CPC technology class · A01

A01N — Preservation OF Bodies OF Humans OR Animals OR Plants OR…

Preservation of bodies of humans or animals or plants or parts thereof ; biocides, e.g. as disinfectants, as pesticides or as herbicides ; pest repellants or attractants; plant growth regulators. 13,786 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

13,786
US patents granted
A01
Parent CPC class
20
Active assignees
-3%
5-yr velocity
Top assignee: BASF SE (420 patents)

CPC subclass A01N — PRESERVATION OF BODIES OF HUMANS OR ANIMALS OR PLANTS OR PARTS THEREOF ; BIOCIDES, e.g. AS DISINFECTANTS, AS PESTICIDES OR AS HERBICIDES ; PEST REPELLANTS OR ATTRACTANTS; PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS — covers 13,786 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 A01N 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 A01N is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. BASF SE leads with 420 patents, followed by Syngenta Participations AG at 1,167 grants and BAYER CROPSCIENCE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT at 583. 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 A01N 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 A01N innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in A01N, 2015–2025 — recent five years are down 3% versus 2015–2019.

8001,0001,2001,400 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 831

Who leads A01N?

The 12 most active assignees in PRESERVATION OF BODIES OF HUMANS OR ANIMALS OR PLANTS OR PARTS THEREOF ; BIOCIDES, e.g. AS DISINFECTANTS, AS PESTICIDES OR AS HERBICIDES ; PEST REPELLANTS OR ATTRACTANTS; PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS — wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows Basf Se is the most active filer in A01N, holding 420 of the 13,786 patents in this class. Concentration at the top signals how contestable this technology area is for new entrants.

Source USPTO PatentsView — granted utility patents As of 2015–2025 grant years
View data table

About This Class

CPC subclass A01N belongs to class A01.

13,786 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 A01N?
CPC subclass A01N covers PRESERVATION OF BODIES OF HUMANS OR ANIMALS OR PLANTS OR PARTS THEREOF ; BIOCIDES, e.g. AS DISINFECTANTS, AS PESTICIDES OR AS HERBICIDES ; PEST REPELLANTS OR ATTRACTANTS; PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS. It belongs to CPC class A01 (AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING). The Cooperative Patent Classification is a hierarchical system used by the USPTO and European Patent Office to categorize patents by technology.
How many patents have been filed in A01N?
13,786 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass A01N between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in A01N?
BASF SE leads A01N with 420 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for A01N collected?
Patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It covers all US granted utility patents and assigns CPC codes based on the technology described in each patent.
What is the difference between CPC class and subclass?
A CPC class (e.g., A01) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like A01N provide finer granularity within that category. PlainPatent organizes data at the subclass level (4-character codes) for the most useful view of technology domains.

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Explore the patent dataset

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView — official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent Editorial