A battery is any device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Batteries are either primary (single-use or "disposable") that are used once and discarded or secondary (rechargeable batteries) that are discharged and recharged multiple times. From the invention of voltaic cell in 1800 to the current race for innovation in Lithium Ion and Fuel Cells, Batteries have come a long way. They are becoming increasingly relevant as an energy storage medium as industries make a gradual transition from traditional fossil fuels to alternative and clean sources of energy. In this report we take a look at the landscape of innovation around Batteries for all records filed in US from 1976 till date. Some of the insights derived were: Japan has maximum number of unique applicants in the top 50 companies. The Automobile industry in Japan shows a surge in new filings on batteries right from 2001 while that in US shows a surge only from 2007. Asian countries JP, TW, KR have more number of records as compared to other countries. Approx. 47 % of the total records have been filed by Asian countries Korea has more records published in last 3 years than in the 10 year period before. Samsung and LG in the Electronics space and Hyundai and Kia Motors in the Automobiles space are responsible for maximum filings during this period. Published: Oct 17, 2013

1. BATTERIES
Analysis of US Patent Filings from 1976 to date
http://patseer.com
Imp. Note: All analysis and charts shown in this report have been prepared online using PatSeer. This report should
not be construed as business advice and the insights are not to be used as the basis for investment or business
decisions of any kind without your own research and validation. Gridlogics Technologies Pvt. Ltd disclaims all
warranties whether express, implied or statutory, of reliability, accuracy or completeness of results, with regards to
the information contained in this report.

2. Battery: Basics and History of Development
• An battery is any device consisting of one
or more electrochemical cells that convert
stored chemical energy into electrical
energy. Batteries are either primary (singleuse or "disposable") that are used once
and discarded or secondary (rechargeable
batteries) that are discharged and
recharged multiple times
1600 Gilbert (GB)
Establishment electrochemistry study
1791 Galvani (IT)
Discovery of ‘animal electricity’
1800 Volta (IT)
Invention of the voltaic cell
First electric battery capable of mass
production
1802 Cruickshank (GB)
• Batteries have recently received significant
research and development, because they
are hoped to provide a solution for energy
storage in a transition from fossil fuels to
alternative energy, both for transport and
electricity production and for powering
portable devices of all kinds
Electricity through magnetism
1833 Faraday (GB)
Announcement of Faraday’s Law
1836 Daniell (GB)
• Batteries are made from many materials
including various metals, carbon, polymers
and even air. The most common are leadacid batteries used in vehicles and lithium
ion batteries used for portable electronics.
Batteries come in many shapes and sizes,
from miniature cells used to power hearing
aids and wristwatches to battery banks the
size of rooms that provide standby power
for telephone exchanges and computer
data centers
1820 Ampère (FR)
Invention of the Daniell cell
1859 Planté (FR)
Invention of the lead acid battery
1868 Leclanché (FR)
Invention of the Leclanché cell
1888 Gassner (US)
Completion of the dry cell
1899 Jungner (SE)
Invention of the nickel-cadmium battery
1901 Edison (US)
Invention of the nickel-iron battery
1932 Shlecht & Ackermann
(DE)
1947 Neumann (FR)
Invention of the sintered pole plate
Successfully sealing the nickel-cadmium
battery
Mid 1960 Union Carbide (US) Development of primary alkaline battery
Development of valve regulated lead acid
Mid 1970
battery
Commercialization nickel-metal hydride
1990
battery
1992 Kordesch (CA)
Commercialization reusable alkaline battery
1999
Commercialization lithium-ion polymer
2001
Anticipated volume production of proton
exchange membrane fuel cell

