PlainPatent

CPC technology class · F15

F15C — Fluid-circuit Elements Predominantly USED FOR Computing O…

Fluid-circuit elements predominantly used for computing or control purposes. 136 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

136
US patents granted
F15
Parent CPC class
14
Active assignees
-18%
5-yr velocity
Top assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC (15 patents)

CPC subclass F15C — FLUID-CIRCUIT ELEMENTS PREDOMINANTLY USED FOR COMPUTING OR CONTROL PURPOSES — covers 136 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records. This subclass sits within the broader CPC class F15 (FLUID-PRESSURE ACTUATORS; HYDRAULICS OR PNEUMATICS IN GENERAL), 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 F15C 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 F15C is shaped by 14 distinct companies actively filing in this space. Facebook Technologies, LLC leads with 15 patents, followed by Applied Biosystems, LLC at 156 grants and CYTONOME/ST, LLC at 60. 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 F15C 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 F15C innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in F15C, 2015–2025 — recent five years are down 18% versus 2015–2019.

0510152025 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 2

Who leads F15C?

The 12 most active assignees in FLUID-CIRCUIT ELEMENTS PREDOMINANTLY USED FOR COMPUTING OR CONTROL PURPOSES — wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows Facebook is the most active filer in F15C, holding 15 of the 136 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 F15C
Rank Company Patents in F15C
#1 Vortex Pipe Systems LLC 26
#2 Applied Biosystems, LLC 156
#3 CYTONOME/ST, LLC 60
#4 THRU TUBING SOLUTIONS, INC. 150
#5 DLHBOWLES, INC. 45
#6 Rheonix, Inc. 19
#7 Tactus Technology, Inc. 45
#8 LEGGETT & PLATT CANADA CO. 36
#9 Control Components, Inc. 29
#10 STRATEC SE 29
#11 IRIDIA, INC. 14
#12 DOLPHIN FLUIDICS S.R.L. 8
#13 JANSEN'S AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS CONTROLS, INC. 7
#14 SILICON BIOSYSTEMS S.P.A. 7

About This Class

CPC subclass F15C belongs to class F15.

136 patents were granted in this class between 2015 and 2025.

14 companies actively patent in this space.

Classification System

Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system used by the USPTO and EPO.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPC class F15C?
CPC subclass F15C covers FLUID-CIRCUIT ELEMENTS PREDOMINANTLY USED FOR COMPUTING OR CONTROL PURPOSES. It belongs to CPC class F15 (FLUID-PRESSURE ACTUATORS; HYDRAULICS OR PNEUMATICS IN GENERAL). 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 F15C?
136 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass F15C between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in F15C?
Facebook Technologies, LLC leads F15C with 15 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for F15C 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., F15) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like F15C 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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Facebook

The leading filer in F15C — full patent portfolio
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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