Clean Energy Patent Growth Index

Shine-On Solar Patents 2010 Results -CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX -

The Shine On Solar edition of the CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Solar energy sector. In 2010 Solar patents were second only to Fuel Cell patents in the Clean Energy area. Solar Photovoltaic patents spiked in 2010 to a record level of 339 (up 232 %) with third generation solar PV patents topping the other generations of PV technology. Applied Materials led the other Solar PV patent owners in 2010 over Sunpower and leaving behind overall PV leader Canon. Fu Zhun Precision Industry and Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. led solar thermal patent owners. Solar thermal patents were granted to 23 other separate entities with only inventor Pitaya Yangpichit even receiving two and Wal-mart Stores being one of the 22 with one patent.

 (Downloadable Copy of This Post)

The Shine On Solar edition analyzes the solar sector and illustrates where patents are being granted within the solar arena. This edition of our Shine On Solar edition analyzes solar energy trends in general with an emphasis on solar patenting trends in 2010.

As depicted below, solar technology patents in 2010 built on big gains of the previous year to reach levels over twice that of 2009 and vastly out performed the other non-fuel cell sectors after hitting a record low in the third quarter of 2008.

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Solar patents in 2010 reached a level second only to Fuel Cell patents which had led the other sectors since the beginning of 2002. Solar patents reached and exceeded the level of wind patents in 2009 which had been in second place to fuel cell patents in the CEPGI since 2006 as per the trends in the quarterly components of the CEPGI below:

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As presented in our previous article (located here ) we have subdivided the solar patents uncovered into Solar thermal and Solar PV categories, along with a hybrid designation. Solar thermal is further divided into technologies directly using collected thermal energy and those that do so indirectly (e.g., for the generation of electricity).

Solar PV includes the following subsectors:

1. first generation (e.g.,silicon based) PV
2. second generation (e.g., thin film) PV
3. third generation (dye-sensitized, quantum dots, nano-modified, organic) PV
4. PV enhancement (e.g., multi-junction, CPV, anti-reflective coatings)
5. Enabling technologies (e.g., racking systems, power conversion, heat sinks, bypass diodes, sun tracking)
6. PV applications (e.g., use of PV technology in a product)

Solar hybrid systems may use both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies, or one of these solar technologies combined with another type of generation process (wind, hydro, etc.).

Thermal vs. Photovoltaic

As depicted below on an annual basis, granted patents in photovoltaic technology increased dramatically to 339 from 146 in 2009 over the prior year after an increase of 90 in 2009 over 2008. Solar thermal patents were also up 14 patents after only a five patent increase the year before.

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According to the quarterly graph below, Solar PV patents jumped to 60 in the first quarter of 2010 and each quarter after that posted an even larger increase. The fourth quarter of 2010 at 10 patents was the biggest result for solar thermal since 11 in the first quarter of 2004. Comparing the solar energy patent graph (far above) as a whole to the quarterly solar thermal vs. solar PV graph (immediately below), the entire solar technology field closely follows the photovoltaic trends without much pull from the thermal technology trends.

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The Thermal Technologies

As depicted below, 2010 brought a record year for solar thermal direct technology patents with 14 patents, up 10 over 2009. In fact, the direct patents tied indirect patents in the fourth quarter and approached the number of indirect patents for the year which were at 16. Generally speaking, indirect solar technology (e.g., the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy) has consistently seen more patents and thus innovation than its direct counterpart.

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The solar thermal race in 2010 was won by Fu Zhun Precision Industry and Foxconn Technology of China with five solar thermal direct patents in solar air conditioning, vaulting to fourth place overall. Each of the remaining nine solar thermal direct patent grantees in 2010 had one patent each. Foreign entities outnumbered US entities 6 to 4. United Technologies and Walmart (for an air heating system) were the only household names. Other solar thermal patent owners (not mentioned above) for 2010 included:

• Diehl AKO Stiftung & Co. KG - Wangen, DE
• European Organization for Nuclear Research-CERN - Geneva, CH
• Polk, Steven - West Bloomfield, MI, US
• Queen's University at Kingston - Kingston, ON, CA
• SolFocus, Inc. -; Mountain View, CA, US
• Staschik, Udo - Winnipeg, MB, CA
• Christensen, Hans Jurgen - Hadsten, DK

The solar thermal indirect patent grantees were predominantly American with a ratio of 4 to 1. Pitaya Yangpichit of Bangkok was the leader with two solar thermal indirect patents while the remaining 14 patent grantees had one patent each in the solar thermal indirect area. United Techologies had one as did its corporate cousin, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and Livermore National Lab. California was the big U.S. winner with 5 patents. The remaining unmentioned patent holders in this area for 2010 are listed below:

• Fujisato, Tetsuhiko; Miyao, Shunsuke - Yamaguchi, JP
• Tsao, Jason - Torrance, CA, US
• Primlani, Indru J. - Renton, WA, US
• Marshall, Robert A. - Georgetown, TX, US
• Markon Technologies, LLC - Los Alamitos, CA, US
• Lin, Wen Chang - Taipei, TW
• Le, John O.; Le, Christopher M.; Le, Thomas T. - Anaheim, CA, US
• Johnson, Robert Paul - Glendale, AZ, US
• Hansen Jr., Howard Otto - Orlando, FL, US
• Green, Timmy - Smyrna, TN, US
• Solar and Environmental Technologies Corporation - Staten Island, NY, US

If we look at totals since 2002, as depicted in the chart below, the top 10 patent owners in the Solar Thermal area is dominated by Boeing (14), which has patents directed to indirect solar thermal technologies including aspects of generating electricity via the heating of fluids and solar molten salt technologies. In second place Mario Rabinowitz holds 7 patents with 6 directed to indirect technologies. United Technologies tied for second with 7 patents in the indirect area relating to the heating of fluids via solar thermal to create electricity. Schott’s patents are divided two to one in favor of indirect technology. (The addition of one patent to Shott’s portfolio in 2010 put it in the top four, tied with The Sun Trust LLC.) Fu Zhun Precision Industry and Foxconn’s patent in 2010 moved it to a fourth place finish since 2002 as described above. In contrast to Solar PV, and many other clean energy technologies, the absolute number of solar thermal patents is low and the concentration in the top 10 patent holders is not very high relative to the total number (185) of patents in this area. Of the patents granted since 2002 in the solar thermal area, it is interesting that the top four solar thermal patent owners account for only 31 (or less than 17 percent) of the patents with the rest of solar thermal patent owners owning only 3 or fewer patents each.

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As will also be evident, the top holders of U.S. solar thermal patents are U.S. entities except for Fu Zhun Precision Industries, Norio Akamatsu, the holder of 2 patents, and Schott AG of Germany.

The Three Generations of Photovoltaic

 

As depicted in the graphs below, second generation technologies led the first and third in 2010 with 52 granted patents (up 34 over 2009) beating out third generation technologies which was the winner in 2009 with 25 patents. Third generation solar followed with 38 patents (up 13) with first generation technologies trailing behind at 26 patents (up 14) . All three generations of technology jumped significantly over 2009 and the first and second generations had particularly strong fourth quarters foretelling potential future gains.

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Additional PV Technology

As depicted below, granted patents for PV Enhancement technologies jumped 430 % to 69 up 53 patents in 2010 easily setting an annual record. Enabling PV technology topped all the other sectors at 119 granted patents in 2010, up 62 over 2009, also at a record high. Meanwhile the use of PV in applications jumped 17 patents in 2010 to 35 with 18 of those in the last quarter alone which was the highest quarter on record for PV applications by 11.

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As depicted below, Canon continues to lead the other solar PV patent owners since 2002 with over twice the number of patents held by Sharp, its closest competitor ,but was an also ran in 2010.

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Applied Materials as depicted below was first in PV in 2010 over Sunpower by three patents. Du Pont edged out Emcore by one for third place with eleven patents. Konarka and Sharp tied with nine for fifth place. Samsung had six solar PV patents and another tie existed in eighth place with Boeing, Sanyo and Solopower at six patents. Twin Creeks was in eleventh place at five PV patents. Forty five other entities had at least two solar PV patents in 2010 including Honda, Canon, Miasole, Mario Rabinowitz, GM, and GE.

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Relative to total granted solar PV patents since 2002, Canon has patents in almost all PV categories, led by enabling (61), second generation (19), and first generation (9) technology patents. Sharp spreads its patents out among various subcategories including enabling (16), first (6), second (8), third (7) and enhancement (5). Kanegafuchi (13), Boeing (9), and Sanyo (10) also include large numbers of patents in enabling technologies. Mario Rabinowitz has concentrated his efforts in solar enhancement technologies with 14 of such patents. Sunpower has concentrated on first generation PV technologies with 11 patents in this area. Emcore has 5 patents in PV enhancement and 6 in enabling technologies. Konarka has all its patents in third generation technologies. Samsung has 8 of its 10 patents in 1st and 3rd generation technologies. Nanosolar has 7 of 9 patents in third generation technologies. Outside the top 11 patent owners depicted above, BP has half its 8 patents in second generation technologies while GE has 5 of its 8 in third generation PV patents. Honda has its patents spread through the solar technologies with the most (3 of 10) in first generation technology. TDK has most of its 8 patents in second generation and enabling technologies.

