Bipolar Battery Current Collector Patent Landscape 2026
Bipolar Battery Current Collector Patent Landscape in 2026
The bipolar battery current collector space is a small, tightly concentrated field dominated by Nissan Motor, which holds the largest share of patent records among a handful of active filers. Filing activity is highly sporadic across most of the observed window, with a notable cluster appearing in 2025 that is subject to publication lag and should not yet be read as a sustained trend.
Nissan leads a highly concentrated, niche field
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. holds the top position with 13 patent records, followed by Gridtential Energy Inc. with 6 and Lasagna One Inc. with 4, establishing a clear three-tier hierarchy among a small group of active applicants.
The top five filers account for 93% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total — an exceptionally high concentration figure that signals a niche rather than a broadly contested technology arena. The gap between the first-ranked applicant and the rest of the field is substantial.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 13 | |
| 2 | Gridtential Energy Inc. | 6 | |
| 3 | Lasagna One Inc. | 4 | |
| 4 | Toyota Motor Corporation | 3 | |
| 5 | Tianneng Battery Group (Jiangxi) Co. Ltd. | 1 | |
| 6 | Toray Industries Inc. | 1 | |
| 7 | The Furukawa Battery Co. Ltd. | 1 |
Nissan’s leading position reflects deep integration of bipolar current-collector development within its broader battery and electrification programs. The presence of U. S.-based startups Gridtential Energy and Lasagna One alongside established Japanese automakers suggests that both incumbents and emerging specialists are staking claims in this space.
The 2025 filing cluster is recent and subject to standard patent publication lag; those records may undercount actual activity in that period. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sporadic filing history with a recent concentration of activity
The annual trend and technology composition charts together reveal both the developmental stage of this field and the narrow technical scope that has attracted filings to date.
Annual filing trend
Filings were essentially absent from 2017 through 2023, with only a single record in 2018 and another in 2024, before a cluster of 8 records appeared in 2025. That 2025 figure is subject to publication lag and should be treated as a lower-bound estimate of actual activity; no conclusions about a sustained trend can yet be drawn.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
The H01M class (batteries, cells, and fuel cells) dominates the technology composition with 29 records, dwarfing all adjacent branches — B32B layered products, C08F addition polymers, C08G condensation polymers, C08J polymer processing, H01B conductors, and H01G capacitors — each of which appears only once. This distribution confirms that work has concentrated almost entirely on electrochemical cell design rather than materials or conductor engineering.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Bipolar battery current collector that contracts t…
Provided is a bipolar battery current collector that includes a conductive resin layer formed in such a manner as to, when at least part of the conductive resin layer reaches a predetermined temperature, interrupts a flow of electric current through the at least part of the conductive resin layer in a vertical direction thereof. Also provided is a bipolar… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bipolar battery current collector and bipolar batt… | 22 |
| 2 | Manufacture of plate for bipolar battery | 22 |
| 3 | Bipolar battery seal and thermal rib arrangements | 21 |
| 4 | Bipolar battery current collector and bipolar batt… | 16 |
| 5 | 双极型电池用集电体和双极型电池 | 9 |
| 6 | Bipolar battery current collector and bipolar batt… | 4 |
| 7 | Bipolar battery seal and thermal rib arrangements | 3 |
| 8 | Bipolar battery current collector and bipolar batt… | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of high concentration, low absolute volume, and narrow technical scope creates both risk and opportunity for new entrants and incumbent players alike.
Early-stage field with unresolved lifecycle signal
The evidence does not yet support a definitive lifecycle stage assignment. The filing record is sparse across nearly a decade, with most activity compressed into a single recent period that is still within the publication lag window. An engineer entering this space should plan for high uncertainty about how quickly the field will mature and whether the 2025 cluster represents genuine acceleration or a coincidental bunching of a small number of applications.
Lifecycle: indeterminateExtreme concentration among a handful of filers
With the top five filers holding 93% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, this field has not yet attracted broad participation. Nissan’s 13 patent records give it structural advantage in any Freedom-to-Operate analysis. A new entrant must either design around Nissan’s core claims or seek a licensing arrangement before committing significant R&D budget.
