Where does The Southern Company rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), The Southern Company ranks #20,523 of 50,000 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does The Southern Company hold?

The Southern Company holds 14 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2023, spanning 18 technology areas.

What is The Southern Company's Innovation Score?

The Southern Company has an Innovation Score of 39.1 out of 100 (top 39% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

Is The Southern Company's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

The Southern Company's recent grant velocity is -83% 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 The Southern Company's patents?

The Southern Company's patents average 20.9 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 The Southern 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

The Southern Company

Q: What technology areas does The Southern Company focus on?

The Southern Company's top technology area is Y02E (REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION) with 5 patents. Grants appear in 18 CPC subclasses total.

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 14 granted patents across 18 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2023. 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: Y02E (REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, The ranks #20,523 of 50,000 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 14 patents across 18 technology areas.

#20,523
of 50,000 US assignees by volume: Top 39%
by Innovation Score (39.1/100): 20.9
avg claims per patent: -83%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R20523 · US Corporation #20,523 · 14 grants

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

GRANTS-MICRO 14 grants
MID-PACK #20,523/50,000
PHOTO-FINISH The Maitland
CPC-FOCUS Y02E · 18 areas
INNOV-THIN 39.1/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 20.9 claims/avg
TYPE-USCORP US Corporation
VEL-DROP -83% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: The Maitland Company, Llc (±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
China Communication… · near

39
Monterey Research · near

39
Primetals USA · near

39
Shanghai Xiaoyi Tech… · near

39
The Southern · this assignee

39
3D Lighting Innovati… · lowest

7

What this shows The's Innovation Score is 39.1/100 (top 39% 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 The's grants concentrate

The Southern Company is a focused PatentsView assignee: 18 CPC subclasses with 35.7% of grants classified under Y02E (REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION). Peak complete grant year is 2015 (5 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2021. By volume, The sits between The Maitland Company, Llc and The University Of Hull.

The Maitland

14
The Nielson (US)

14
The Research Foun…

14
The Rocket Scienc…

14
The United States…

14
The United States…

14
The United States…

14
The University of…

14
The Southern ◀

14

What this shows The holds 14 patents at rank #20,540, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near The

By rank, the assignees closest to #20,540 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in Y02E (Reduction OF Greenhouse GAS [GHG] Emissions)

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

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

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

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (39 here).

Primetals Technologies USA Llc 39 China Communication Technology Co., Ltd. 39 Monterey Research, Llc 39 Shanghai Xiaoyi Technology Co., Ltd. 39

The's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

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

39 Top 39% higher than 61% of 50,000 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 · 2015–2023

Grants by year

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

View data table

The Southern Company patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	5	35.7%
2016	3	21.4%
2017	2	14.3%
2019	2	14.3%
2021	1	7.1%
2023	1	7.1%

Which technologies does The Southern Company patent most?

Y02E - REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION 5

C10J - PRODUCTION OF PRODUCER GAS, WATER-GAS, SYNTHESIS GAS FROM SOLID CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL, OR MIXTURES CONTAINING THESE GASES ; CARBURETTING AIR OR OTHER GASES 5

C10K - PURIFYING OR MODIFYING THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF COMBUSTIBLE GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE 5

B01D - SEPARATION 4

Y02C - CAPTURE, STORAGE, SEQUESTRATION OR DISPOSAL OF GREENHOUSE GASES [GHG] 3

F28D - HEAT-EXCHANGE APPARATUS, NOT PROVIDED FOR IN ANOTHER SUBCLASS, IN WHICH THE HEAT-EXCHANGE MEDIA DO NOT COME INTO DIRECT CONTACT 3

Y02A - TECHNOLOGIES FOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE 3

G01N - INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES 2

G01R - MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES 2

G06Q - INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR 2

Y02P - CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS 2

F23J - REMOVAL OR TREATMENT OF COMBUSTION PRODUCTS OR COMBUSTION RESIDUES; FLUES 2

H02S - GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRARED RADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, e.g. USING PHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES 1

G06T - IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL 1

H05B - ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL 1

Top 15 of 18 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#20,523

of 50,000 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

39.1 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

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.