CPC technology class · H03

H03B — Generation OF Oscillations

Generation of oscillations, directly or by frequency-changing, by circuits employing active elements which operate in a non-switching manner; generation of noise by such circuits. 3,110 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

3,110
US patents granted
H03
Parent CPC class
20
Active assignees
+2%
5-yr velocity
Top assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION (394 patents)

CPC subclass H03B — GENERATION OF OSCILLATIONS, DIRECTLY OR BY FREQUENCY-CHANGING, BY CIRCUITS EMPLOYING ACTIVE ELEMENTS WHICH OPERATE IN A NON-SWITCHING MANNER; GENERATION OF NOISE BY SUCH CIRCUITS — covers 3,110 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records. This subclass sits within the broader CPC class H03 (ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY), 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 H03B 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 H03B is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION leads with 394 patents, followed by Silicon Laboratories Inc. at 825 grants and NIHON DEMPA KOGYO CO., LTD. at 151. 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 H03B 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 H03B innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in H03B, 2015–2025 — recent five years are up 2% versus 2015–2019.

100200300400500 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 142

Who leads H03B?

The 12 most active assignees in GENERATION OF OSCILLATIONS, DIRECTLY OR BY FREQUENCY-CHANGING, BY CIRCUITS EMPLOYING ACTIVE ELEMENTS WHICH OPERATE IN A NON-SWITCHING MANNER; GENERATION OF NOISE BY SUCH CIRCUITS — wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows Seiko Epson is the most active filer in H03B, holding 394 of the 3,110 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 H03B belongs to class H03.

3,110 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 H03B?
CPC subclass H03B covers GENERATION OF OSCILLATIONS, DIRECTLY OR BY FREQUENCY-CHANGING, BY CIRCUITS EMPLOYING ACTIVE ELEMENTS WHICH OPERATE IN A NON-SWITCHING MANNER; GENERATION OF NOISE BY SUCH CIRCUITS. It belongs to CPC class H03 (ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY). 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 H03B?
3,110 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass H03B between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in H03B?
SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION leads H03B with 394 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for H03B 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., H03) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like H03B 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