3. Search Strategy and Sequence of steps
Using PatSeer as our database a sequence of steps was used to create our search query. Since, in PatSeer records are not grouped by
families by default we searched individual records and later collapsed them by one member per Family or collapsed results by Patents
and Applications.
The table below shows sequence of steps we followed. We started with a combination of relevant CPC & IPC Classes to restrict the
result set to relevant records. The publications included in the report are updated as of 9th October, 2013
Search
Search Queries
Results
Searched online sources to come up with related classes
CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or
"B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or
"F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or
1. "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or
"B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or
"H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73")
Including the main US classes for Batteries and its applications
CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or
"B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or
"F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or
"H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or
2.
"B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or
"H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR UCMN:(136 OR 320)
893142
918032
And restricting the set for US publications …
3.
(CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or
"B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or
"F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or
"H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or
"B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or
"H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR UCMN:(136 OR 320)) AND PBC:US
155327
Contd…

4. Search Strategy and Sequence of steps
The records were then restricted for records filed after 1976
4.
((CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033"
or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or
"H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04"
or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or
"B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or
"F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR
UCMN:(136 OR 320)) AND PBC:US AND APY:[1976 TO 2013])
134063
Collapsed the Query in Step 4 by Application Number to remove duplicates from result list and get count of Unique Records
5.
((CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033"
or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or
"H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04"
or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or
"B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or
"F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR
UCMN:(136 OR 320)) AND PBC:US AND APY:[1976 TO 2013])
106061
(Unique
Records)
Collapsed the Query in Step 4 by Extended Family to get count of INPADOC Families
6.
((CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033"
or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or
"H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04"
or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or
"B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or
"F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR
UCMN:(136 OR 320)) AND PBC:US AND APY:[1976 TO 2013])
89548 (No
Of
INPADOC
Families)
Contd…

5. Search Strategy and Sequence of steps
Collapsed the Query in Step 4 by Simple Family to get count of Simple Families
((CPC:("H02J7/00" or H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04" or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033"
or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or "B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or
"F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or "F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or
"H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR IC:( H01M* or "A01K31/17" or "A43B7/04" or "B22D25/04"
or "B60K1/04" or "B60K6/28" or "B60R16/033" or "B60R16/04" or "B60R25/40" or "B60S5/06" or "B60W10/26" or
"B62M6/90" or "B65D85/88" or "C10B5/18" or "F21L4/00" or "F21L4/08" or "F21S9/02" or "F23Q7/16" or "F41A25/00" or
"F41G3/04" or "G01R31/36" or G05F or "H01G9/00" or "H02H7/18" or "H02J7/00" or "H02M3/18" or "H04M1/73") OR
UCMN:(136 OR 320)) AND PBC:US AND APY:[1976 TO 2013])
7.
Basis for Analysis
•
Reference to number of records relates to Unique Records (collapsing patents and applications from
result set) or Unique Families (collapsing by Extended Families)
•
For this landscape report, companies were categorized into different industry types and different
battery types were also identified
•
It should be noted that since by convention patents are usually classified and published within
eighteen months after filing, the patent record set covering 1976- present may not be complete.
95042 (No
Of Simple
Families)

6. Publication Trend (By Individual Publications)
•
•
Chart shows the publication trend for batteries in the last 30 years.
Number of new records (both applications and grants) have been increasing steadily with maximum publications in 2012.
Note: US Application data is available from 2001 onwards only.

7. Top Companies
•
•
Chart shows top companies across different
publications
Companies from Asia account for largest
share of total records

8. Where is research being done ?
•
•
The pie represents Top 15 priority countries, counts shown represent unique number of records
Japan and Korea lead the foreign applications filing in US followed by Germany and Taiwan

9. 10 year Distribution of top 5 Researching Nations -1980-2013
•
•
•
Chart shows publications for top 5 priority countries sampled over last 30 years
Research in Taiwan emerged only after 2001
For Korea more records have been published in last 3 years than in the 10 year period
before

10. Trend in publications across key battery types
•
•
•
The stacked area chart shows publications for different batteries over the last 30 years
Fuel cells and Lithium Ion batteries have shown maximum growth after 2000
Nickel Cadmium and Lead Acid has shown promising growth since 2008

11. Trend in publications across prominent industrial verticals
•
•
•
The stacked area chart shows publications for different industries over the last 30 years
Electronics and Automobile industries have shown maximum volumes in recent years
Research in aviation has emerged after 2000 and has shown considerable rise in the number of
publications

