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CPC technology class · B42

B42F - Sheets Temporarily Attached Together

Sheets temporarily attached together; filing appliances; file cards; indexing. 359 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

359
US patents granted
B42
Parent CPC class
20
Active assignees
-60%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

Sheets Temporarily Attached Together ranks #570 of 670 CPC technology areas - 359 US patents granted since 2015, with filing down 60% over five years.

#570
of 670 CPC technology areas
359
US patents granted, 2015–2025
Rtc Industries
leading assignee (43)
-60%
filing velocity, last 5 yrs
Top assignee: RTC Industries, Inc. (43 patents)

CPC subclass B42F - SHEETS TEMPORARILY ATTACHED TOGETHER; FILING APPLIANCES; FILE CARDS; INDEXING - covers 359 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records, within the broader CPC class B42 (BOOKBINDING; ALBUMS; FILES; SPECIAL PRINTED MATTER). See our CPC classification guide for how the system works.

The competitive landscape in B42F is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. RTC Industries, Inc. leads with 43 patents, followed by ACCO Brands Corporation at 40 grants and The Smead Manufacturing Company at 21.

Filing activity in B42F is down 60% over the past five years versus 2015-2019, a notable slowdown that may signal a maturing field. All counts come directly from USPTO PatentsView and reflect US granted utility patents only.

Is B42F innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in B42F, 2015–2025 - recent five years are down 60% versus 2015–2019.

020406080 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 9

Who leads B42F?

The 12 most active assignees in SHEETS TEMPORARILY ATTACHED TOGETHER; FILING APPLIANCES; FILE CARDS; INDEXING - wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows Rtc Industries is the most active filer in B42F, holding 43 of the 359 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 B42F
Rank Company Patents in B42F
#1 RTC Industries, Inc. 43
#2 ACCO Brands Corporation 40
#3 The Smead Manufacturing Company 21
#4 World Wide Stationery Mfg. Co., Ltd. 16
#5 CCL Label, Inc. 14
#6 LSC Communications US, Llc 8
#7 Microdata Corporation 7
#8 R. R. Donnelley & SONS Company 6
#9 Canon Finetech Nisca Inc. 5
#10 Ferag Ag 4
#11 Nisca Corporation 4
#12 Rocket Innovations, Inc. 3
#13 Information Planning & Management Service Inc. 3
#14 Chung TIN International, Inc. 3
#15 The Stanley Works Israel Ltd. 2
#16 KING JIM Co., Ltd. 2
#17 Unibind Limited 2
#18 Imicrodata Corporation 2
#19 Ideastream Consumer Products, Llc 1
#20 Gift Card Impressions, Llc 1

About This Class

CPC subclass B42F belongs to class B42.

359 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 B42F 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 B42F assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B42F. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Top 14 B42F assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B42F. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes). Scatter plot of 14 data points (bubble-sized by third dimension). 510152025 01020304050 Patents in B42F Avg claims / patent (company-wide) Rtc IndustriesAcco BrandsThe Smead Manufacturi…World Wide Stationery…Ccl LabelLsc Communications UsMicrodataR R Donnelley & SonsCanon Finetech NiscaFeragNiscaRocket InnovationsInformation Planning…Chung Tin Internation…
Top 14 B42F assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B42F. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPC class B42F?
CPC subclass B42F covers SHEETS TEMPORARILY ATTACHED TOGETHER; FILING APPLIANCES; FILE CARDS; INDEXING. It belongs to CPC class B42 (BOOKBINDING; ALBUMS; FILES; SPECIAL PRINTED MATTER), with 359 US utility patents granted since 2015.
How many patents have been filed in B42F?
359 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass B42F between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in B42F?
RTC Industries, Inc. leads B42F with 43 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for B42F 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., B42) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like B42F 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.