Where does Norfolk Southern Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Norfolk Southern Corporation ranks #15,499 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 Norfolk Southern Corporation hold?

Norfolk Southern Corporation holds 19 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 30 technology areas.

What is Norfolk Southern Corporation's Innovation Score?

Norfolk Southern Corporation has an Innovation Score of 60.3 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%).

What technology areas does Norfolk Southern Corporation focus on?

Norfolk Southern Corporation's top technology area is B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic) with 8 patents, ranking #43 of 195 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 30 CPC subclasses total.

Is Norfolk Southern Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Norfolk Southern Corporation's recent grant velocity is +0% 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 Norfolk Southern Corporation's patents?

Norfolk Southern Corporation's patents average 17.7 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 Norfolk Southern 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 US Corporation

Norfolk Southern Corporation

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 19 granted patents across 30 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

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Norfolk ranks #15,499 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 19 patents across 30 technology areas.

#15,499
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 3%
by Innovation Score (60.3/100): 17.7
avg claims per patent: +0%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R15499 · US Corporation #15,499 · 19 grants

GRANTS-MICRO · MID-PACK · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-FOCUS · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-FLAT · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MICRO 19 grants
MID-PACK #15,499/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Nikki
CPC-FOCUS B61L · 30 areas
INNOV-STRONG 60.3/100
CLAIMS-RICH 17.7 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-FLAT +0% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Nikki Co., 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 Norfolk’s 60.3 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 10.3 pts (17%) Velocity 20.0 pts (33%) Breadth 19.4 pts (32%) Claim depth 10.6 pts (18%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Norfolk Southern · this assignee

60
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Norfolk's Innovation Score is 60.3/100 (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 Norfolk?

Each dot is one of Norfolk’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). Norfolk’s own 17.7 claims/patent is ABOVE the 15.6 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Norfolk's grants concentrate

Norfolk Southern Corporation is a focused PatentsView assignee: 30 CPC subclasses with 42.1% of grants classified under B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic). Peak complete grant year is 2016 (7 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2015. By volume, Norfolk sits between Nikki Co., Ltd. and Novoluto GmbH.

Norfolk's three-year grant acceleration

Norfolk Southern Corporation shows 8 grants in 2022–2024 against only 2 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.

Nikki

19
Ningbo Tolead Int…

19
Nivalis Therapeut…

19
Nordex Energy Spa…

19
Nostromo

19
Nova Biomedical

19
Novel Crystal Tec…

19
Novoluto

19
Norfolk Southern ◀

19

What this shows Norfolk holds 19 patents at rank #15,502, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Norfolk

By rank, the assignees closest to #15,502 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in B61L (Guiding Railway Traffic)

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

Norfolk's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

60 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

Norfolk Southern Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	1	5.3%
2016	7	36.8%
2019	1	5.3%
2021	1	5.3%
2022	3	15.8%
2023	2	10.5%
2024	3	15.8%
2025partial year	1	5.3%

Which technologies does Norfolk Southern Corporation patent most?

B61L - Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic 8

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 4

E01B - Permanent WAY; Permanent-way TOOLS; Machines FOR Making Railways OF ALL Kinds 4

G01M - Testing Static OR Dynamic Balance OF Machines OR STRUCTURES; Testing OF Structures OR Apparatus, NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 3

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 3

G05B - Control OR Regulating Systems IN GENERAL; Functional Elements OF Such SYSTEMS; Monitoring OR Testing Arrangements FOR Such Systems OR Elements 3

Y02T - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related TO Transportation 3

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 3

F02B - Internal-combustion Piston ENGINES; Combustion Engines IN General 2

B23P - Metal-working NOT Otherwise Provided FOR; Combined OPERATIONS; Universal Machine Tools 2

B25B - Tools OR Bench Devices NOT Otherwise Provided FOR, FOR Fastening, Connecting, Disengaging OR Holding 2

B61C - LOCOMOTIVES; Motor Railcars 2

F01P - Cooling OF Machines OR Engines IN GENERAL; Cooling OF Internal-combustion Engines 2

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 1

B21J - FORGING; HAMMERING; Pressing METAL; RIVETING; Forge Furnaces 1

Top 15 of 30 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

Norfolk Southern Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Norfolk Southern Corporation's lead technology class is B61L (Guiding Railway TRAFFIC; Ensuring THE Safety OF Railway Traffic), 42.1% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore B61L
Ranked #15,499 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Norfolk Southern Corporation against Nikki Co., Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 60.3/100 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.