12. Top Inventors and their companies
•
The table shows top 20 inventors with respective companies and their number of INPADOC Families
INVENTORS
COMPANIES
No of INPADOC
Families
TAKAMI NORIO
TOSHIBA CORP
148
TAKEUCHI ESTHER S
GREATBATCH LTD
132
KWEON HO-JIN
SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD
131
YANG TAI-HER
YANG TAI-HER
111
FUJITANI SHIN
SANYO ELECTRIC CO
109
EDLUND DAVID J
IDATECH LLC
108
INAGAKI HIROKI
TOSHIBA CORP
106
NOHMA TOSHIYUKI
SANYO ELECTRIC CO
106
YAMAZAKI SHUNPEI
SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LAB CO LTD
105
KUBOTA TADAHIKO
SONY CORP
104
OVSHINSKY STANFORD R
OVONIC BATTERY CO, ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES INC
97
KAWASE KENICHI
SONY CORP
93
KIM SUNG-SOO
SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD
93
VISCO STEVEN J
POLYPLUS BATTERY CO INC
93
GOEBEL STEVEN G
GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS INC
92
REISER CARL A
UTC POWER CORP
92
SCHAEFER TIM
LI TEC BATTERY GMBH
92
GAUTHIER MICHEL
HYDRO QUEBEC
91
HERMANN WESTON ARTHUR
TESLA MOTORS INC
91
NISHIO KOJI
SANYO ELECTRIC CO
90

13. Country - US
Top Companies
• The chart shows records across INPADOC Families for top 30 companies from US
• General Motors has the maximum number of records closely followed by General Electric
• Eveready Battery, Valence, Duracell, UTC Fuel Cells, Ballard Power Systems, key battery manufacturers and
suppliers also feature in this chart

14. Country - US
•
•
•
Publications across different industries
The chart shows publications for different industries over the last 30 years for US
There’s been a rapid increase in number of publications for the automobile industry since 2006
Renewable Energy, Aviation, Telecommunication Equipment industry has consistent publications after 2000

15. Country - US
Companies across different types of Batteries
• The heatmap shows records across INPADOC Families for top 15 companies from US across different battery types
• Eveready has maximum number of records for Dry Cell and Zinc Air batteries as compared to other companies
• In spite of the fact that commercial applicability of thin film batteries is on the increase, it can be seen top companies
are not focusing on same as DuPont, IBM are

16. Country - Japan
Top Companies
• The chart shows records across INPADOC Families for top 30 companies from Japan
• Toyota has the maximum number of records followed by Sanyo and Honda
• Panasonic having acquired Sanyo in 2009 for its portfolio would be the top company if combined with Matsushita

17. Country - Japan
•
•
•
Publications across different Industries
The chart shows publications for different industries over the last 30 years for Japan
There’s been consistent rise in publications for Electronics & Automobile after 2001 which is atleast 4-5
years before other countries
Renewable energy segment has grown in potential over the last 5 years

18. Country - Japan
Companies across different types of Batteries
• The heatmap shows records across INPADOC Families for top 15 companies from Japan across different battery
types
• Toyota lead with records across all the battery types
• Matsushita has the maximum number of records for Zinc Air batteries

19. Country - Korea
Top Companies
• The chart shows records across INPADOC Families for top 30 companies from Korea
• Samsung Group has the maximum number of records
• Despite recording a high growth rate among the top 4 companies, the number of records for the other companies is far
below than those of the leading four

20. Country - Korea
•
•
•
Publications across different Industries
The chart shows publications for different industries over the last 30 years for Korea
Electronics industry has shown tremendous increase in publications after 2005
Compared to other industry types, automobile industry is consistent from 2009 onwards

21. Country - Korea
Companies across different types of Batteries
• The heatmap shows records across INPADOC Families for top 15 companies from Korea across different battery
types
• Samsung Group has presence across all the battery types with maximum number of records for lithium ion batteries
• Hyundai shows a high concentration in fuel cell technology with around 3/4 th of its portfolio relating to this field

