Where does NGK Insulators, Ltd. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), NGK Insulators, Ltd. ranks #260 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 NGK Insulators, Ltd. hold?

NGK Insulators, Ltd. holds 1,631 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 177 technology areas.

What is NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s Innovation Score?

NGK Insulators, Ltd. has an Innovation Score of 62.1 out of 100 (top 3% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s recent grant velocity is +16% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). The company is maintaining or growing its granted-patent output.

What does claim depth mean for NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s patents?

NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s patents average 9.8 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 NGK Insulators, 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

NGK Insulators, Ltd.

Q: What technology areas does NGK Insulators, Ltd. focus on?

NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s top technology area is C04B (Lime, MAGNESIA; SLAG; CEMENTS; Compositions Thereof, e.g. Mortars, Concrete OR Like Building MATERIALS; Artificial Stone ; Ceramics ; REFRACTORIES; Treatment OF Natural Stone) with 451 patents, ranking #1 of 1,052 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 177 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 1,631 granted patents across 177 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2025. 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: C04B (Lime, MAGNESIA; SLAG; CEMENTS; Compositions Thereof, e.g. Mortars, Concrete OR Like Building MATERIALS; Artificial Stone ; Ceramics ; REFRACTORIES; Treatment OF Natural Stone).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, NGK ranks #260 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 1,631 patents across 177 technology areas.

#260
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (62.1/100): 9.8
avg claims per patent: +16%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R260 · Foreign Corporation #260 · 1,631 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-PAR · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-UP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 1.6K grants
TOP-DECILE #260/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Rambus
CPC-WIDE C04B · 177 areas
INNOV-STRONG 62.1/100
CLAIMS-PAR 9.8 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-UP +16% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Rambus Inc. (±5 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 NGK’s 62.1 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 25.6 pts (41%) Velocity 5.7 pts (9%) Breadth 25.0 pts (40%) Claim depth 5.9 pts (9%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
DiversiTech · near

62
Global Graphene Group · near

62
Insurance Services… · near

62
NGK Insulators · this assignee

62
WM Intellectual… · near

62
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows NGK's Innovation Score is 62.1/100 (top 3% 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 NGK?

Each dot is one of NGK’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). NGK’s own 9.8 claims/patent is at or below the 16.9 median for these volume peers. Volume here does not track with deeper claims; several lower-volume peers claim more thoroughly per patent.

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

How NGK's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, NGK Insulators, Ltd. received 820 grants versus 708 in 2015–2019 (+16% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2019 at 189 grants and bottomed in 2017 at 110. Lead class C04B accounts for 27.7% of the portfolio across 177 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (#256) and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (#264).

NGK's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, NGK Insulators, Ltd. moved from 546 to 463 grants (0.85x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). Among 3,296 tracked assignees with ≥100 grants and ≥20 prior-period grants, that multiple ranks #1,667. See the growth leaderboard.

Wisconsin Alumni…

1,659
Pure Storage

1,652
Infineon Austria

1,650
Au Optronics

1,648
NGK Insulators ◀

1,631
Rambus

1,626
Stryker

1,619
Lenovo (Beijing)

1,618
Hamamatsu Photoni…

1,615

What this shows NGK holds 1,631 patents at rank #260, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near NGK

By rank, the assignees closest to #260 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in C04B (Lime)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for NGK, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above). In C04B (Lime), NGK ranks #1 of 1,052 assignees by patent count in that subclass.

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (62 here).

Global Graphene Group, Inc. 62 WM Intellectual Property Holdings, L.L.C. 62 Insurance Services Office, Inc. 62 DiversiTech Corporation 62

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (9.8 here).

Citizen Electronics Co., Ltd. 9.8 avg Minebea Co., Ltd. 9.8 avg NAN YA Plastics Corporation 9.8 avg Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Inc. 9.8 avg

NGK's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

62 Top 3% higher than 97% 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 · 2015–2025

Grants by year

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

View data table

NGK Insulators, Ltd. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	136	8.3%
2016	138	8.5%
2017	110	6.7%
2018	135	8.3%
2019	189	11.6%
2020	189	11.6%
2021	168	10.3%
2022	178	10.9%
2023	139	8.5%
2024	146	9.0%
2025partial year	103	6.3%

Which technologies does NGK Insulators, Ltd. patent most?

C04B - Lime, MAGNESIA; SLAG; CEMENTS; Compositions Thereof, e.g. Mortars, Concrete OR Like Building MATERIALS; Artificial Stone ; Ceramics ; REFRACTORIES; Treatment OF Natural Stone 451

B01D - Separation 417

F01N - Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Machines OR Engines IN GENERAL; Gas-flow Silencers OR Exhaust Apparatus FOR Internal-combustion Engines 319

H01L - Semiconductor Devices NOT Covered BY Class H10 258

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 227

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 219

B01J - Chemical OR Physical Processes, e.g. Catalysis OR Colloid CHEMISTRY; Their Relevant Apparatus 213

H01M - Processes OR Means, e.g. Batteries, FOR THE Direct Conversion OF Chemical Energy Into Electrical Energy 211

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 190

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 135

B32B - Layered Products, i.e. Products Built-up OF Strata OF Flat OR Non-flat, e.g. Cellular OR Honeycomb, Form 117

B28B - Shaping Clay OR Other Ceramic COMPOSITIONS; Shaping SLAG; Shaping Mixtures Containing Cementitious Material, e.g. Plaster 112

H05B - Electric HEATING; Electric Light Sources NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Circuit Arrangements FOR Electric Light Sources, IN General 97

C30B - Single-crystal Growth ; Unidirectional Solidification OF Eutectic Material OR Unidirectional Demixing OF Eutectoid MATERIAL; Refining BY Zone-melting OF Material ; Production OF A Homogeneous Polycrystalline Material With Defined Structure ; Single Crystals OR Homogeneous Polycrystalline Material WI 88

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 85

Top 15 of 177 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

NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

NGK Insulators, Ltd.'s lead technology class is C04B (Lime, MAGNESIA; SLAG; CEMENTS; Compositions Thereof, e.g. Mortars, Concrete OR Like Building MATERIALS; Artificial Stone ; Ceramics ; REFRACTORIES; Treatment OF Natural Stone), 27.7% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore C04B
Ranked #260 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare NGK Insulators, Ltd. against Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 62.1/100 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.