Among the leaders in 2010, Applied materials’ patents last year ran the gamut of the different PV generations with 4, 5 and 1 patents in the first, second and third generations, respectively, along with five patents in PV enhancement and one in PV applications. Ironically, Applied materials didn’t have a granted patent in the largest PV subsector in 2010, i.e., enabling technologies. Sun Power’s patents also were spread among the subsectors excluding PV applications with three each in first generation, enhancement and enabling and two or less in the remaining subsectors. Dupont and Emcore had the largest individual total with seven patents each in PV enhancement. Dupont’s other patents were in spread among second generation, third generation (2), enabling and PV applications with all but third generation at one patent each. Emcore also had one patent in first generation technologies and two in enabling technologies. Sharp and Konarka tied at nine patents but got to that level in very different ways. Sharp was spread out among all the subsectors except PV applications with all but the second generation (at one) being at two patents. In contrast, Konarka had patents only in third generation (5), PV enhancement (2) and enabling (3) technologies. Samsung edged the remaining solar PV patent grantees in 2010 by one patent and was granted 3 patents in third generation and PV enhancement technologies, along with one patent in second generation, enabling and application technologies. Boeing, the overall solar thermal patent leader, tied Sanyo and Solopower at six PV patents. Solopower’s patents were all in second generation technologies while Boeing’s were mostly in PV enhancement (4) followed one patent each in first generation, enabling and application technologies. Sanyo had three in enhancement followed by two in second generation and a sole patent in application technologies.

Of the top 11 PV patent grantees for 2010, two are based in Japan and one in Korea while the rest are based in the U.S. However, as is evident from the totals chart, especially the showing by Canon and Sharp, Japanese patent holders dominate the top 11 in absolute numbers of patents since 2002.

 

Hybrid Systems

As depicted below, patents in hybrid technologies have hovered in very low numbers during the tracking period.

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The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/ 

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this the Shine On Solar Edition or the CEPGI.

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM 

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2011 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 2010 Year in Review

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector from 2002 to the present. The CEPGI also ranks the leaders among Clean Energy Patent Owners, along with the Countries and the U.S. States which receive the most clean energy patents.

 ( Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below annually) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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U.S. patents for clean-energy technologies in 2010 were at an all time high, up a remarkable 756 patents (almost 170 percent) over 2009 with a value of 1881. This is the largest year to year jump since we began tracking clean energy patents by over three times the previous year to year difference. This compares to a 31 percent increase generally for all patents from 2009 to 2010 - which was the best showing ever for patents generally. Clean energy innovation is clearly far outpacing technology in general.

As depicted in the below breakdown of the CEPGI by its sub- components, patents in fuel cells and wind were each up over fifty seven percent over 2009. Solar patents were up an astounding 134 percent while hybrid/electric vehicles were up sixty percent. Tidal energy and biomass/biofuel energy patents were up twenty eight and forty one percent, respectively, at fourteen patents each. Hydroelectric patents were up sixteen patents, an over five hundred percent increase. Geothermal patents was the only sector that decreased at five less patents than 2009, a fifty percent decrease. All of the technology sectors, except geothermal, were at all time highs in 2010, surpassing all previous records.

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Fuel cell patents continued to dwarf the other components of the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index in 2010 with 996 patents, almost three times the number of patents of nearest competitor solar (363). After being one patent apart in a virtual tie in 2009, solar soared ahead of wind patents in 2010 by almost 120 patents despite wind itself being up 89 patents over the prior year. Patents in hybrid/electric vehicles were at their highest level ever (at 168), up over 20 patents as compared to the next highest total reached in 2002. Biomass/biofuel and hydroelectric patents were also both at record levels (63, 19) in 2010. Tidal patents almost doubled from 26 to 40.

The top patent owners since 2002 are shown below, ranked relative to total number of patents, and also annotated to show the particular totals for the last three years:

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Over seven hundred entities contributed to the record total of clean energy patents in 2010. The top clean energy patent holders in 2010 were dominated by automobile companies which occupied six of the top ten spots. GM took the annual clean energy patent crown from last year's winner Honda. Samsung jumped to second place, largely on the strength of its fuel cell patents, overtaking Honda and Toyota relative to 2009. Toyota increased its annual total by 20 patents to get fourth place while GE increased by thirty to place in fifth. Nissan (6th), Ford (8th) and Hyundai (9th) rounded out the automobile competitors for 2010. GE placed fifth predominantly on the strength of its wind patents which was over twice the number of patents of its nearest wind patent competitor in 2010, Vestas Wind Systems. Panasonic came in 7th in 2010 to tie its 2009 showing on the strength of its fuel cell patents and exceeded the 29 patents from 2009 by five patents, after having had only 6 in all the prior years. Hitachi rounded out the top 10 with 23 patents which were predominantly in the fuel cell and wind areas. Canon, far and away the solar photovoltaic patent leader since 2002, missed the top ten with a 12th place showing in 2010 at 15 patents.

As depicted below in the Fuel Cell patent owner breakdown, Honda stayed at the top as all time leader but fell to third place in 2010 (2010 totals indicated in orange). GM took top honors in fuel cells beating out Samsung by 10 patents and Honda in 2010 by 18 patents. Toyota followed with almost half the number of patents in 2010 as GM. Panasonic had 34 patents and was in fifth place in 2010. Car companies, Nissan and Hyundai, came next. Idatech, maker of backup power fuel cell systems, had 14 patents in 2010 finishing eighth. United Technologies added 13 patents in 2010 to an overall fourth place finish edging out Samsung overall by about that amount. Delphi was tenth rounding out the automobile contribution in 2010. Six of the top ten fuel cell patent grantees were automobile entities. The other fuel cell grantees in 2010 were Plug Power and Matsushita. Plug power maintained its eighth place spot overall despite its slower patent accrual rate in the last few years. Tying for 11th place in 2010 were Canon, Toshiba and Bloom Energy with 12 patents. There were also 18 other entities with at least 5 fuel cell patents in 2010 including heavyweights Sanyo, Delphi, GE, Honeywell, Daimler, 3M and Samsung.

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As indicated above, GE is the all time wind patent leader and again dominated the wind field in 2010 doubling the number of wind patents by second place winner Vestas which had 19 more patents than the previous year and vaulted over longtime second place holder Aloys Wobben, the owner of Enercon GmbH of Germany. The other grantees of wind patents in 2010 were led by Nordex Energy (16), which came in fourth in 2010 and overall. Mitsubishi was fifth separated by one patent from the holders of a tie for sixth, wind component maker, LM Glasfiber, and Hitachi. Moshe Meller and Robert Vanderhye were next with a tie for 8th place while Repower again placed in the top ten in 2010 tying with Gamesa and Envision at 3 patents. A tie for two patents included Clipper Windpower, Genedics, and five others.

As depicted below, Canon continues to lead the other solar patent owners since 2002 but was an also ran in 2010. Applied Materials in eighth place overall as depicted took the 2010 solar crown over Sunpower by three patents. Du Pont and Emcore tied for third with ten patents while Konarka and Sharp tied with nine. Another tie existed in seventh place with Boeing, Sanyo and Solopower at six patents. Twin Creeks tied with Fu Zhun Precision Industry and Foxconn to round out the top ten in solar energy patents in 2010. Forty five other entities had at least two solar patents in 2010 including Honda, Canon, Miasole, Mario Rabinowitz, GM, and GE.

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Honda continues to lead hybrid/electric vehicle patents overall since 2002 as depicted below, but GM led in 2010 at 22 topping Toyota by one patent and Ford by two. Nissan, Tesla and Hyundai followed with 15, 12 and 9 patents respectively. Tesla’s showing added to its debut of four patents in 2009. Honda and ISE tied for seventh place at six patents while Mitsubishi had five patents in ninth place and Chrysler had three Hybrid/electric vehicle patents in tenth place. Eight other entities had two patents in 2010 in this sector including Kia Motors, Denso and Consolidated Edison as shown in the below figure.

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Also, although not depicted above, Ocean Power Technologies continues to lead in the Tidal sector since 2002 picking up 2 patents in 2010 and has a total of 14 since 2002. Independent Natural Resources and Leonardo Gasendo also each picked up 2 patents while 33 other entities had patents in this area last year. In hydroelectric patents, Steven Deangeles had two patents in 2010 while Verdant Power and 15 other entities had one each.

