Where does Nexen Energy ULC rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Nexen Energy ULC ranks #23,076 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 Nexen Energy ULC hold?

Nexen Energy ULC holds 12 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2018, spanning 6 technology areas.

What is Nexen Energy ULC's Innovation Score?

Nexen Energy ULC has an Innovation Score of 29.5 out of 100 (31st percentile of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is Nexen Energy ULC's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Nexen Energy ULC'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 Nexen Energy ULC's patents?

Nexen Energy ULC's patents average 19.9 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 Nexen Energy ULC 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

Nexen Energy ULC

Q: What technology areas does Nexen Energy ULC focus on?

Nexen Energy ULC's top technology area is E21B (Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells) with 9 patents, ranking #406 of 1,363 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 6 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 12 granted patents across 6 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2018. 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: E21B (Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Nexen ranks #23,076 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 12 patents across 6 technology areas.

#23,076
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: 31st percentile
by Innovation Score (29.5/100): 19.9
avg claims per patent: -100%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R23076 · Foreign Corporation #23,076 · 12 grants

GRANTS-MICRO · MID-PACK · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-NARROW · INNOV-THIN · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MICRO 12 grants
MID-PACK #23,076/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH NEC Space
CPC-NARROW E21B · 6 areas
INNOV-THIN 29.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 19.9 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -100% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: NEC Space Technologies, Ltd. (±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 Nexen’s 29.5 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 8.9 pts (30%) Velocity 0.0 pts (0%) Breadth 8.7 pts (29%) Claim depth 12.0 pts (41%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Nexen Energy ULC · this assignee

29
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Nexen's Innovation Score is 29.5/100 (31st 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 Nexen?

Each dot is one of Nexen’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). Nexen’s own 19.9 claims/patent is ABOVE the 10.5 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Nexen's grants concentrate

Nexen Energy ULC is a focused PatentsView assignee: 6 CPC subclasses with 75% of grants classified under E21B (Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells). Peak complete grant year is 2017 (5 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2016. By volume, Nexen sits between NEC Space Technologies, Ltd. and Nicholas Kirkwood Limited.

NEC Space

12
Nelumbo

12
Neura Robotics

12
Neuralstem

12
Nexgen Storage

12
NGI A/S

12
Nichem Fine Techn…

12
Nicholas Kirkwood

12
Nexen Energy ULC ◀

12

What this shows Nexen holds 12 patents at rank #23,037, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Nexen

By rank, the assignees closest to #23,037 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in E21B (Earth OR Rock Drilling)

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

Nexen's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

29 31st percentile higher than 31% 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 · 2015–2018

Grants by year

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

View data table

Nexen Energy ULC patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	2	16.7%
2016	1	8.3%
2017	5	41.7%
2018	4	33.3%

Which technologies does Nexen Energy ULC patent most?

E21B - Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells 9

C10G - Cracking Hydrocarbon OILS; Production OF Liquid Hydrocarbon Mixtures, e.g. BY Destructive Hydrogenation, Oligomerisation, Polymerisation ; Recovery OF Hydrocarbon Oils From Oil-shale, Oil-sand, OR GASES; Refining Mixtures Mainly Consisting OF HYDROCARBONS; Reforming OF NAPHTHA; Mineral Waxes 3

C10L - Fuels NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Natural GAS; Synthetic Natural GAS Obtained BY Processes NOT Covered BY Subclasses C10g OR C10K; Liquified Petroleum GAS; USE OF Additives TO Fuels OR FIRES; Fire-lighters 2

F22B - Methods OF Steam GENERATION; Steam Boilers 1

F04D - Non-positive-displacement Pumps 1

G01V - GEOPHYSICS; Gravitational MEASUREMENTS; Detecting Masses OR OBJECTS; Tags 1

Top 6 of 6 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

Nexen Energy ULC's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Nexen Energy ULC's lead technology class is E21B (Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells), 75% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore E21B
Ranked #23,076 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Nexen Energy ULC against NEC Space Technologies, Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 29.5/100 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.