Where does Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. ranks #14,168 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 Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. hold?

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. holds 21 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 17 technology areas.

What is Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s Innovation Score?

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. has an Innovation Score of 49.9 out of 100 (top 14% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. focus on?

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s top technology area is B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic) with 14 patents, ranking #25 of 195 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 17 CPC subclasses total.

Is Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s recent grant velocity is -73% 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 Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s patents?

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s patents average 7.8 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 Nippon Signal Co., 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

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 21 granted patents across 17 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: B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Nippon ranks #14,168 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 21 patents across 17 technology areas.

#14,168
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 14%
by Innovation Score (49.9/100): 7.8
avg claims per patent: -73%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R14168 · Foreign Corporation #14,168 · 21 grants

GRANTS-SMALL · MID-PACK · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-SPARSE · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-SMALL 21 grants
MID-PACK #14,168/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Neptun Light
CPC-FOCUS B61L · 17 areas
INNOV-PAR 49.9/100
CLAIMS-SPARSE 7.8 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -73% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Neptun Light, Inc. (±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 Nippon’s 49.9 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 10.7 pts (21%) Velocity 20.0 pts (40%) Breadth 14.6 pts (29%) Claim depth 4.7 pts (9%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Nippon Signal · this assignee

50
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Nippon's Innovation Score is 49.9/100 (top 14% 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 Nippon?

Each dot is one of Nippon’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). Nippon’s own 7.8 claims/patent is at or below the 19.7 median for these volume peers. Volume here does not track with deeper claims; several lower-volume peers claim more thoroughly per patent.

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

Where Nippon's grants concentrate

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. is a focused PatentsView assignee: 17 CPC subclasses with 66.7% of grants classified under B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic). Peak complete grant year is 2017 (7 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2022. By volume, Nippon sits between Neptun Light, Inc. and Nuburu, Inc..

Nippon's three-year grant acceleration

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. shows 4 grants in 2022–2024 against only 0 in 2019–2021. That prior window is too thin for a growth multiple (rename and spin-out assignees look artificially high when the baseline is near zero), so PlainPatent withholds a ranked acceleration claim here.

Neptun Light

21
Netflow UAB

21
Neuroblade

21
Ningbo Worth Inte…

21
Nordiccan A/S

21
Normalyze

21
Notco Delaware

21
Nuburu

21
Nippon Signal ◀

21

What this shows Nippon holds 21 patents at rank #14,174, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Nippon

By rank, the assignees closest to #14,174 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in B61L (Guiding Railway Traffic)

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

Nippon's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

50 Top 14% higher than 86% 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

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	5	23.8%
2016	3	14.3%
2017	7	33.3%
2022	1	4.8%
2024	3	14.3%
2025partial year	2	9.5%

Which technologies does Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. patent most?

B61L - Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic 14

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 7

B60L - Propulsion OF Electrically-propelled Vehicles ; Supplying Electric Power FOR Auxiliary Equipment OF Electrically-propelled Vehicles ; Electrodynamic Brake Systems FOR Vehicles IN General ; Magnetic Suspension OR Levitation FOR VEHICLES; Monitoring Operating Variables OF Electrically-propelled Vehicl 6

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 4

G01V - GEOPHYSICS; Gravitational MEASUREMENTS; Detecting Masses OR OBJECTS; Tags 3

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 2

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 2

H04B - Transmission 2

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 1

B65G - Transport OR Storage Devices, e.g. Conveyors FOR Loading OR Tipping, Shop Conveyor Systems OR Pneumatic Tube Conveyors 1

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 1

G01C - Measuring Distances, Levels OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; Gyroscopic INSTRUMENTS; Photogrammetry OR Videogrammetry 1

B81B - Microstructural Devices OR Systems, e.g. Micromechanical Devices 1

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 1

H02K - Dynamo-electric Machines 1

Top 15 of 17 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

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Nippon Signal Co., Ltd.'s lead technology class is B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic), 66.7% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore B61L
Ranked #14,168 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. against Neptun Light, Inc., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 49.9/100 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.