Three geothermal patents were granted in 2010 to individual inventors. Kalex, LLC continues to lead in geothermal patents (8) overall since 2002 despite not having any patents in 2008-2010. GE and Nuovo Pignone S.p.A. are the next closest at 3 total geothermal patents.

In the biofuel/biomass area, the Research Foundation of State University of New York continues to lead overall while accruing no patents in 2010, followed by Dephi. Fifty nine different entities had patents in this area in 2010. Rockwell Automation, Recarbon, Chevron, and Atomic Energy Council-Institute of Nuclear Energy each had two patents while the rest had one.

As depicted below relative to the top university patent owners, we have found that Stanford University (with Honda) topped all others in 2010 with 7 patents while the University of California continues to outpace second place California Institute of Technology dating to 2002. In 2010, Penn State Research (5) followed Stanford and the University of California came in third with four clean energy patents. The University of Illinois had three while the University of Central Florida and Bowling Green had two. The rest of the almost 50 institutions had one patent each.

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Geographically, U.S. patent owners and inventors had slightly less than the rest of the world in the number of U.S. patents granted in the Clean Energy field over the period 2002-2010 with 49 percent of the granted U.S. patents as depicted below.

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Patent applicants from Japan (27 percent) and Germany (8 percent) were issued the second and third largest number of U.S. patents since 2002. Canada and South Korea followed as depicted above. As depicted below in the line chart, Japan, Korea and the US appear to be on an upward trajectory with the US taking a huge leap in 2010 after being on a slight uptrend from the time tracking began until 2009. South Korea surpassed Canada in 2008 and Germany in 2010. Germany trends slightly upwardly while the others are holding steady and the number of Canadian clean energy patents slightly decreasing. Looking at 2010 in more detail, Denmark (33) and France (29) fall between Canada (24) and Taiwan (40) as depicted in the chart. China made a showing at 15 clean energy patents which far surpassed its previous high of 6 in 2009. Great Britain followed with 13 patents while Israel and Switzerland had nine clean energy patents in 2010.

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Michigan leads the other U.S. states in the Clean Energy area since 2002 at 23 percent of the US clean energy patents largely based on the fuel cell and hybrid electric vehicle activities of the car manufacturers. California is next at 17 percent while New York is at 12 percent based largely on GE’s wind patents and several fuel cell manufacturers. Connecticut has 6 percent with most being fuel cell patents to UTC. Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida and New Jersey follow.

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As depicted in the line chart, California overtook Michigan as the leading US state for clean energy patents in 2010 despite huge increases from both states of over 90 patents each. New York also had a big jump of 40 patents over the prior year. Smaller increases were found for Illinois, Connecticut and Texas while Massachussets declined by two patents. Connecticut and Massachussets tied at 30 in 2010 while Ohio (25) and Penn-sylvania (tying Texas at 24) weren’t far behind. Florida at 23 rounded out the states having over 20 clean energy patents in 2010. Others had big increases including Oregon up 10, Virginia up 13, Delaware up 12, and New Mexico up 14.

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If instead of looking at individual countries versus the U.S. as a whole, we look at the top US states individually (i.e., separately from the US as a whole) and foreign countries in 2010, Japan led the field with 459 patents followed by California at 207, less than half of the Japanese total. Michigan was in third (192) followed by Korea at 162 clean energy patents. Germany was next with 133 in fifth place and New York was in sixth at 100. Denmark had less than half of New York’s total at 40 while Illinois had 37 patents. France came in ninth at 33 while Connecticut and Massachusetts tied for tenth place among clean energy geographic areas at 30 clean energy patents.

As depicted below, Fuel Cell patents since 2002 are dominated by the U.S. and Japan, followed by Germany and Korea. The U.S. leads the world with 47 percent of U.S. patents in fuel cells followed by Japan with 31 percent, Germany with 7 percent and Korea with five percent. Within the U.S., Michigan (30 %), California (12%), New York (11%), and Connecticut (11%) lead.

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In 2010 the U.S. (379) led Japan (341) in US fuel cell patents while Korea followed with less than half of Japan's total at 132 and Germany was further back at 48. Taiwan (20) and France (19) were in fourth and fifth respectively in 2010. Canada had 15 fuel cell patents and Great Britain had 10. In single digits bringing up the rear with a tie for ninth place were Italy and Switzerland at 6. Nine other countries had at least one U.S. Fuel cell patent.

Looking at US states in 2010, Michigan (136) lead with over twice the number of patents as second place California having 59. Connecticut and New York were in the next tier with 22 and 24, respectively. Oregon, (16) and Ohio (12) came in the fifth and sixth spots. Florida, Massachusetts and Illinois tied at 11 U.S. Fuel cell patents in 2010. Penn-sylvania rounded out the top ten with nine fuel cell patents. Twenty other states had at least one fuel cell patent last year.

In wind energy the U.S. is slightly behind the rest of the world in the number of U.S. patents granted since 2002 with 48 percent as depicted above largely on the strength of GE. Germany follows with 20 percent due to Aloys Wobben. Denmark had 8 percent due to Vestas while Japan had six percent. New York leads US states with 38 percent of the US wind patents up four percent since last year thanks to GE. California follows with 14 percent while Texas and Illinois lag at 5 percent.

Looking at foreign grantees of U.S. Wind patents in 2010, Germany with 47 wind patents led Denmark's 28. Japan at 12 had less than half of second place Denmark's total. Spain was in fourth with 7 patents while Israel had four in fifth place. Belize and China tied with three wind patents while two patents were had by Belgium, Canada and Korea. Nine other countries each had one U.S. wind patent in 2010.

In the U.S. New York led cross country rival and runner up California by a factor of four with 61 wind patents versus 15. Illinois and Virginia each had 6 wind patents in 2010 while Pennsylvania and Texas both had five. Florida and Massachusetts were in 7th and 8th place with 4 and 3 wind patents, respectively. At two patents were Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Washington and Arizona. Thirteen other states had one patent each.

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The U.S. percentage of solar patents since 2002 rose to cross fifty percent, rising three percentage points to 52 after its 2010 showing. Japan's share dropped four points to 26 percent while Germany held steady at 6 percent. California's share of the US total since 2002 jumped seven points to 41 while Massachusetts at 8 percent topped Illinois at seven percent and New York at five.

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Looking at the 2010 totals for non-U.S. Holders of U.S. Solar patents, Japan had 50 and Korea 30. Korea and Taiwan were one apart at 17 and 16, respectively. France and China were also one apart at 7 and 6, respectively. Thailand had four U.S. Solar patents while Canada and Switzerland tied at three. Four countries had two U.S. Solar patents while seven other nations had one.

Relative to the U.S. States' showing in 2010, California far outclassed the other states with 99 solar patents to second place Massachusetts' 15. New Mexico, Illinois and Delaware were one apart relative to each other, at 13, 12, and 11 patents, respectively. Colorado (9) and Michigan (7) were in sixth and seventh places. New York and Texas tied with 6 patents in eighth place. Georgia and Pennsylvania tied for tenth with 4 U.S. Solar patents. Seventeen other states had at least one solar patent.

Japan led the other US Hybrid/Electric vehicle patent holders since 2002 with 49 percent of the granted U.S. patents as depicted below. The U.S. follows with 39 percent of the granted U.S. Patents and Korea has 5 percent while Germany has 3 percent. Michigan leads U.S. states since 2002 with an overwhelming 67 percent of the U.S. share of the granted U.S. patents in this area. California and Ohio have 7 and 5 percent, respectively, while Colorado, New York, Illinois and Florida each have three percent or less. The per-centage totals since 2002 changed little if at all since last year as depicted.

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Looking at granted US Hybrid/Electric vehicle patent in 2010 only, Japan led the non-U.S. Patents holders by a wide margin with 56 patents to 13 for Korea. China and France each had two patents while German and Australia had only one. Thus, in 2010 there were only 7 countries, including the U.S. which were granted U.S. Patents in the Hybrid/ Electric vehicle sector.

Relative to the U.S. States, Michigan not surprisingly given its status as the home state of the American automobile industry led all others in Hybrid/Electric vehicle patents almost doubling that of California its nearest competitor with a 45 to 24 spread. Illinois, New York and Ohio all had four patents while Virginia and Wisconsin had two patents in this sector. Seven other states had one patent in the Hybrid/Electric vehicle space.

The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypa tentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/  

Please contact us at info@cleanenergy patentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM 

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2011 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 3rd Quarter 2010

 The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector from 2002 to the present. Results from the third quarter of 2010 reveal the CEPGI to have a value of 490 granted U.S. patents which breaks the record set last quarter as being the highest quarterly value since the tracking of the CEPGI began, along with being up 53 (over 12 percent) from the second quarter and up 45 percent from a value of 337 in the second quarter of 2009.

 ( Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below quarterly) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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The components breakdown of the CEPGI shows all sectors rose over the second quarter except for tidal which was identical to the total of the previous quarter. Fuel cells were up 5 granted patents relative to the second quarter at 253 and up 96 relative to a year before while continuing to dominate the other components of the CEPGI in absolute numbers. Granted solar patents (88) continued to top the other components, and its closest competitor, wind (71) by 17. Solar patents were up 12 compared to the second quarter of 2010 and up 55 relative the third quarter of 2009. Wind patents were up 16 relative to the second quarter and up 36 compared to a year prior. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents (46) were up 13 relative to the second quarter and up 24 relative to the third quarter of 2009. Biofuel patents (16) were up 4 from the second quarter and up 5 over a year prior. Hydroelectric patents had the highest total quarterly total ever at 12 far exceeding any previous quarter or year, and with 12 different entities receiving these patents.

General Motors took the quarterly Clean Energy Patent crown from perennial holder Honda which fell to an uncharacteristic 5th place this quarter. GM’s patents were primarily in Fuel Cells at 30 with an assist from Hybrid/Electric vehicle patents at 9. Samsung followed with Fuel Cell (21), hybrid/electric vehicle (1) and solar (3) patents. GE had a strong showing in third place primarily buoyed by its wind patents (19) assisted by its fuel cell (3) patents and one hybrid/electric vehicle patent. Auto companies followed and took fourth to sixth place. Toyota had 14 fuel cell and 6 hybrid/electric vehicle patents and Honda had slightly more fuel cell (17) and less hybrid/electric vehicle patents (2). Nissan had 12 patents in hybrid/electric vehicles (9) and fuel cells (3). Panasonic was next with 10 fuel cell patents. Third generation solar manufacturer, Konarka, and Aloys Wobben, owner of wind company, Enercon GmbH, tied for 8th place and each had 7 patents in its area of expertise. Canon (4 fuel cell, 2 solar), and Sanyo (2 fuel cell, 4 solar) tied for 9th place. Ford rounded out the field of leaders with 6 hybrid/electric vehicle patents.

As depicted below in the geographic charts, Japan again led the non-U.S. holders of U.S. clean energy patents and the individual U.S. states with 124, up 3 over the second quarter, and up 48 over the same period in 2009, to again claim the geographical clean energy patent crown. Michigan took second place from last quarter’s holder, California, at 54 clean energy patents, up 19 over the second quarter and up 31 relative to a year prior. California had 46 patents, down four from the second quarter and up 21 over 2009. Korea topped New York and Germany to take third place in the third quarter with 35 patents, down 2 from the second quarter and up 14 from a year ago. New York had 31 patents, up 9 over the previous quarter and up 18 over the third quarter of 2009. Germany was down 1 from the second quarter, and up 6 from 2009, at 28. Illinois, Pennsylvania, France, and Taiwan had 9 clean energy patents while Virginia had 8. Canada, Texas, Connecticut, Florida, and Ohio tied at 7. China had 6 and Denmark 5.

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Trend lines by quarter through the third quarter of 2010 for the CEPGI and for each of the CEPGI components are depicted below:

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CEPGI yearly totals through 2009 are depicted below:

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The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM 

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 2nd Quarter 2010

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector from 2002 to the present. Results from the second quarter of 2010 reveal the CEPGI to have a value of 437 granted U.S. patents which is the highest quarterly value since the tracking of the CEPGI began, along with being up 58 (over 15 percent) from the first quarter and up almost 60 percent from a value of 274 in the second quarter of 2009.

( Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below quarterly) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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The components breakdown of the CEPGI shows fuel cells, solar and wind at record levels while hybrid/electric vehicle patents fell. Fuel cells were up 40 granted patents relative to the fourth quarter at 248 and continue to dominate the other components of the CEPGI in absolute numbers. Granted solar patents (76) continued to climb topping wind (33) for the third straight quarter defying a long history of losses to wind prior. Solar patents were up 9 compared to the first quarter of 2010 and up 40 relative the second quarter of 2009. Wind patents were up 20 relative to the first quarter and up 12 compared to a year prior. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents (33) were down 17 from the first quarter to return to fourth quarter 2009 levels and were up 13 over the second quarter of 2009. Biofuel patents (12) were down 1 from the first quarter and down 1 over a year prior.

Honda took the quarterly Clean Energy Patent crown and was pursued by the same three contenders from the first quarter. Honda led the others for the second consecutive quarter primarily based on its fuel cell (28) patents along with three solar and two hybrid/electric vehicle patents. GM fell further behind Honda this quarter at 24 granted clean energy patents dominated by fuel cells at 22, supplemented by two hybrid/electric vehicle patents. Samsung came in third for the second straight time based on fuel cell patents (22) and one solar energy patent. Toyota followed at 17 patents (12 fuel cell, 5 hybrid/electric vehicle) while Ford fell from fifth in the last quarter to a tie for 11th place. GE replaced Ford in the 5th spot based on its strength in wind patents (10) along with 2 fuel cell and 1 solar patent. Panasonic was next with twelve fuel cell patents while Nissan and Hitachi tied for seventh place with 8 clean energy patents, both having fuel cell patents (Nissan 5, Hitachi 6), Nissan with three hybrid/electric vehicle patents and Hitachi two wind patents. Dupont joined the top ten for the first time with two fuel cell patents and four solar patents. Bloom Energy joined the leaders in 11th place with 5 fuel cell patents which added to a big 2009 in which 8 such patents accrued to this high fuel cell company which seemed to appear out of nowhere last year. Electric automaker Telsa, another Cleantech pioneer, tied Bloom with 5 hybrid/electric vehicle patents, adding to its 4 patents of this type in 2009, while Mitsubishi had 5 wind and Ford had 1 fuel cell and 4 hybrid/electric vehicle patents.

As depicted below in the geographic charts, Japan again led the non-U.S. holders of U.S. clean energy patents and the individual U.S. states with 121, up 25 over the first quarter, and up 46 over the same period in 2009, to again claim the geographical clean energy patent crown. California was second with 50 granted Clean Energy patents, up 12 over the first quarter and up 11 over the second quarter of 2009. Korea jumped to third place with 37 granted clean energy patents, up 6 over the first quarter and up 22 over a year prior. Michigan had 35 granted patents, down 12 over the first quarter, and up 12 over the same period a year ago. Germany was again in fifth place and again had 29 patents as in the first quarter, and was up 6 patents over a year ago. New York had 22 patents, which is up 11 over the first quarter and up 7 over the same period of 2009. Connecticut had 6 granted clean energy patents, up 1 from the first quarter, and even with the second quarter of 2009. Canada also had 6 patents, up 1 from the first quarter results, and down 1 over the second quarter of last year. Other notables for the second quarter include Massachusetts with 8 patents and Illinois and Delaware with 7. The United States as a whole had 188 granted clean energy patents in the second quarter, up 8 from last quarter and up 70 from the second quarter of last year.

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Trend lines by quarter through the second quarter of 2010 for the CEPGI and for each of the CEPGI components are depicted below:

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CEPGI yearly totals through 2009 are depicted below:

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The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX - Shine-On Solar Edition Fall 2010

The Shine On Solar edition of the CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Solar energy sector. Results from 2009 and early 2010 reveal Solar patents to be second only to Fuel Cell patents in the Clean Energy area. Solar Photovoltaic patents spiked in 2009 to a best showing since 2003 with third generation solar PV patents topping the other technologies. Samsung led the other Solar PV contenders during this period pushing aside overall PV leader Canon. Solar thermal patents were granted to 22 separate entities with none even receiving two and Wal-mart Stores being one of the 22.

( Downloadable copy of this post)

The Shine On Solar edition analyzes the solar sector and illustrates where patents are being granted within the solar arena. This edition of our Shine On Solar edition analyzes solar energy trends in general with an emphasis on solar patenting trends during 2009 and early 2010.

As depicted below, solar technology patents continued a dramatic rise in fits and starts through 2009 to reach a record high in the first quarter of 2010 after hitting a record low in the third quarter of 2008.

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Solar patents in the first quarter of 2010 reached a level second only to Fuel Cell patents which had led the other sectors since the beginning of 2002. Solar patents reached and exceeded the level of wind patents in 2009 which had been in second place to fuel cell patents in the CEPGI since 2006 as per the trends in the quarterly components of the CEPGI below:

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As presented in our previous article (located here) we have subdivided the solar patents uncovered into Solar thermal and Solar PV categories, along with a hybrid designation. Solar thermal is further divided into technologies directly using collected thermal energy and those that do so indirectly (e.g., for the generation of electricity).

