Where does Northwest Pipe Company rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Northwest Pipe Company ranks #49,178 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 Northwest Pipe Company hold?

Northwest Pipe Company holds 5 US utility patents granted between 2019 and 2025, spanning 4 technology areas.

What is Northwest Pipe Company's Innovation Score?

Northwest Pipe Company has an Innovation Score of 28.3 out of 100 (27th percentile of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is Northwest Pipe Company's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Northwest Pipe Company's recent grant velocity is +100% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). This indicates accelerating grant output.

What does claim depth mean for Northwest Pipe Company's patents?

Northwest Pipe Company's patents average 32.0 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 Northwest Pipe Company 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

Northwest Pipe Company

Q: What technology areas does Northwest Pipe Company focus on?

Northwest Pipe Company's top technology area is F16L (PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General) with 4 patents, ranking #521 of 1,907 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 4 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 5 granted patents across 4 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2019–2025. 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: F16L (PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Northwest ranks #49,178 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 5 patents across 4 technology areas.

#49,178
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: 27th percentile
by Innovation Score (28.3/100): 32.0
avg claims per patent: +100%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R49178 · US Corporation #49,178 · 5 grants

GRANTS-MICRO · BOTTOM-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-NARROW · INNOV-THIN · CLAIMS-DENSE · TYPE-USCORP · VEL-SURGE · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MICRO 5 grants
BOTTOM-DECILE #49,178/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH North China…
CPC-NARROW F16L · 4 areas
INNOV-THIN 28.3/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 32.0 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-SURGE +100% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: North China University of Technology (±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 Northwest’s 28.3 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 6.2 pts (22%) Velocity 0.0 pts (0%) Breadth 7.1 pts (25%) Claim depth 15.0 pts (53%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Northwest Pipe · this assignee

28
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Northwest's Innovation Score is 28.3/100 (27th 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.

Does more volume mean deeper claims for Northwest?

Each dot is one of Northwest’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). Northwest’s own 32.0 claims/patent is ABOVE the 13.4 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

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

Where Northwest's grants concentrate

Northwest Pipe Company is a focused PatentsView assignee: 4 CPC subclasses with 80% of grants classified under F16L (PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General). Peak complete grant year is 2020 (2 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2019. By volume, Northwest sits between North China University of Technology and Nova Dynamics, LLC.

North China Unive…

5
North Star Techno…

5
Northern Power Sy…

5
Northwest Biother…

5
Northwest River S…

5
Nortic Holdings

5
Norwegian Univers…

5
Nova Dynamics

5
Northwest Pipe ◀

5

What this shows Northwest holds 5 patents at rank #49,214, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Northwest

By rank, the assignees closest to #49,214 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in F16L (Pipes)

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

Northwest's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

28 27th percentile higher than 27% 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 · 2019–2025

Grants by year

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

View data table

Northwest Pipe Company patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2019	1	20.0%
2020	2	40.0%
2025partial year	2	40.0%

Which technologies does Northwest Pipe Company patent most?

F16L - PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General 4

E21B - Earth OR Rock DRILLING; Obtaining OIL, GAS, Water, Soluble OR Meltable Materials OR A Slurry OF Minerals From Wells 2

F16J - Pistons ; CYLINDERS; Sealings 1

Y10S - Technical Subjects Covered BY Former Uspc Cross-reference ART Collections [XRACs] AND Digests 1

Top 4 of 4 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

Northwest Pipe Company's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Northwest Pipe Company's lead technology class is F16L (PIPES; Joints OR Fittings FOR PIPES; Supports FOR Pipes, Cables OR Protective TUBING; Means FOR Thermal Insulation IN General), 80% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore F16L
Ranked #49,178 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Northwest Pipe Company against North China University of Technology, an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 28.3/100 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.