PlainPatent

CPC technology class · B01

B01L - Chemical OR Physical Laboratory Apparatus FOR General USE

Chemical or physical laboratory apparatus for general use. 15,586 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

15,586
US patents granted
B01
Parent CPC class
20
Active assignees
+36%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

Chemical OR Physical Laboratory Apparatus FOR General USE ranks #121 of 670 CPC technology areas - 15,586 US patents granted since 2015, with filing up 36% over five years.

#121
of 670 CPC technology areas
15,586
US patents granted, 2015–2025
International Busines…
leading assignee (242)
+36%
filing velocity, last 5 yrs
Top assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (242 patents)

CPC subclass B01L - CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL LABORATORY APPARATUS FOR GENERAL USE - covers 15,586 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records, within the broader CPC class B01 (PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL). See our CPC classification guide for how the system works.

The competitive landscape in B01L is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. International Business Machines Corporation leads with 242 patents, followed by Illumina, Inc. at 232 grants and Becton, Dickinson And Company at 193.

Filing activity in B01L is up 36% over the past five years versus 2015-2019, a sharp acceleration suggesting an emerging or fast-moving technology area. All counts come directly from USPTO PatentsView and reflect US granted utility patents only.

Is B01L innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in B01L, 2015–2025 - recent five years are up 36% versus 2015–2019.

1,0001,1001,2001,3001,4001,5001,600 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 1,079

Who leads B01L?

The 12 most active assignees in CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL LABORATORY APPARATUS FOR GENERAL USE - wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows International Busines… is the most active filer in B01L, holding 242 of the 15,586 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
Top patent holders in CPC subclass B01L
Rank Company Patents in B01L
#1 The Regents Of The University Of California 239
#2 Illumina, Inc. 232
#3 Becton, Dickinson And Company 193
#4 Bio-rad Laboratories, Inc. 174
#5 President And Fellows Of Harvard College 165
#6 Life Technologies Corporation 158
#7 Roche Diagnostics Operations, Inc. 141
#8 Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc. 119
#9 Gen-probe Incorporated 117
#10 Hitachi High-tech Corporation 84
#11 Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. 84
#12 Sysmex Corporation 82
#13 The General Hospital Corporation 81
#14 Tecan Trading Ag 71
#15 Abbott Point Of Care Inc. 70
#16 Shimadzu Corporation 66
#17 EMD Millipore Corporation 64
#18 Handylab, Inc. 63
#19 Advanced Liquid Logic, Inc. 61
#20 Hitachi High-technologies Corporation 59

About This Class

CPC subclass B01L belongs to class B01.

15,586 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.

← All Technology Classes Technology Rankings →

Footprint here vs. claim strategy

Each dot is a leading B01L assignee, placed by how many patents it holds in this class (horizontal) against its company-wide average claims per patent (vertical) - a read on whether the class is led by broad-but-shallow filers or focused deep-claim players.

Top 14 B01L assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B01L. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Top 14 B01L assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B01L. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes). Scatter plot of 14 data points (bubble-sized by third dimension). 510152025 50100150200250 Patents in B01L Avg claims / patent (company-wide) The Regents of the Un…IlluminaBecton Dickinson andBio-rad LaboratoriesPresident and Fellows…LifeRoche Diagnostics Ope…Siemens Healthcare Di…Gen-probe IncorporatedHitachi High-techRoche Molecular Syste…SysmexThe General HospitalTecan Trading
Top 14 B01L assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B01L. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPC class B01L?
CPC subclass B01L covers CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL LABORATORY APPARATUS FOR GENERAL USE. It belongs to CPC class B01 (PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL), with 15,586 US utility patents granted since 2015.
How many patents have been filed in B01L?
15,586 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass B01L between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in B01L?
International Business Machines Corporation leads B01L with 242 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for B01L 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., B01) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like B01L provide finer granularity within that category. PlainPatent organizes data at the subclass level (4-character codes) for the most useful view of technology domains.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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

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.