Solar PV includes the following subsectors:
1 first generation (e.g.,silicon based) PV
2. second generation (e.g., thin film) PV
3. third generation (dye-sensitized, quantum dots, nano-modified, organic) PV
4. PV enhancement (e.g., multi-junction, CPV, anti-reflective coatings)
5. Enabling technologies (e.g., racking systems, power conversion, heat sinks, bypass diodes, sun tracking)
6. PV applications (e.g., use of PV technology in a product)

Solar hybrid systems may use both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies, or one of these solar technologies combined with another type of generation process (wind, hydro, etc.)

Thermal vs. Photovoltaic

As depicted below on an annual basis, granted patents in photovoltaic technology increased dramatically to 146 up 60 in 2009 over the prior year after being relative flat for the previous four years. In contrast solar thermal patents stayed relatively constant up five relative to 2008.

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According to the quarterly graph below, Solar PV jumped 60 in the first quarter of 2010 alone while solar thermal reached almost half its total for the entire prior year reaching 7 solar thermal patents in the first quarter. Comparing the solar energy patent graph (far above) as a whole to the solar thermal vs. solar PV graph, the entire solar technology field closely follows the photovoltaic trends without much pull from the thermal technology trends.

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The Thermal Technologies

As depicted below, 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 brought a marked increase in solar thermal direct technology patents. In fact the direct patents even exceeded those of the indirect patents in the fourth quarter of last year for the first time since the second quarter of 2007. Generally speaking, indirect solar technology (e.g., the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy) has consistently seen more patents and thus innovation than its direct counterpart.

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In 2009 and early 2010 United Technologies and Mario Rabinowitz (scientist and CEO of Armor Research) each received a solar thermal indirect patent while Schott AG was granted a direct solar thermal patent. The rest of the granted solar thermal patents during this period were granted to 19 separate entities with each receiving one patent. None are household names with the notable exception of Wal-mart Stores (for a air heating system). Five of the 22 grantees during this period are non-U.S. based with the rest being located in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, and Washington.

Since 2002, as depicted in the chart below, the top 10 patent owners in the Solar Thermal area is dominated by Boeing (14), which has patents directed to indirect solar thermal technologies including aspects of generating electricity via the heating of fluids and solar molten salt technologies. In second place Mario Rabinowitz holds 7 patents with 6 directed to indirect technologies. United Technologies tied for second with 7 patents in the indirect area relating to the heating of fluids via solar thermal to create electricity. Schott’s patents are divided two to one in favor of indirect technology. The addition of one patent to Shott’s portfolio put it in the top four, tied with The Sun Trust LLC. In contrast to Solar PV, and many other clean energy technologies, the absolute number of solar thermal patents is low and the concentration in the top 10 patent holders is not very high relative to the total number (172) of patents in this area. Of the patents granted since 2002 in the solar thermal area, it is interesting that the top three solar thermal patent owners account for only 28 (or 16 percent) of the patents with the rest of solar thermal patent owners owning only 3 or less patents each.

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As will also be evident, the top holders of U.S. solar thermal patents are U.S. entities except for Norio Akamatsu, the holder of 2 patents, and Schott AG of Germany.

The Three Generations of Photovoltaic

As depicted in the graphs below, third generation technologies led the others in 2009 and early 2010 with 32 granted patents. Second generation solar followed with 25 patents with first generation technologies trailing behind at 16. Third and Second generation technologies are trending upwardly in the patent sense while first generation technologies appear to be headed downwardly after a highpoint in 2008.

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Additional PV Technology

As depicted below, granted patents for PV Enhancement technologies spiked considerably since 2009 and set a record in the first quarter of 2010. Enabling PV technology also was at a record high in the first quarter and in 2009 reached levels not seen since 2004. Meanwhile the use of PV in applications continued it gradual sinuous rise.

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As shown in the chart below, Canon is far and away the leader in Solar PV patents with over twice the number of patents held by Sharp, its closest competitor. However, over the last five months tracked the leader was Samsung with 5 patents followed by four entities tied for second place with 4 patents including Canon, Sharp, Emcore and Mario Rabinowitz. Other notables recently granted Solar PV patents include Sunpower (3), Boeing (2), Honda (2), Konarka (1) and Sanyo (1).

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Relative to total granted solar PV patents, Canon has patents in almost all PV categories, led by enabling (61), second generation (19), and first generation (9) technology patents. Sharp spreads its patents out among various subcategories including enabling (16), first (6), second (8), third (7) and enhancement (5). Kanegafuchi (13), Boeing (9), and Sanyo (10) also include large numbers of patents in enabling technologies. Mario Rabinowitz has concentrated his efforts in solar enhancement technologies with 14 (up 1 in 2009 and early 2010) of such patents. Sunpower has concentrated on first generation PV technologies with 11patents in this area, up 1 in 2009 and early 2010. Emcore has 5 patents in PV enhancement and 6 in enabling technologies. Konarka has all its patents (11, up 1 in 2009 and early 2010) in third generation technologies. Samsung has 8 of its 10 patents in 1st and 3rd generation technologies. Nanosolar has 7 of 9 patents in third generation technologies. Outside the top 11patent owners depicted above, BP has half its 8 patents in second generation technologies while GE has 5 of its 8 in third generation PV patents. Honda has its patents spread through the solar technologies with the most (3 of 10) in first generation technology. TDK has most of its 8 patents in second generation and enabling technologies.

Of the top 11 PV patent holders, 5 are based in Japan while the rest are based in the U.S. However, as is evident from the chart, Japanese patent holders dominate the top 11 in absolute numbers of patents. In fact, the top three patent holders, all from Japan, hold over 16 percent of all PV patents.

Hybrid Systems

As depicted below, patents in hybrid technologies have hovered in very low numbers during the tracking period.

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Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

Shine On Solar Patents.com

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 1st Quarter 2010

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector. Results from the first quarter of 2010 reveal the CEPGI to have a value of 379 granted U.S. patents which is the highest quarterly value since the tracking of the CEPGI began, along with being up 42 from the fourth quarter of 2009 and up from a value of 243 in the first quarter of 2009.

(Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below quarterly) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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The components breakdown of the CEPGI shows fuel cells, solar and hybrid/electric vehicles at record levels while wind patents fell. Fuel cells were up 20 granted patents relative to the fourth quarter at 208 and continue to dominate the other components of the CEPGI in absolute numbers. Granted solar patents (67) topped wind (35) for two straight quarters for the first time since 2005. Solar patents were up 11 compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 and up 37 relative the first quarter of 2009. Wind patents were down 9 relative to the fourth quarter and up 1 compared to a year prior. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents (50) were up 17 from the fourth quarter for a third quarter of gains in a row and up 20 over the first quarter of 2009. Biofuel patents (13) were down 2 from a record high in the fourth quarter and up 3 over a year prior.

Honda returned to form taking the quarterly Clean Energy Patent crown from General Motors primarily based on its fuel cell (29) patents along with one solar patent. GM was on Honda’s heels with 28 patents of primarily fuel cells supplemented by 4 Hybrid/electric patents and 3 solar patents. Samsung came in third for the first time based on fuel cell patents (18), solar energy (2) and wind energy (1). Toyota and Ford followed with 12 and 11 patents respectively. Both included hybrid/electric patents to which Toyota added fuel cell patents and Ford added solar patents. Nissan took fifth place with 7 hybrid/electric and 2 solar patents. GE had 5 wind and 2 fuel cell patents. Panasonic added 6 fuel cell patents and Hitachi 3 fuel cell and 3 wind. Toshiba (5 fuel cell), newcomer to the CEPGI, ISE Corporation of California (a maker of hybrid/electric drive systems), (5 hybrid/electric), United Technologies (4 fuel cell, 1 solar), and Hyundai (1 fuel cell, 4 hybrid/electric) all had 5 granted clean energy patents.

As depicted below in the geographic charts, Japan held steady relative to the fourth quarter at 96 granted clean energy patents to again lead the geographic areas tracked, which is up 18 over the same period in 2009, to again claim the geographical clean energy patent crown. Michigan was second with 47 granted Clean Energy patents, up 11 over the fourth quarter and up 29 over the first quarter of 2009. California was at 38 granted patents, up 14 over the fourth quarter, and up 19 over the same period a year ago. Korea jumped to fourth place at 31 patents, up 8 over the last quarter, and up 22 over the same period last year. Germany dropped to fifth place at 29, up 5 over the fourth quarter and up 10 over a year ago. New York had 11 patents, which is down 8 from the fourth quarter and down 2 over the same period of 2009. Connecticut had 7 granted clean energy patents, up 2 from the fourth quarter, and up 5 over the first quarter of 2008. Canada trailed with 5 patents, down 2 from the fourth quarter results, and down 2 over the first quarter of last year.

