF's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, ZF Friedrichshafen AG moved from 467 to 549 grants (1.18x 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 #828. See the growth leaderboard.

Autonetworks

1,766
Arris Enterprises

1,761
Sumitomo Chemical

1,758
Carrier

1,756
ZF Friedrichshafen ◀

1,756
Continental Autom…

1,748
Signify Holding B…

1,748
Baker Hughes Hold…

1,746
AT&T Mobility II

1,742

What this shows ZF holds 1,756 patents at rank #235, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near ZF

By rank, the assignees closest to #235 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in F16H (Gearing)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for ZF, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In F16H (Gearing), ZF ranks #3 of 1,603 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (67 here).

Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre Limited 67 LG Chem, Ltd. 67 Beijing Dajia Internet Information Technology Co., Ltd. 67 Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (BEIJING) Co., Ltd. 67

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (13.7 here).

Oura Health Oy 13.7 avg Hanon Systems 13.8 avg King Slide Works Co., Ltd. 13.7 avg Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd. 13.7 avg

ZF's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

67 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 · 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

ZF Friedrichshafen AG patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	170	9.7%
2016	166	9.5%
2017	147	8.4%
2018	126	7.2%
2019	179	10.2%
2020	150	8.5%
2021	138	7.9%
2022	176	10.0%
2023	185	10.5%
2024	188	10.7%
2025partial year	131	7.5%

Which technologies does ZF Friedrichshafen AG patent most?

F16H - Gearing 904

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 383

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 270

F16D - Couplings FOR Transmitting ROTATION; CLUTCHES; Brakes 216

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 189

B60Y - Indexing Scheme Relating TO Aspects Cross-cutting Vehicle Technology 184

F16F - SPRINGS; SHOCK-ABSORBERS; Means FOR Damping Vibration 153

B60G - Vehicle Suspension Arrangements 140

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 118

H02K - Dynamo-electric Machines 116

F16C - SHAFTS; Flexible SHAFTS; Elements OR Crankshaft MECHANISMS; Rotary Bodies Other Than Gearing ELEMENTS; Bearings 110

H05K - Printed CIRCUITS; Casings OR Constructional Details OF Electric APPARATUS; Manufacture OF Assemblages OF Electrical Components 62

Y10S - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former Uspc Cross-reference ART Collections [XRACs] AND Digests 62

B62D - Motor VEHICLES; Trailers 58

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 57

Top 15 of 165 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

ZF Friedrichshafen AG's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

ZF Friedrichshafen AG's lead technology class is F16H (Gearing), 51.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore F16H
Ranked #235 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare ZF Friedrichshafen AG against Autonetworks Technologies, Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 66.9/100 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.