Where does Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation ranks #533 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 Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation hold?

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation holds 842 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2022, spanning 157 technology areas.

What is Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's Innovation Score?

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation has an Innovation Score of 53.7 out of 100 (top 9% 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 Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation focus on?

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's top technology area is C22C (Alloys) with 420 patents. Grants appear in 157 CPC subclasses total.

Is Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's recent grant velocity is -99% 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 Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's patents?

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's patents average 8.8 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 Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation 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 Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 842 granted patents across 157 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2022. 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: C22C (Alloys).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Nippon ranks #533 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 842 patents across 157 technology areas.

#533
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 9%
by Innovation Score (53.7/100): 8.8
avg claims per patent: -99%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R533 · Foreign Corporation #533 · 842 grants

GRANTS-MID · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-PAR · CLAIMS-PAR · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DROP · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MID 842 grants
TOP-DECILE #533/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Hilti Aktiengesellsc…
CPC-WIDE C22C · 157 areas
INNOV-PAR 53.7/100
CLAIMS-PAR 8.8 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DROP -99% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Hilti Aktiengesellschaft (±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.

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
UCB Biopharma SRL · near

54
Adient Aerospace · near

54
Institut National… · near

54
Nippon Steel &… · this assignee

54
Saint Louis University · near

54
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Nippon's Innovation Score is 53.7/100 (top 9% 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.

How Nippon's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation received 7 grants versus 835 in 2015–2019 (-99% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2018 at 196 grants and bottomed in 2021 at 2. Lead class C22C accounts for 49.9% of the portfolio across 157 subclasses. Volume neighbours: Microchip Technology Incorporated (#529) and ABL IP Holding LLC (#537).

Nippon's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation moved from 148 to 2 grants (0.01x 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 #3,277. See the growth leaderboard.

Microchip Technol…

851
Semiconductor Man…

848
Open Invention Ne…

845
Hilti Aktiengesel…

842
Nippon Steel & Su… ◀

842
Chongqing BOE Opt…

841
Exxonmobil Upstre…

841
Conopco

831
ABL IP Holding

830

What this shows Nippon holds 842 patents at rank #533, 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 #533 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in C22C (Alloys)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Nippon, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above).

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (54 here).

Saint Louis University 54 Institut National DES Sciences APPLIQUÉES DE Lyon 54 Adient Aerospace, LLC 54 UCB Biopharma SRL 54

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (8.8 here).

Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials CMP Holdings, Inc. 8.8 avg Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. 8.8 avg Sata GmbH & Co. KG 8.8 avg Kunming University of Science and Technology 8.8 avg

Nippon's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

54 Top 9% higher than 91% 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 · 2015–2022

Grants by year

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

View data table

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	167	19.8%
2016	160	19.0%
2017	169	20.1%
2018	196	23.3%
2019	143	17.0%
2020	3	0.4%
2021	2	0.2%
2022	2	0.2%

Which technologies does Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation patent most?

C22C - Alloys 420

C21D - Modifying THE Physical Structure OF Ferrous METALS; General Devices FOR Heat Treatment OF Ferrous OR Non-ferrous Metals OR ALLOYS; Making Metal Malleable, e.g. BY Decarburisation OR Tempering 357

C23C - Coating Metallic MATERIAL; Coating Material With Metallic MATERIAL; Surface Treatment OF Metallic Material BY Diffusion Into THE Surface, BY Chemical Conversion OR SUBSTITUTION; Coating BY Vacuum Evaporation, BY Sputtering, BY ION Implantation OR BY Chemical Vapour Deposition, IN General 203

Y10T - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former US Classification 179

B32B - Layered Products, i.e. Products Built-up OF Strata OF Flat OR Non-flat, e.g. Cellular OR Honeycomb, Form 113

B21B - Rolling OF Metal 110

B21D - Working OR Processing OF Sheet Metal OR Metal Tubes, Rods OR Profiles Without Essentially Removing MATERIAL; Punching Metal 86

B23K - Soldering OR UNSOLDERING; WELDING; Cladding OR Plating BY Soldering OR WELDING; Cutting BY Applying Heat Locally, e.g. Flame CUTTING; Working BY Laser Beam 67

F16L - PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General 55

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 55

C25D - Processes FOR THE Electrolytic OR Electrophoretic Production OF COATINGS; ELECTROFORMING; Apparatus Therefor 50

Y02E - Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions, Related TO Energy Generation, Transmission OR Distribution 49

B22D - Casting OF METALS; Casting OF Other Substances BY THE Same Processes OR Devices 46

B21C - Manufacture OF Metal Sheets, Wire, Rods, Tubes, Profiles OR Like Semi-manufactured Products Otherwise Than BY ROLLING; Auxiliary Operations Used IN Connection With Metal-working Without Essentially Removing Material 37

C22F - Changing THE Physical Structure OF Non-ferrous Metals AND Non-ferrous Alloys 36

Top 15 of 157 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#533

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

53.7 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation's lead technology class is C22C (Alloys), 49.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore C22C
Ranked #533 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation against Microchip Technology Incorporated, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 53.7/100 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.