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Trend lines by quarter through the first quarter of 2010 for the CEPGI and for each of the CEPGI components are depicted below:

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CEPGI yearly totals through 2009 are depicted below:

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The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 4th Quarter 2009-Year End Wrap Up

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector from 2002 to the present. It also tracks success rates of earned patents by ranking Patent Owners, along with the Countries and the U.S. States which receive the most clean energy patents.

(Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below annually) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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U.S. patents for clean-energy technologies in 2009 were at an all time high with 200 more patents than 2008 at1125.

As depicted in the below breakdown of the CEPGI by its sub-components, patents in fuel cells and hybrid/electric vehicles were each up over twenty percent over 2008 with solar patents up sixty percent and biomass/biofuel energy patents up two hundred sixty percent. Fuel Cells, wind, and biomass/biofuel energy patents were also at all time highs in 2009. In contrast, hydroelectric and tidal patents decreased in 2009 while geothermal patents were up only one patent over the year prior.

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Fuel cell patents continued to dwarf the other components of the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index in 2009 with over four times the number of patents of nearest competitors wind and solar. In 2009 solar patents returned to levels last seen in 2003 and were barely edged out by wind patents for second in the Clean Energy patent standings. Wind patents finally showed signs of leveling off after seven years of big increases with an increase of only one patent over 2008. In contrast solar energy patents appear poised to overtake wind patents to become the new second fiddle to fuel cell patents. Patents in hybrid/electric vehicles regained its consistency exactly matching the totals for 2006 and 2007 after falling in 2008. Biomass/biofuel patents grew at a torrid pace and our research shows a large volume of patent applications in the pipeline foretelling future growth in this area.

The top patent owners since 2002 are shown below, ranked relative to total number of patents, and also annotated to show the 2008 and 2009 contributions:

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The top clean energy patent holders in 2009 were dominated by automobile companies which occupied five of the top ten spots. Honda led and GM came in second, despite its well publicized troubles in 2009, while Toyota closely followed almost doubling its own total from 2008-again despite its recent troubles. Nissan rounded out the automotive competitors. GE continued its strong showing in clean energy patents having over twice the patents of its nearest wind patent competitor, Aloys Wobben, the owner of Enercon GmbH of Germany. Samsung beat out the other non-automotive fuel cell patents holders with Panasonic and Toshiba not far behind. Meanwhile, long time fuel cell patent owners UTC Power Corp, Plug Power and Ballard lagged. Canon, far and away the solar photovoltaic patent leader, missed the top ten and was the only solar patent holder even close. Of additional note, relative to 2009, Panasonic had 29 clean energy patents after having had only 6 in all the prior years. Further, Genedics had 8 clean energy patents in 2009 (several in overlapping sectors) after having none in the years prior.

As depicted below in the Fuel Cell patent owner breakdown, Honda was also tops in Fuel Cells over the seven year period, along with leading in 2008 and 2009. GM was again one fuel cell patent behind Honda in 2009 as in the year before. Toyota, Samsung and Nissan all had over 20 patents in 2009 to round out the top 5 for that year. The rest of the top 10 since 2002 had 10 or less fuel cell patents in 2009. Also, worth noting due to its own recent announcements, Bloom Energy had 8 fuel cell patents in 2009 after having none in 2008 and a total of 4 in all prior years.

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As indicated above, GE is the all time wind patent leader and again dominated the wind field in 2009 followed by Aloys Wobben, the owner of Enercon GmbH of Germany. The other grantees of wind patents in 2009 were led by Nordex Energy (10), Repower Systems (AG) (8), Vestas (4) and Hitachi (8), as depicted above. Also, of note Genedics LLC, despite not making the top 10 list since 2002, had 7 granted wind patents in 2009 putting it in 5th place for that year. As is evident from the figure, the vast majority of the activity in wind patents has been driven by General Electric and Aloys Wobben.

As depicted below, Canon continues to lead the other solar patent owners since 2002. However, Genedics LLC was first in solar patents in 2009 despite not having any clean energy patents prior. Mario Rabinowitz at 4 had one more patent than Canon in 2009.

Applied Materials had 5 solar patents and Lumetta, Inc. had 4 in 2009 despite not making the top 10 overall since 2002. The top 6 overall patent owners since 2002 remained the same relative to last year while Konarka had only 1 patent and fell in the rankings with Sunpower Corp advancing. GE had no solar patents in 2009 and came in 10th overall.

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Honda continues to lead hybrid/electric vehicle patents overall since 2002, but Toyota led in 2009 at 18, as shown in the below figure. The top ten overall hybrid/electric vehicle patent owners remained consistent relative to the total through 2008 except for a slight scrambling of the number 7, 8, 9, and 10 spots, particularly Aisin AW Co. Ltd., Hitachi, Suzuki and Denso Corp. Relative to 2009, Honda, Ford, and GM followed Toyota in that order. Next were Hyundai, Denso Corp and Nissan. Newcomer, and electric car maker, Tesla had 4 hybrid/electric vehicle patents in 2009-their first since tracking began in 2002. Also, PAICE LLC had 3 in 2009 with another in 2008.

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Also, although not depicted above, Ocean Power Technologies continues to lead in the Tidal sector since 2002 picking up 1 patent in 2009 and has a total of 12 since 2002. SRI International picked up 2 patents in 2009 as did Christopher Catlin, CEO at Bourne Energy. In hydroelectric patentees, Simon Srybnik and Louis Srybnik had two patents duplicating their 2008 total while William Kelly had one.

Nuovo Pignone S.p.A. was granted three geothermal patents in 2009 while 7 other entities, including Genedics cited above, each had one patent. Kalex, LLC continues to lead in geothermal patents (8) despite not having any patents in 2008 or 2009. GE is the next closest at 3 total geothermal patents.

In the biofuel/biomass area, the Research Foundation of State University of New York continues to lead overall while accruing no patents in 2009. Stanley Consultants and Tsinghua University each had two biofuel/biomass patents in 2009 while 45 other entities each had one patent.

As depicted below relative to the top university patent owners, we have found that the University of California continues to outpace second place California Institute of Technology dating to 2002, but the gap has narrowed slightly with the University of California picking up one patent in 2009 while the California Institute of Technology picked up three. The Research Foundation of the State of New York is a distant third picking up one patent in 2009. The University of Florida gained three patents in 2009 while several others accrued two including: the University of Illinois, Princeton, Uan Ze University, the Technical University of Denmark, the Univeristy of St. Andrews, University of Connecticut, and Academia Sinica (with Everlight USA).

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Geographically, U.S. patent owners and inventors had slightly less than the rest of the world in the number of U.S. patents granted in the Clean Energy field over the period 2002-2009 with 49 percent of the granted U.S. patents as depicted below.

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Patent applicants from Japan (28 percent) and Germany (8 percent) were issued the second and third largest number of U.S. patents. Canada and South Korea followed as depicted above with South Korea surpassing Canada in 2008. Japan and the US appear on an upward trajectory while the others are holding steady and the number of Canadian clean energy patents decreasing.

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Michigan leads the other U.S. states in the Clean Energy area at 24 percent of the US clean energy patents largely based on the fuel cell and hybrid electric vehicle activities of the car manufacturers. California is next at 15 percent while New York is at 12 percent based largely on GE’s wind patents and several fuel cell manufacturers. Connecticut has 7 percent with most being fuel cell patents to UTC. Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Florida follow.

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As depicted in the line chart, Michigan’s share of the U.S. clean energy patents is trending slightly downwardly California’s share is on an upswing. New York had also been on an upswing until 2009 while the others are far below and trending downwardly.

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As depicted below, Fuel Cell patents since 2002 are dominated by the U.S. Japan, and Germany. The U.S. leads the world with 50 percent of U.S. patents in fuel cells followed by Japan with 30 percent and Germany with 8 percent. Within the U.S., Michigan (29 %), Connecticut (12%), New York (12%), and California (11%) lead.

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The U.S. is slightly behind the rest of the world in the number of U.S. wind patents granted since 2002 with 47 percent as depicted above largely on the strength of GE. Germany follows with 20 percent due to Aloys Wobben, and Japan and Denmark tie for third at 7 percent. New York leads US states with 34 percent of the US wind patents thanks to GE. California follows with 15 percent while Texas and Illinois lag at 5 percent.

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As in wind, the U.S. has slightly less than half the granted solar patents since 2002 at 49 percent as depicted below. Japan is next at 30 percent and Germany is at 6 percent. California leads U.S. States with 34 percent of the U.S. total followed by Illinois at 7 percent, and Massachusetts and New York at 7 and 6 percent, respectively.

