Top 20 CPC Subclasses by US Patent Grants

This ranking surfaces the 20 most active Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) subclasses by US patent grant volume from the PlainPatent ingestion of USPTO PatentsView data. Top 20 subclasses combined account for 3,247,971 grants. Data renders SSR-from-DB so the leaderboard always matches the latest ingested ETL run.Source: USPTO PatentsView, https://patentsview.org/download/data-download-tables

Top 20 CPC subclasses by patent volume

Rank	CPC Subclass	Title	Grants	Top Assignee
1	G06F	Electric Digital Data Processing	580,551	International Business Machines Corporation
2	H04L	Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication	373,517	International Business Machines Corporation
3	H04W	Wireless Communication Networks	236,882	Qualcomm Incorporated
4	H04N	Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television	191,323	Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
5	H01L	Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10	165,178	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.
6	A61B	DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification	162,009	Covidien LP
7	A61K	Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes	151,067	The Regents of the University of California
8	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	144,635	International Business Machines Corporation
9	G06T	Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General	131,672	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
10	A61P	Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations	125,535	The Regents of the University of California
11	Y02E	Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution	125,003	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
12	G01N	Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties	115,972	The Regents of the University of California
13	G02B	Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus	115,576	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
14	H04B	Transmission	101,407	Qualcomm Incorporated
15	Y10T	Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification	97,850	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
16	H10D	Inorganic Electric Semiconductor Devices	96,746	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.
17	G06V	Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding	95,291	Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
18	G06N	Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models	88,089	International Business Machines Corporation
19	Y02T	Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation	81,138	Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
20	C12N	Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media	68,530	Monsanto Technology LLC

Methodology

Grant counts are pre-aggregated from the USPTO PatentsView dataset by primary CPC subclass assignment. Multi-class patents are counted under their primary classification only. Figures update automatically to reflect the latest ingested data.

Caveats and Limitations

Rankings rely on primary CPC classifications, which may overlook secondary assignments in multi-class patents (up to 20% of filings). Grant-based metrics lag application trends by 2-3 years. CPC mappings for pre-2013 patents use IPC-to-CPC concordances, introducing minor discrepancies. Assignees derive from PatentsView standardized normalizations, subject to name variations.

Compiled by PlainPatent · 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.