High concentrationNissan co-files with named inventors; no cross-organization partnerships evident
The only co-filing relationships in evidence link four individual inventors — Horie Hideaki, Hosaka Kenji, Miyatake Kazuki, and Shimoida Yoshio — each with Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (one record each). No cross-company or university collaborations appear in the evidence, suggesting the field has not yet developed the kind of open-innovation ecosystem seen in more mature battery sectors.
Inventor-led co-filingU.S. is the primary filing jurisdiction; Europe and Asia follow
The United States leads with 8 records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 7, China and South Korea each with 4, and Japan with 2. WIPO PCT filings number 2, with Germany and India each at 1. The relatively even spread across major jurisdictions suggests applicants are pursuing broad international protection, though the small absolute counts mean each jurisdiction has limited redundancy.
U.S.-led, multi-jurisdictionalGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| SHIMOIDA YOSHIO | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 1 |
| MIYATAKE KAZUKI | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 1 |
| HOSAKA KENJI | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 1 |
| HORIE HIDEAKI | Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Nissan anchors the field; Gridtential and Lasagna One represent the startup tier
Three organizations account for the bulk of activity: Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. from the incumbent automotive sector, and Gridtential Energy Inc. and Lasagna One Inc. from the U. S. startup ecosystem.
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
Nissan holds 13 patent records, the largest count in the field. Its technology emphasis spans H01M 4 (electrode materials, 11 records), H01M 2 (cell components, 9 records), and H01M 10 (secondary batteries, 4 records), indicating broad coverage of the electrochemical stack around the current collector. Applicant momentum data is not available in evidence, so trajectory cannot be quantified.
patent records: 13Gridtential Energy Inc.
Gridtential Energy Inc. holds 6 patent records, placing it second in the ranking. Its focus is distributed across H01M 10 (6 records), H01M 2 (5 records), and H01M 4 (5 records), suggesting a whole-cell systems orientation rather than a narrow electrode-materials focus. Applicant momentum data is not available in evidence.
patent records: 6Under-served material science and conductor branches adjacent to the dominant cell-design space
Several IPC branches each carry only a single patent record and represent adjacent technical areas that have received minimal dedicated attention within this corpus. These are observations of relative sparsity; entry value depends on the specific technical and commercial context of each organization.
B32B · Layered products and laminates
Only 1 patent record appears under B32B within this corpus, despite laminated or composite current-collector architectures being a plausible design pathway for reducing weight and improving corrosion resistance in bipolar configurations. An organization with existing thin-film or laminate manufacturing capability could explore whether its process IP translates into differentiated current-collector constructions not yet covered by the dominant H01M filings.
Search this in Eureka →H01B · Cables, conductors and insulators
H01B appears only once in the corpus, indicating that conductor-level engineering — including novel conductive coatings, resistivity optimization, or corrosion-barrier treatments on the current-collector substrate — has not been a primary focus of filers to date. For materials or specialty chemicals companies already active in conductor technology, this represents a potential entry point that avoids direct overlap with Nissan’s dominant H01M 4 and H01M 2 positions.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across H01M sub-classes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H01M 4 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 10 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 2 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 50 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | B32B 15 · Layered products & laminates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. | Strong · 11 | Moderate · 4 | Strong · 9 | Emerging · 1 | Absent |
| Gridtential Energy Inc. | Strong · 5 | Strong · 6 | Strong · 5 | Strong · 5 | Absent |
| Lasagna One Inc. | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus in scope contains 10 patent families. It is a niche field with a small number of active filers and a highly concentrated ownership structure.
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. leads with 13 patent records, followed by Gridtential Energy Inc. with 6 and Lasagna One Inc. with 4.
The United States leads with 8 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 7. China and South Korea each have 4 records.
H01M (batteries, cells, and fuel cells) dominates with 29 records. All other IPC branches — including B32B, C08F, C08G, C08J, H01B, and H01G — appear only once each.
The only co-filing relationships in evidence are between four individual inventors (Horie Hideaki, Hosaka Kenji, Miyatake Kazuki, and Shimoida Yoshio) and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., one record each. No cross-organization or university partnerships are present in the evidence.
Eight patent records are dated 2025 in the trend data, but this period falls within the standard patent publication lag window. Those records likely undercount actual filings and should not yet be interpreted as confirming a sustained upturn in activity.
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Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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