Where does NEC Europe Ltd. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), NEC Europe Ltd. ranks #8,258 of 49,997 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does NEC Europe Ltd. hold?

NEC Europe Ltd. holds 39 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2017, spanning 11 technology areas.

What is NEC Europe Ltd.'s Innovation Score?

NEC Europe Ltd. has an Innovation Score of 34.7 out of 100 (49th percentile of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does NEC Europe Ltd. focus on?

NEC Europe Ltd.'s top technology area is H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication) with 24 patents, ranking #1,188 of 8,956 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 11 CPC subclasses total.

Is NEC Europe Ltd.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

NEC Europe Ltd.'s recent grant velocity is -100% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). Grant activity has slowed relative to earlier years.

What does claim depth mean for NEC Europe Ltd.'s patents?

NEC Europe Ltd.'s patents average 17.1 claims each. This is an aggregate descriptive count from the grant record; it does not establish claim scope, legal strength, enforceability, or design-around risk.

How is the NEC Europe Ltd. patent data sourced?

All patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering US granted utility patents from 2015 to 2025.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView Foreign Corporation

NEC Europe Ltd.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 39 granted patents across 11 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2017. Grant-trend analysis is cross-referenced to USPTO Patent Public Search; it does not measure application filings, current R&D, or legal strength. Primary class: H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, NEC ranks #8,258 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 39 patents across 11 technology areas.

#8,258
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: 49th percentile
by Innovation Score (34.7/100): 17.1
avg claims per patent: -100%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R8258 · Foreign Corporation #8,258 · 39 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · UPPER-Q · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-THIN · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 39 grants
UPPER-Q #8,258/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH National Pingtung…
CPC-FOCUS H04L · 11 areas
INNOV-THIN 34.7/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.1 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -100% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: National Pingtung University OF Science & Technology (±0 grants)

Instrument codes from this assignee’s USPTO PatentsView grant sheet: volume band, corpus rank, photo-finish peer, lead CPC, Innovation Score, claim depth, assignee type, velocity, and book completeness. Not a USPTO rating of patent strength.

How NEC’s 34.7 Innovation Score adds up

The same four weighted components behind every Innovation Score on PlainPatent: portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth.

Volume 12.7 pts (37%) Velocity 0.0 pts (0%) Breadth 11.7 pts (34%) Claim depth 10.2 pts (29%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Acadia Pharmaceuticals · near

35
NEC Europe · this assignee

35
White Swell Medical · near

35
Adams Mfg · near

35
SiFotonics · near

35
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows NEC's Innovation Score is 34.7/100 (49th percentile of the PatentsView-derived corpus). The chart places that score against the nearest Innovation Score peers plus corpus poles, not a reprint of the volume ranking.

Does more volume mean deeper claims for NEC?

Each dot is one of NEC’s 8 nearest volume peers (same corpus rank neighbourhood as the chart above), placed by total granted patents (horizontal) against average claims per patent (vertical). NEC’s own 17.1 claims/patent is ABOVE the 11.8 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

NEC vs its 8 nearest volume peers: granted patents vs average claims per patent. Source: USPTO PatentsView.

Where NEC's grants concentrate

NEC Europe Ltd. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 11 CPC subclasses with 61.5% of grants classified under H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication). Peak complete grant year is 2015 (22 grants) versus a trough of 3 in 2017. By volume, NEC sits between National Pingtung University OF Science & Technology and Nippon Piston Ring Co., Ltd..

National Pingtung…

39
National Semicond…

39
National Universi…

39
Ncku Research and…

39
Netradyne

39
Neupharma

39
Newpark Mats & In…

39
Nippon Piston Ring

39
NEC Europe ◀

39

What this shows NEC holds 39 patents at rank #8,257, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near NEC

By rank, the assignees closest to #8,257 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information)

Other assignees with the most granted patents in NEC's primary technology class.

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for NEC, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information), NEC ranks #1,188 of 8,956 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (35 here).

White Swell Medical Ltd 35 SiFotonics Technologies Co., Ltd. 35 Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. 35 Adams Mfg. Corp. 35

NEC's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

Composite of portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth (0–100)

35 49th percentile higher than 49% of 49,997 US assignees

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US assignees. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USPTO PatentsView, PlainPatent Innovation Score · 2015–2025

USPTO utility patent grants by year · 2015–2017

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

NEC Europe Ltd. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	22	56.4%
2016	14	35.9%
2017	3	7.7%

Which technologies does NEC Europe Ltd. patent most?

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 24

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 20

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 6

Y02D - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN Information AND Communication Technologies [ICT], I.E. Information AND Communication Technologies Aiming AT THE Reduction OF Their OWN Energy USE 4

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 1

G05B - Control OR Regulating Systems IN GENERAL; Functional Elements OF Such SYSTEMS; Monitoring OR Testing Arrangements FOR Such Systems OR Elements 1

G01S - Radio DIRECTION-FINDING; Radio NAVIGATION; Determining Distance OR Velocity BY USE OF Radio WAVES; Locating OR Presence-detecting BY USE OF THE Reflection OR Reradiation OF Radio WAVES; Analogous Arrangements Using Other Waves 1

G06Q - Information AND Communication Technology [ICT] Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory PURPOSES; Systems OR Methods Specially Adapted FOR Administrative, Commercial, Financial, Managerial OR Supervisory Purposes, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 1

H04Q - Selecting 1

G06N - Computing Arrangements Based ON Specific Computational Models 1

H04B - Transmission 1

Top 11 of 11 technology areas

More on this record

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

View all rankings → How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

NEC Europe Ltd.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

NEC Europe Ltd.'s lead technology class is H04L (Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication), 61.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04L
Ranked #8,258 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare NEC Europe Ltd. against National Pingtung University OF Science & Technology, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 34.7/100 blends volume, velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth. How it's calculated

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

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

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the USPTO PatentsView database. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

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

Data sources used on this page

USPTO PatentsView - the disambiguated bulk patent-grant, assignee, and CPC data this page's figures are derived from. patentsview.org
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) - the joint USPTO/EPO classification scheme used to group patents by technology area. cooperativepatentclassification.org
USPTO Patent Public Search - the official interface to verify the status of any individual patent. ppubs.uspto.gov

Compiled by PlainPatent, US Patent Intelligence Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

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. Data current as of May 2026.