CPC technology class · B61

B61C - Locomotives

Locomotives; motor railcars. 870 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year grant trajectory.

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

870
US patents granted: #4/9
in B61: 10.7%
B61 class share: +6%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Locomotives ranks #477 of 670 CPC technology areas - 870 US patents granted since 2015, with recorded grant volume up 6% over five years.

#477
of 670 CPC technology areas: 870
US patents granted, 2015–2025: General Electric
leading assignee (79): +6%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

How B61C's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, B61C recorded 412 grants versus 390 in 2015–2019 (+6% equal-window velocity). Across complete years, output peaked in 2017 at 94 grants and bottomed in 2020 at 66 (+42% peak-over-trough). Lead assignee Transportation IP Holdings, LLC holds 8.0% of the class ; the top three share 18.9%.

Leaderboard read

B61C concentration, lead at 8.0%

Transportation IP Holdings, LLC leads this historical grant record at 8.0% of B61C - us corporation assignees hold 58% of class grants (267 of 464). Figures describe granted US utility patents in this CPC subclass, not current investment or legal strength.

Leader's share: 8.0%
Top three share: 18.9%
Lead over #2: 21

Where B61C sits inside B61

Among 9 subclasses in B61 (Railways), B61C ranks #4 and holds 10.7% of the parent class's 8,123 recorded grants. Sibling chips below are the other subclasses in the same parent class, not the nationwide volume/lead-share peers further down.

B61L 2,671 B61D 1,451 B61B 961 B61F 797 B61K 506 B61H 502 B61G 314 B61J 51

Rising assignees active in B61C

Company-wide grant multiples (2022–2024 vs 2019–2021) among assignees with ≥5 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide; class patent counts are subclass-specific.

#1 Parallel Systems, Inc. 13x 0 → 13 company-wide · 6 in B61C
#2 Knoxville Locomotive Works, Inc. 7.00x 0 → 7 company-wide · 6 in B61C
#3 Bnsf Railway Company 4.19x 21 → 88 company-wide · 7 in B61C
#4 GET Fabric Ltd 4.00x 2 → 8 company-wide · 5 in B61C
#5 Nowe GmbH 4.00x 0 → 4 company-wide · 5 in B61C

B61C grants by year, peak 2017 (94)

US utility-patent grants per year in B61C, 2015–2025 - recent five years are up 6% versus 2015–2019.

Transportation Ip…

70
Siemens Mobility

49
Electro-motive Diesel

45
Alstom Transport

25
Bombardier Transportat…

23
Ge Global Sourcing

17
Progress Rail…

15
Hyperloop

15
Crrc Qingdao Sifang

12
Progress Rail Services

11
Opex

10
Sst Systems

8

What this shows General Electric is the most active filer in B61C, holding 79 of the 870 patents in this class. Concentration at the top signals how contestable this technology area is for new entrants.

View data table

Top patent holders in CPC subclass B61C
Rank	Company	Patents in B61C
#1	Transportation IP Holdings, LLC	70
#2	Siemens Mobility GmbH	49
#3	Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc.	45
#4	Alstom Transport Technologies	25
#5	Bombardier Transportation GmbH	23
#6	GE Global Sourcing LLC	17
#7	Progress Rail Locomotive Inc.	15
#8	Hyperloop Technologies, Inc.	15
#9	Crrc Qingdao Sifang Co., Ltd.	12
#10	Progress Rail Services Corporation	11
#11	Opex Corporation	10
#12	SST Systems, Inc	8
#13	Bnsf Railway Company	7
#14	Knorr-bremse Systeme FÜR Schienenfahrzeuge GMBH	7
#15	Bright Energy Storage Technologies, LLP	7
#16	SpeedInnov	7
#17	New York Air Brake LLC	6
#18	Cattron North America, Inc.	6
#19	Siemens Mobility Austria GmbH	6
#20	Parallel Systems, Inc.	6

Footprint here vs. claim strategy

Each dot is a leading B61C assignee, placed by how many patents it holds in this class (horizontal) against its company-wide average claims per patent (vertical) - a read on whether the class is led by broad-but-shallow filers or focused deep-claim players.

Top 14 B61C assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in B61C. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Classes near B61C's 870-grant footprint

Nationwide nearest neighbors for B61C (#477 of 670 by volume ; lead share 9.1%) - not the B61 parent-class siblings above.

Nearest by grant volume

B04C 873 A61D 885 B62L 885 F42D 887

Nearest by lead-assignee share

B43K 9.1% D07B 9.1% E06C 9.0% G07F 9.0%

Questions about B61C

Which company holds the most patents in B61C?

General Electric Company leads B61C with 79 patents (8.0% of the subclass). By PatentsView assignee type, us corporations account for 58% of class grants.

Which B61C assignees grew fastest recently?

Among assignees with ≥5 grants in B61C, Parallel Systems, Inc. shows the highest company-wide grant multiple (13x: 0 grants in 2019–2021 → 13 in 2022–2024) while holding 6 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide, not class-only.

How does B61C compare inside parent class B61?

Inside B61 (Railways), B61C ranks #4 of 9 subclasses by grant volume and holds 10.7% of the parent class total. The largest sibling is B61L (2,671 grants).

What to do with this data

B61C in context - here's where to go next.

Transportation IP Holdings, LLC leads B61C with 70 grants in this class. See full portfolio
B61C ranks #477 of 670 by grant volume among all tracked CPC technology areas. See the ranking
Inside parent class B61, the largest sibling subclass is B61L with 2,671 grants. Explore B61L

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through 2026-05-15; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Methodology - B61C figures are USPTO PatentsView granted-utility totals for this subclass (870 grants in the tracked window).

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.