CPC technology class · A01
A01C — Planting
Planting; sowing; fertilising. 3,761 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.
- 3,761
- US patents granted
- A01
- Parent CPC class
- 20
- Active assignees
- +50%
- 5-yr velocity
CPC subclass A01C — PLANTING; SOWING; FERTILISING — covers 3,761 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records. This subclass sits within the broader CPC class A01 (AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING), one of roughly 250 top-level technology categories in the Cooperative Patent Classification system jointly maintained by the USPTO and the European Patent Office. At the subclass level, four-character codes like A01C give the most practical resolution for tracking a specific technology domain without losing sight of adjacent filings. Every grant here has been classified by a USPTO examiner based on the technical disclosure in the patent specification.
The competitive landscape in A01C is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. CNH Industrial America LLC leads with 412 patents, followed by Deere & Company at 3,926 grants and CNH Industrial Canada, Ltd. at 462. Concentration at the top of the leaderboard indicates whether this technology area is dominated by a handful of incumbents or fragmented across many filers — a useful signal for investors evaluating competitive moats and for product teams mapping freedom-to-operate risk.
Filing trajectory matters as much as static counts. The yearly series on this page plots grants from 2015 through 2025, highlighting whether innovation in A01C is accelerating, plateauing, or cooling. Technology areas with rising post-2020 activity often reflect emerging markets or new platform shifts, while declining filings can signal mature domains where incremental improvement has slowed. Researchers, licensing professionals, and competitive-intelligence teams use these patterns — together with the top-assignee distribution — to decide where to invest, where to license, and where to avoid entanglement. All counts on this page come directly from USPTO PatentsView and reflect US granted utility patents only.
Is A01C innovation accelerating?
US utility-patent grants per year in A01C, 2015–2025 — recent five years are up 50% versus 2015–2019.
Who leads A01C?
The 12 most active assignees in PLANTING; SOWING; FERTILISING — wider bars mean more grants
- Cnh Industrial America
CNH Industrial America LLC
2,690 patents
- Deere &
Deere & Company
3,926 patents
- Cnh Industrial Canada 462
CNH Industrial Canada, Ltd.
462 patents
- Precision Planting 265
Precision Planting LLC
265 patents
- Climate 265
CLIMATE LLC
265 patents
- Kinze Manufacturing 110
Kinze Manufacturing, Inc.
110 patents
- Agco 344
AGCO Corporation
344 patents
- Monsanto Technology
Monsanto Technology LLC
3,956 patents
- Dawn Equipment 42
Dawn Equipment Company
42 patents
- Amazonen-werke H Drey… 35
AMAZONEN-WERKE H. DREYER SE & CO. KG
35 patents
- Capstan Systems 50
Capstan Ag Systems, Inc.
50 patents
- Amvac Chemical 51
AMVAC CHEMICAL CORPORATION
51 patents
What this shows Cnh Industrial America is the most active filer in A01C, holding 412 of the 3,761 patents in this class. Concentration at the top signals how contestable this technology area is for new entrants.
View data table
| Rank | Company | Patents in A01C |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | CNH Industrial America LLC | 2,690 |
| #2 | Deere & Company | 3,926 |
| #3 | CNH Industrial Canada, Ltd. | 462 |
| #4 | Precision Planting LLC | 265 |
| #5 | CLIMATE LLC | 265 |
| #6 | Kinze Manufacturing, Inc. | 110 |
| #7 | AGCO Corporation | 344 |
| #8 | Monsanto Technology LLC | 3,956 |
| #9 | Dawn Equipment Company | 42 |
| #10 | AMAZONEN-WERKE H. DREYER SE & CO. KG | 35 |
| #11 | Capstan Ag Systems, Inc. | 50 |
| #12 | AMVAC CHEMICAL CORPORATION | 51 |
| #13 | BLUE RIVER TECHNOLOGY INC. | 72 |
| #14 | Raven Industries, inc. | 95 |
| #15 | Great Plains Manufacturing, Inc. | 79 |
| #16 | Verdant Robotics, Inc. | 32 |
| #17 | Bourgault Industries Ltd. | 34 |
| #18 | BAYER CROPSCIENCE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT | 583 |
| #19 | JIANGSU UNIVERSITY | 331 |
| #20 | 360 YIELD CENTER, LLC | 33 |
About This Class
CPC subclass A01C belongs to class A01.
3,761 patents were granted in this class between 2015 and 2025.
20 companies actively patent in this space.
Classification System
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system used by the USPTO and EPO.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CPC class A01C?
How many patents have been filed in A01C?
Which company holds the most patents in A01C?
How is patent data for A01C collected?
What is the difference between CPC class and subclass?
Learn More
Explore the patent dataset
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.