PlainPatent

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

# CPC subclass GrantsTop 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.

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.