Original research · USPTO PatentsView
Patent research & analysis
Data-driven studies from the PlainPatent editorial team. Each analysis is computed live from the USPTO PatentsView dataset and states its method and limits in plain English.
- 5
- Published analyses
- 2015–25
- Data window
- USPTO
- Primary source
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, more than 3,420,560 US patents were granted to tracked assignees between 2015 and 2025. The studies below are computed directly from that public PatentsView dataset by the PlainPatent editorial team; see our methodology for how each figure is derived and verified. Last reviewed June 2026.
How concentrated is US patent ownership?
The top 10 assignees, the top 100, and the long tail — how steep the ownership curve really is.
Read the analysis →Who patents in America — domestic or foreign companies?
The near-parity between US and foreign corporate patenting, and what it says about global R&D.
Read the analysis →Where does US innovation cluster?
The most active CPC technology classes, and the long tail of contestable niches beneath them.
Read the analysis →How complex are US patents? A look at claim depth
Average claims per patent, the distribution across portfolios, and the strategies it reveals.
Read the analysis →US patent grants by year, 2015–2025
The decade trajectory, and why the most recent year always looks artificially low.
Read the analysis →How we research patents
Every analysis on this page is built from the same public dataset that powers the rest of PlainPatent: the USPTO PatentsView bulk release of granted US utility patents for 2015–2025. We compute the figures directly from the ingested database rather than quoting third-party summaries, and each article states its method and its limitations so you can judge the evidence for yourself. Where a number can be misread — the lag in recent grant years, the overlap of CPC classifications, the imperfections of assignee disambiguation — we say so in plain language rather than letting a clean-looking chart imply more certainty than the data supports.