Chinese patent analysis of electrode active materials for power lithium-ion batteries

This article analyzes Chinese patent applications for power-type lithium-ion battery electrode active materials, mainly including patent application trends in China and the ranking of patent applications in various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

1. Application Status

The trend of patent filings in China is shown in Figure 1. As can be seen from the figure, the patent application trend can be divided into two stages. Before 2005, there were only sporadic patent applications. By 2005, the number of applications had reached 50, and the number of patent applicants during the same period had not increased significantly. After 2005, the number of patent applications increased rapidly. By the peak in 2012, the annual patent application volume had reached five times that of 2005. At the same time, the number of patent applicants has also increased significantly, indicating that more companies and research institutions have increased their R&D investment in the field of active materials, showing an overall growth trend.

2. Application status in China

The trend of applicants from various countries applying for patents in China is shown in Figure 2. In the figure, white represents Chinese patent applicants, and black represents foreign patent applicants. It can be seen from the figure that before 2005, the total number of patent applications in China was very small, and the number of patents applied by Chinese and foreign patent applicants was basically the same. After 2005, the number of patent applications has grown rapidly. The number of patents applied by Chinese applicants is obviously higher than that of foreign applicants, and the number of patents applied by Chinese applicants is also significantly more than that of foreign applicants.

3. Principal applicant

Among the main patent applicants in China, in addition to enterprises, domestic applicants also apply for a large number of patents from scientific research institutions such as universities, which shows that universities are the main body of innovation in the field of electrode active materials, and the innovation capabilities of enterprises need to be strengthened. In addition, applicants from other countries are all enterprises, indicating that in this technical field, enterprises from other countries are the main body of technology research and development, and the main body of enterprise innovation is obvious.

4. Patent applications and industrial layout in various provinces

From the rankings of patent applications in various provinces and major cities, it can be seen that Guangdong leads in the number of patent applications, followed by Zhejiang and Jiangsu. These provinces are the main sources of patents. The three cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin ranked in the top eight, ahead of most domestic provinces. These three cities have concentrated domestic superior higher education resources, which is consistent with the trend that applicants are dominated by research institutions such as universities. The number of applications in the central and western provinces is relatively small, with less than 20 applications.

Read more: Chinese patent analysis of power-type lithium-ion battery electrodes