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Japan leads with 49 percent of the granted U.S. patents in Hybrid/Electric vehicles since 2002 as depicted below. The U.S. has even less of the granted U.S. patents in this sector relative to those described above at 39 percent of the granted U.S. patents. Korea has 5 percent while Germany has 3 percent. Michigan leads U.S. states with an overwhelming 67 percent of the U.S. share of the granted U.S. patents in this area. California and Ohio have 7 and 5 percent, respectively, while Colorado, New York, Illinois and Florida each have three percent or less.

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We have also analyzed the relative concentration of patents among patent owners in each sector as presented in the bar chart below with the different colors indicating the relative distribution of patents among the top one percent of patent owners, the 95-99th percentile (i.e., middle 1-5 percent), 80-95th percentile (i.e., middle 5-20 percent), and the bottom eighty percent of patent owners.

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As depicted, Fuel Cell and Wind are the most concentrated in the top one percent of patent owners with 31 and 29 percent of the patents in each of these areas, respectively. Wind is the most stratified between the top (29%) the bottom (39%) having the lowest percentage (32) in the mid range between the 80-99th percentile of patent owners. In fact, 68 percent of wind patents are owned by the top one and bottom 80 percent of patent owners. Solar patents may be the most evenly distributed with 20 percent of patents in the top one percent of patent owners, fifteen percent in the next 4 percent, twenty two percent in the next 15 percent and forty four percent of patents in the bottom 80 percent of patent owners. Solar thus has the highest concentration of patents among the bottom 80 percent of patent owners. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents had the highest percentage in the top 1-20 percent range at 53 percent of all hybrid/electric patents.

The CEPGI is updated quarterly and is occasionally supplemented with related articles posted on www.cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com or http://www.cepgi.com/

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

Additional quarterly graphs for each clean energy tech sector:

 

 

 

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2010 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX - Shine-On Solar Edition

In 2008, Clean Energy patents reached an all time annual high and the second quarter of 2009 was the biggest quarter so far for these patents according to the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) as depicted quarterly in the first chart below.  The CEPGI provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector and is composed of several clean energy sectors including solar energy - which is the subject of this post. 

(Download Copy of This Post)

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As depicted below, solar technology patents have trended upwardly for the last four quarters and are beginning to regain ground lost since 2002, when tracking of the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) began.

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Solar patents in the last quarter tracked approached the level of wind patents, which have been in second place to fuel cell patents in the CEPGI since 2006. Further, solar patents are poised to overtake wind patents in the coming year as per the trends in the quarterly components of the CEPGI below:

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The solar technology field includes a broad spectrum of technologies from small scale to utility scale and photovoltaic to solar thermal. A detailed analysis of the Solar technology portion of the CEPGI, and the technologies within it, provides a more precise depiction of solar patenting trends. The broadest categories in the solar energy field are photovoltaic technology and thermal solar technology. These categories may also be further divided into distinct subsets, which we have analyzed below.

SOLAR TECHNOLOGY

Solar “thermal energy” technology is defined exactly as one would expect, i.e., it is a way of harnessing the radiation received from the Sun to provide heat where it may be useful.  The Energy Information Administration (EIA), which produces official energy statistics for the U.S. government, classifies the collection of the sun’s radiation for thermal energy into three categories – low temperature (less than 110° F), medium temperature (less than 180° F), and high temperature (greater than 180° F).[1]  Typically low temperature collectors can be used for heating swimming pools or low-grade water and space heating, and medium temperature collectors can be used for domestic hot-water heating, solar cooling, or even solar cooking.  Both low and medium temperature collectors are typical examples of the “direct” use of the thermal energy to accomplish a desired task, and are often passive technologies – which involves little or no moving or active parts, and instead a thermal mass material is often utilized to store heat from the sun and release it as necessary.

High temperature collectors are more typically used to create electricity by operating generators (e.g., steam turned turbines). This is accomplished by concentrating solar radiation through the use of parabolic dishes and/or reflective mirrors to superheat water or often a type of molten salt. This is an “indirect” use of the sun’s radiation - as it first creates electricity, which then is used to perform a task.  Such use of solar radiation is defined herein as a type of “indirect” thermal technology, which refers to the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy (e.g., rotating a turbine), instead of the direct use of solar radiation as discussed above.  High temperature solar thermal is generally the solar technology used for large-scale electricity generation as it has much higher conversion efficiency than Photovoltaic technology (see below) (near 41%).[2] 

Thus, for the purpose of tracking technology trends, solar thermal technologies are divided into direct solar thermal and indirect solar thermal.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems use solar radiation to create electricity directly, and is performed through the use of semi-conductors.  They are often referred to as solar cells, and complete solar cell modules are described as solar panels.  PV systems are generally used on a smaller scale, such as rooftops of homes and businesses, and typically has an efficiency of between 5 and 15%.[3]  Concentrating PV systems are of course an exception to this generality.

PV technology can generally be classified into three generations.[4]  These generations are utilized to track the PV patents as further described below.  The first generation is based on crystalline semiconductors, largely silicon wafers.[5]  Improvements continue to be made in this area though the widespread adoption of this technology has been constrained until recently  by price and availability of raw silicon.[6]  The second generation consists of thin film technology.[7]  Thin film is usually processed from amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, or copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS) and has gained popularity because it requires less semiconductor material than the first generation.[8]  Though more economical to provide, second generation PV (i.e., thin film) generally has a lower efficiency than that of the first generation.[9]  The third generation includes newer more experimental technologies that are further from the market[10] than the first and second generations.   Technologies such as dye-sensitized solar cells, quantum dots, nano-modified materials, and organic cells fall into this category.

In addition to the three generations of PV technology, a further Solar PV subcategory is defined as PV enhancement which spans the photovoltaic generations and is directed at the technological improvement of the efficiency of PV cells. Examples include technologies such as multi-junction cells (mjc), concentrated PV (cpv), and anti-reflective coatings.

Enabling technologies is defined as the innovations that must necessarily come with improved PV, but don’t directly impact the working of the PV cell. Such technologies include power conversion technologies, heat sinks, protective layering, roofing and panel connection components, bypass diodes, sun tracking devices, and other such technologies.

PV applications refer to the use of PV technology in an invention without actual innovation relative to PV. Common examples include technologies that use PV as a power supply for its operation – such as a solar car, an electrolysis process or a solar-pumped device.

Finally, solar hybrid systems may use both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies, or one of these solar technologies combined with another type of generation process (wind, hydro, etc.).

Although rare, there are certain instances in the following analysis where a patent is classified and counted in more than one category. For example, sun concentrators are sometimes directed at both concentrated PV (under PV enhancement) and solar thermal energy generation (under indirect solar thermal). In addition, hybrid systems by their very definition involve technologies that can be put into one or more category. As such, the hybrid patents are simultaneously placed in the multiple categories. Because the hybrids are properly tracked in their corresponding categories, the hybrid systems category is not included as a subset of the larger photovoltaic or thermal group, but stands alone.

Thermal vs. Photovoltaic

As depicted below on an annual basis, granted patents in photovoltaic technology dropped sharply from 2002-2005 before flattening out and rising slightly, and jumping significantly in the most recent four quarters. The number of granted U.S. patents on the thermal technology side of solar energy increased slightly from 2002 to 2005 before slowly declining.

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As the graph by quarters show, however, thermal technology in general has been much less volatile than its photovoltaic counterpart and accounts for a much smaller percentage of solar technology innovation. In fact, the plot of the entire solar technology field appears to closely follow the photovoltaic trends without much pull from the thermal technology trends.

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The Thermal Technologies

As depicted below, quarterly indirect thermal patents outpaced direct thermal patents in all years tracked but one. Both the direct and the indirect thermal technologies have declined in the past four to five years. Generally speaking, indirect solar technology (e.g., the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy)  has consistently seen more patents and thus innovation than its direct counterpart.

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As depicted in the chart below, the top 10 patent owners in the Solar Thermal area since 2002 is dominated by Boeing (14), which has patents directed to indirect solar thermal technologies including  aspects of generating electricity via the heating of fluids and solar molten salt technologies. In second place Mario Rabinowitz ( a scientist and CEO of Armor Research) holds 8 patents with 7 directed to indirect technologies.  United Technologies comes in third with 6 patents in the indirect area relating to the heating of fluids via solar thermal to create electricity.  Of the 160 patents granted since 2002 in the solar thermal area, it is interesting that the top three solar thermal patent owners account for only 28 (or 17 percent) of the patents with the rest of solar thermal patent owners owning only 2 or less patents each.

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As will also be evident, the top holders of U.S. solar thermal patents are all U.S. entities except for Norio Akamatsu, the holder of 2 patents.

