PlainPatent

CPC technology class · C40

C40B - Combinatorial Chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry; libraries, e.g. chemical libraries. 2,284 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year grant trajectory.

2,284
US patents granted
#1/1
in C40
100.0%
C40 class share
+33%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Combinatorial Chemistry ranks #356 of 670 CPC technology areas - 2,284 US patents granted since 2015, with recorded grant volume up 33% over five years.

#356
of 670 CPC technology areas
2,284
US patents granted, 2015–2025
President and Fellows of…
leading assignee (60)
+33%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

How C40B's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, C40B recorded 1,097 grants versus 826 in 2015–2019 (+33% equal-window velocity). Across complete years, output peaked in 2023 at 233 grants and bottomed in 2017 at 139 (+68% peak-over-trough). Lead assignee Illumina, Inc. holds 2.0% of the class ; the top three share 6.0%.

Leaderboard read

C40B concentration, lead at 2.0%

Illumina, Inc. leads this historical grant record at 2.0% of C40B - us corporation assignees hold 72% of class grants (906 of 1,256). Figures describe granted US utility patents in this CPC subclass, not current investment or legal strength.

Leader's share
2.0%

46 of 2,284 grants

Top three share
6.0%

of the class's recorded grants

Lead over #2
0

more grants than Prognosys Biosciences, Inc.

Rising assignees active in C40B

Company-wide grant multiples (2022–2024 vs 2019–2021) among assignees with ≥5 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide; class patent counts are subclass-specific.

  1. #1 Encodia, Inc. 14x 1 → 14 company-wide · 11 in C40B
  2. #2 Catalog Technologies, Inc. 12x 1 → 12 company-wide · 5 in C40B
  3. #3 Eligo Bioscience 7.25x 4 → 29 company-wide · 5 in C40B
  4. #4 Grail, Inc. 4.00x 9 → 36 company-wide · 11 in C40B
  5. #5 1859, Inc. 4.00x 1 → 4 company-wide · 5 in C40B

C40B grants by year, peak 2023 (233)

US utility-patent grants per year in C40B, 2015–2025 - recent five years are up 33% versus 2015–2019.

100150200250 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 174

Who leads C40B?

The 12 most active assignees in Combinatorial CHEMISTRY; Libraries, e.g. Chemical Libraries - wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows President and Fellows… is the most active filer in C40B, holding 60 of the 2,284 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 C40B
Rank Company Patents in C40B
#1 Illumina, Inc. 46
#2 Prognosys Biosciences, Inc. 46
#3 Inscripta Inc. 44
#4 10x Genomics, Inc. 37
#5 University of Washington 36
#6 Twist Bioscience Corporation 32
#7 Illumina Cambridge Limited 29
#8 Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. 28
#9 Dyax Corp. 23
#10 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 19
#11 GigaGen, Inc. 19
#12 Roche Sequencing Solutions, Inc. 17
#13 Vibrant Holdings, LLC 17
#14 Adimab, LLC 16
#15 Enzo Life Sciences, Inc. 15
#16 Chugai Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisha 14
#17 BioAtla, Inc. 13
#18 Nuevolution A/S 13
#19 The Broad Institute, Inc. 12
#20 THE Scripps Research Institute 12

Footprint here vs. claim strategy

Each dot is a leading C40B 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 C40B assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in C40B. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes). Scatter plot of 14 data points (bubble-sized by third dimension). 1015202530 1020304050 Patents in C40B Avg claims / patent (company-wide) IlluminaPrognosys BiosciencesInscripta10x GenomicsUniversity of…Twist BioscienceIllumina CambridgeBio-rad LaboratoriesDyaxBristol-myers SquibbGigagenRoche Sequencing…Vibrant HoldingsAdimab
Top 14 C40B assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in C40B. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Classes near C40B's 2,284-grant footprint

Nationwide nearest neighbors for C40B (#356 of 670 by volume ; lead share 2.6%) - not the C40 parent-class siblings above.

Nearest by grant volume

B07C 2,293 B30B 2,314 F03G 2,252 B23C 2,322

Nearest by lead-assignee share

H02H 2.6% C22F 2.6% F16F 2.6% A61D 2.6%

Questions about C40B

Which company holds the most patents in C40B?
President and Fellows of Harvard College leads C40B with 60 patents (2.0% of the subclass). By PatentsView assignee type, us corporations account for 72% of class grants.
Which C40B assignees grew fastest recently?
Among assignees with ≥5 grants in C40B, Encodia, Inc. shows the highest company-wide grant multiple (14x: 1 grants in 2019–2021 → 14 in 2022–2024) while holding 11 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide, not class-only.

What to do with this data

C40B in context - here's where to go next.

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through 2026-05-15; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Methodology - C40B figures are USPTO PatentsView granted-utility totals for this subclass (2,284 grants in the tracked window).

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.