22. Country - Germany
Top Companies
• The chart shows records across INPADOC Families for top 30 companies from Germany
• Siemens has the maximum number of records followed by Robert Bosch and Varta
• Most of the companies are involved in automobile industry

23. Country - Germany
•
•
•
Publications across different Industries
The chart shows INPADOC Families for different industries from Germany over the last 30 years
There are consistent publications across automobile industry closely followed by electronics
Chemical industry has emerged after 2000 and is consisting in publications thereafter

24. Country - Germany
Companies across different types of Batteries
• The heatmap shows records across INPADOC Families for top 15 companies from Germany and various battery
types
• Varta which is only battery manufacturer has presence across all the battery types
• Siemens, Daimler show high concentration of records for Fuel Cell whereas Li Tec and VB Autobatterie focus only in
Lithium Ion and Lead Acid batteries respectively

25. Country - Taiwan
• The chart shows records
across INPADOC Families for
top 30 companies from Taiwan
• Ind Tech Research has the
maximum number of records
and is actively involved in
research across all the battery
types
Top Companies

26. Country - Taiwan
•
•
•
Publications across different Industries
The chart shows INPADOC Families for different industries over the last 30 years for Taiwan
There are consistent publications across electronics and semiconductor industry types
There were approximately 18 records for renewable energy published in 2010; however there has been a
decline in publications since then

27. Country - Taiwan
Companies across different types of Batteries
• The heatmap shows records across INPADOC Families for top 15 companies from Taiwan and various battery types
• Fuel Cell with 57 records represents approximately 25% of Ind Tech’s overall portfolio. There is considerable share of
Lithium batteries also.
• There is scope for research across lead acid, thin film lithium & zinc air batteries

28. Companies across upcoming battery types
• The chart shows research around some of the upcoming battery types
• Tesla Motors has the maximum inventions for Silver Zinc batteries
• Jang Borg & Zhamu Aruna lead the research for graphene based batteries

29. Fuel Cells
Top Companies
• The chart shows top companies across INPADOC Families for fuel cells
• Honda has the maximum number of records closely followed by Toyota
• Out of top companies, Ballard Power Systems is a company which is only into designing, developing and
manufacturing fuel cells

30. Fuel Cells
•
•
•
Top companies across key Fuel Cell Types
The chart shows the patenting activity of companies across some of the key fuel cells
Electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) and Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the widely used fuel cells
General Electric has presence across all the fuel cell types

31. PatSeer Overview
Coverage



35 million+ full text records of 15 countries and 83 million+ biblio records covering 95 + countries
PDFs, Front Page Images, Mosaics, Simple/Extended Families, Bwd/Fwd Citations and more
New publications updated the same week
Search



Search full-text in Original Language and English. (English title and abstract taken from equivalent family member
where not available)
Legal Status Search enhancements include date range, Event, Event Country (Incl. Designated Country Code
events for EP,WO)
No compromise on search techniques –Proximity, complex Boolean with proximity, command line searching,
wildcards, truncation
Search Aids





Normalized Assignee Names for Top 3000 companies
Looking up Matching Assignee /Inventor names
Semantic Search Suggester
Integrated Corporate Tree
Search History, Saved Searches and Alerts
Search Result Handling



Collapse results by family or de-duplicate Patent and Applications from results
Multiple Views (Tabular/Standard/Standard+Family), Custom View, Detailed Record View
Multiple Detailed view of a records can be opened in separate window tabs to allow for easy comparison
Analysis


Analyze search results via charts (column/line/pie/area/bubble/heatmap/geographical map)
Unique Chart Layering technology allows for Multi and Cross Dimensional charting
Exports


Export upto 20K records at a time in Word/Excel/CSV format
Charts can be also included in Word and Excel exports
Projects



Save and analyze upto 50K records in a project
Custom Fields, Hierarchical Categories, Comments, Flags, Scoring
Patent Dashlets™ - A different dashboard for each collaborating member

32. Thank you !
www.patseer.com