The Three Generations of Photovoltaic

As depicted below, the newer technologies did not lead the increases in PV technology. Instead, the first generation PV technology, after steep decline for four years running, began just as steep a rise in 2006. In fact, the first generation PV technology is the only technology whose most recent numbers exceed its 2002 starting point – meaning that innovation in this area is almost single handedly responsible for the leveling off of the solar energy patenting decline.  The first generation solar technology is widely considered to have the theoretical best efficiency.  Moreover, more innovators have entered the field, and the cost of silicon has decreased (with some dramatic price drops as of late).  See Ben Bahavar, Perspectives on Photovoltaics: As Technologies Develop, Costs Decrease While Efficiency Increases, June 2008; see also Rick Hodgin, Cost of Solar-grade Poly-silicon Ingots Decreasing Rapidly, Apr. 15, 2009.

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The second generation, or thin film technologies, on the other hand has shown a fairly consistent decline through almost the entire period of our tracking. However, the most recent quarters show that the decline may be leveling off.

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The third generation technology made substantial gains through most of the tracked period and matched the quarterly record total in the 3^rd quarter of 2009.  All in all, more patents have been granted on second generation technologies at 129 than the first (78) or third (86) during the tracking period.

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Additional PV Technology

As depicted below, PV Enhancement has maintained a steady reduction in innovation over the past seven years.  In contrast, both enabling PV technology and the use of PV in applications have been on the rise as of late.

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As shown in the chart below, Canon is far and away the leader in Solar PV patents with over 2.5 times the number of patents held by Sharp, its closest competitor.  Canon has patents in almost all PV categories, led by enabling (60), second generation (19), and first generation (9) technology patents.  Sharp spreads its patents out among various subcategories including enabling (15), first (4), second (8), third (5) and enhancement (5).   Kanegafuchi (13), Boeing (9), and Sanyo (10) also include large numbers of patents in enabling technologies.  Mario Rabinowitz has concentrated his efforts in solar enhancement technologies with 13 of such patents.   Sunpower has concentrated on first generation PV technologies with 10 patents in this area.  Emcore has 4 patents in PV enhancement and 5 in enabling technologies.  Konarka has all its patents in third generation technologies.  TDK has most of its patents in second generation and enabling technologies.  BP has a predominance of its patents in second generation technologies while GE has a majority in third generation PV patents.  Honda has several patents in first and second generation technologies.

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Of the top 15 PV patent holders, 7 are based in Japan while the rest are based in the U.S.  However, as is evident from the chart, Japanese patent holders dominate the top 15 in absolute numbers of patents.   In fact, the top three patent holders, all from Japan, hold over 17 percent of all PV patents.

Hybrid Systems

As depicted below, patents in hybrid technologies have hovered in very low numbers during the tracking period.

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Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2009 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. 

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[1] Energy Information Administration, Solar Thermal Manufacturing Activities, www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/solarreport/solar.html. 

[2] Charles W. Forsberg et al., High-Temperature Liquid-Fluoride-Salt Closed-Brayton-Cycle Solar Power Towers, 129 J. Solar Energy Engineering 141, 145 (2007). 

[3] The Renewable Energy Website, How Do PV Solar Panels Work, Jan. 10 2009 http://www.reuk.co.uk/print.php?article=How-Do-PV-Solar-Panels-Work.htm. 

[4] Nathan Furr & Travis Bradford, PV Innovation in North America, Greentech Media Inc. & the Prometheus Institute (Nov. 2008). 

[5] Id. at 13. 

[6] Id. 

[7] Id. at 14. 

[8] Id. 

[9] Id. 

[10] Id. 

USPTO Accelerates Greentech patent applications

The USPTO has announced a program to accelerate the examination of Cleantech or Greentech patent applications which is expected to shave 1 year off the pendency of such applications at the USPTO. Further details will be posted here when they are known. The PTO announcement is at the link below:

http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2009/09_33.jsp

 

Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI. 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2009 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

 

 

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX 3rd Quarter 2009

The CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX (CEPGI), published quarterly by the Cleantech Group at Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. provides an indication of the trend of innovative activity in the Clean Energy sector.  Results from the second quarter of 2009 reveal the CEPGI to have a value of 274 granted U.S. patents which is the highest quarterly value since the tracking of the CEPGI began, along with being up 31 from the first quarter of 2009 and up from a value of 217 in the second quarter of 2008.

(Downloadable copy of this post)

The granting of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark (PTO) is often cited as a measure of the inventive activity and evidence of the effectiveness of research & development investments. Patents are considered to be such an indicator, because to be awarded a patent, it requires not only the efforts of inventors to develop new and non-obvious innovations but also successful handling by patent counsel to shepherd a patent application through the PTO. Thus, the granting of a patent is an indicator that efforts at innovation have been successful and that an innovation had enough perceived value to justify the time and expense in procuring the patent.

The CEPGI (shown below quarterly) tracks the granting of U.S. patents for the following sub-components: Solar, Wind, Hybrid/electric vehicles, Fuel Cells, Hydroelectric, Tidal/wave, Geothermal, Biomass/biofuels and other clean renewable energy.

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The components breakdown of the CEPGI shows fuel cells up 1 granted patent relative to the second quarter at 157, the highest level since the first quarter of 2005. As is evident from the chart, fuel cell patents dominate the other components of the CEPGI in absolute numbers and in the third quarter were at a level greater than a combination of all the granted patents in the other sectors. Granted wind (35) and solar patents (33) continued to converge in the third quarter to within two of each other. Wind patents were down 8 relative to the second quarter (43) and up 3 compared to a year prior. Solar patents were down 3 compared to the second quarter and up 20 relative the third quarter (36) of 2008 which was a record low. Hybrid/electric vehicle patents (22) were up 2 from the second quarter returning to an upward trend after a big drop in the second quarter which ended a three quarter streak of gains. Biofuel patents tied the second highest number of patents granted in a quarter (11), which last occurred in the third quarter of 2007. Biofuel patents were down two from the all time quarterly high of 13 in the second quarter and up 8 over the same period in 2008. Geothermal patents (5) reached an all time quarterly high, which was up three over the second quarter of this year and the third quarter of 2008. Also, Tidal/Wave Energy granted patents (9) were up 1 over the second quarter and up 5 compared to the same period of the year before.

Toyota snatched the quarterly Clean Energy Patent crown from perennial holder Honda primarily based on its fuel cell (12) showing with an assist from its hybrid/electric vehicle (3) patents. Upstart Nissan tied GM for second place with 14 patents in fuel cell (11) and hybrid/electric vehicle (3) patents. GM had clean energy patents in both the fuel cell (10) and hybrid/electric vehicle (4) sectors. Honda and Samsung trailed GM by two. Honda’s patents were in fuel cells (11) and hybrid/electric vehicle (1) patents while Samsung’s were in fuel cells (11) and solar (1). GE followed with 4 fuel cell and 4 wind patents. Panasonic Corp. again followed GE this quarter with 5 fuel cell and 1 solar patent adding to its 17 earlier patents this year, while only having 6 in the entire seven-year period from 2002-2008. Toshiba had 5 fuel cell patents while Ford added 2 fuel cell patents and 3 hybrid/electric vehicle patents. Denso Corp., an automotive technology supplier from Japan, had 2 fuel cell and 2 hybrid/electric vehicle patents. Nordex Energy GmbH and Aloys Wobben of Enercon GmbH each had 4 wind patents. Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board Corporation and Delphi Technologies each had 4 fuel cell patents. If Delphi (4) had still been a division of General Motors then GM would have led the field by 3 patents with 18.

As depicted below in the geographic charts, Japan held steady relative to the last quarter at 75 granted clean energy patents to again lead the geographic areas tracked, which is up 18 over the same period in 2008, to again claim the geographical clean energy patent crown. California was again second with 25 granted Clean Energy patents, down 4 over the second quarter and up 10 over the second quarter of 2008. Michigan (down 6 from the same period in 2008) and Germany (up 6 over 2008) again tied for third with an identical 23 granted patents as in the second quarter. Korea (up 6 over the second quarter and 14 over 2008) beat New York with 21 clean energy patents. New York had 13 patents, which is down 2 from the second quarter and down 9 over the same period of 2008. Canada had 4 patents down 3 from the second quarter results and down one over the third quarter of last year. Connecticut trailed Canada with 5 granted clean energy patents, down one from the second quarter and the third quarter of 2008.

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Trend lines by quarter through the third quarter of 2009 for the CEPGI and for each of the CEPGI components are depicted below:

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CEPGI yearly totals through 2008 are depicted below:

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Please contact us at info@cleanenergypatentgrowthindex.com if you have any questions or would like us to email you when we have updated this page or the CEPGI.

CLEAN ENERGY PATENT GROWTH INDEX.COM

Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

cleantechintellectualproperty.com

© 2009 Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.