Where does Northern Illinois Research Foundation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Northern Illinois Research Foundation ranks #36,732 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 Northern Illinois Research Foundation hold?

Northern Illinois Research Foundation holds 7 US utility patents granted between 2016 and 2023, spanning 13 technology areas.

What is Northern Illinois Research Foundation's Innovation Score?

Northern Illinois Research Foundation has an Innovation Score of 29.4 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 Northern Illinois Research Foundation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Northern Illinois Research Foundation's recent grant velocity is +33% 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 Northern Illinois Research Foundation's patents?

Northern Illinois Research Foundation's patents average 12.1 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 Northern Illinois Research Foundation 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

Northern Illinois Research Foundation

Q: What technology areas does Northern Illinois Research Foundation focus on?

Northern Illinois Research Foundation's top technology area is A61G (Transport, Personal Conveyances, OR Accommodation Specially Adapted FOR Patients OR Disabled Persons ; Operating Tables OR CHAIRS; Chairs FOR DENTISTRY; Funeral Devices) with 3 patents. Grants appear in 13 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 7 granted patents across 13 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2016–2023. 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: A61G (Transport, Personal Conveyances, OR Accommodation Specially Adapted FOR Patients OR Disabled Persons ; Operating Tables OR CHAIRS; Chairs FOR DENTISTRY; Funeral Devices).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

RSS updates for this company

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Northern ranks #36,732 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 7 patents across 13 technology areas.

#36,732
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: 31st percentile
by Innovation Score (29.4/100): 12.1
avg claims per patent: +33%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R36732 · US Corporation #36,732 · 7 grants

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

GRANTS-MICRO 7 grants
MID-PACK #36,732/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Normalu
CPC-FOCUS A61G · 13 areas
INNOV-THIN 29.4/100
CLAIMS-RICH 12.1 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-UP +33% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Normalu (±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
Northern Illinois… · this assignee

29
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Northern's Innovation Score is 29.4/100 (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.

Where Northern's grants concentrate

Northern Illinois Research Foundation is a focused PatentsView assignee: 13 CPC subclasses with 42.9% of grants classified under A61G (Transport, Personal Conveyances, OR Accommodation Specially Adapted FOR Patients OR Disabled Persons ; Operating Tables OR CHAIRS; Chairs FOR DENTISTRY; Funeral Devices). Peak complete grant year is 2021 (3 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2016. By volume, Northern sits between Normalu and Novarc Technologies Inc..

Northern's three-year grant acceleration

Northern Illinois Research Foundation shows 1 grants in 2022–2024 against only 3 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.

Normalu

7
Normet OY

7
North China Munic…

7
Northeast Forestr…

7
Nous

7
Nova Lumos

7
Novapharm Researc…

7
Novarc

7
Northern Illinois… ◀

7

What this shows Northern holds 7 patents at rank #36,650, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Northern

By rank, the assignees closest to #36,650 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A61G (Transport)

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

Northern'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 · 2016–2023

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2016–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Northern Illinois Research Foundation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2016	1	14.3%
2017	1	14.3%
2018	1	14.3%
2021	3	42.9%
2023	1	14.3%

Which technologies does Northern Illinois Research Foundation patent most?

A61G - Transport, Personal Conveyances, OR Accommodation Specially Adapted FOR Patients OR Disabled Persons ; Operating Tables OR CHAIRS; Chairs FOR DENTISTRY; Funeral Devices 3

A47G - Household OR Table Equipment 3

G10K - Sound-producing DEVICES; Methods OR Devices FOR Protecting Against, OR FOR Damping, Noise OR Other Acoustic Waves IN GENERAL; Acoustics NOT Otherwise Provided FOR 3

H04R - Loudspeakers, Microphones, Gramophone Pick-ups OR Like Acoustic Electromechanical TRANSDUCERS; Deaf-aid SETS; Public Address Systems 3

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 2

C12N - Microorganisms OR ENZYMES; Compositions THEREOF; Propagating, Preserving, OR Maintaining MICROORGANISMS; Mutation OR Genetic ENGINEERING; Culture Media 1

C40B - Combinatorial CHEMISTRY; Libraries, e.g. Chemical Libraries 1

C07K - Peptides 1

A61K - Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes 1

C07D - Heterocyclic Compounds 1

A01N - Preservation OF Bodies OF Humans OR Animals OR Plants OR Parts Thereof ; Biocides, e.g. AS Disinfectants, AS Pesticides OR AS Herbicides ; Pest Repellants OR ATTRACTANTS; Plant Growth Regulators 1

B01L - Chemical OR Physical Laboratory Apparatus FOR General USE 1

A61B - DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification 1

Top 13 of 13 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#36,732

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

29.4 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

Northern Illinois Research Foundation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Northern Illinois Research Foundation's lead technology class is A61G (Transport, Personal Conveyances, OR Accommodation Specially Adapted FOR Patients OR Disabled Persons ; Operating Tables OR CHAIRS; Chairs FOR DENTISTRY; Funeral Devices), 42.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A61G
Ranked #36,732 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Northern Illinois Research Foundation against Normalu, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 29.4/100 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.