EDLC Management & Balancing Patent Landscape 2026
The EDLC management and balancing patent space is a mature, moderately concentrated field anchored by a small group of specialist and research-institute filers, with Kilowatt Labs Inc holding the largest single position. Annual filing volume has plateaued near its 2017 peak, and the United States remains the dominant protection jurisdiction.
Kilowatt Labs leads a fragmented but moderately concentrated field
Kilowatt Labs Inc sits at the top of the applicant ranking, followed by Paul Scherrer Institut and Tilia International Inc. The top five filers’ share of the hundred largest filers’ combined total stands at 24 percent, indicating moderate concentration with no single player commanding a dominant lock.
A meaningful tier gap separates the top two applicants from the rest of the ranking. Kilowatt Labs and Paul Scherrer Institut together account for a disproportionate share of top-100 activity, while the third through seventh ranked filers are closely bunched, suggesting the field is contested but not monopolized.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kilowatt Labs Inc | 11 | |
| 2 | Paul Scherrer Institut | 8 | |
| 3 | Tilia International Inc | 6 | |
| 4 | Rohm Co., Ltd. | 5 | |
| 5 | CONCEPTION & DEV MICHELIN SA | 4 | |
| 6 | Geotab Inc | 4 | |
| 7 | Vanner Inc | 4 | |
| 8 | Meidensha Corporation | 3 | |
| 9 | Sustainable Energy Technologies Inc | 3 | |
| 10 | Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Enercap Energy Holding Ltd | 3 | |
| 12 | PRC Tech LLC | 2 | |
| 13 | Jiangsu Weichuangjing Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 14 | MICHELIN RECH & TECH SA | 2 | |
| 15 | Fuhuade Electronics (Dongguan) Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 16 | CGG Services SA | 2 | |
| 17 | Sparq Systems Inc | 2 | |
| 18 | Beijing Shoto Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 19 | Tokin Corporation | 2 | |
| 20 | Shuangdeng Group Co., Ltd. | 2 |
The leader’s position — a US-based startup with deep focus on battery and power-supply integration — signals that specialist commercial entrants, not large diversified corporations, are setting the pace. The presence of a Swiss public research institute (Paul Scherrer Institut) in second place underscores the academic-to-commercial pipeline that characterizes this niche.
Filing data for the most recent 18–24 months is subject to publication lag and likely understates current activity; assessments of very recent trends should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filings have plateaued since a 2017 peak; power-supply integration dominates the technology mix
Two perspectives — the annual filing trend and the IPC class composition — together reveal a field that has reached maturity in volume terms while remaining technically diverse across power-system, capacitor, and vehicle-propulsion branches.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity peaked sharply in 2017 then settled into a lower, broadly stable band across 2020–2026. The 2024–2025 data should be read as provisional given publication lag; the plateau pattern nonetheless aligns with the lifecycle evidence of a maturing field rather than an expanding one.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H02J (Power supply and grid systems) is the overwhelmingly dominant IPC class, reflecting that most EDLC balancing inventions are framed as power-management or energy-storage-system solutions. H01M (batteries and cells) and H01G (capacitors) form a secondary cluster, with B60L (electric vehicle propulsion) and H02M (power conversion) rounding out the core. Several lower-frequency branches — including B29C, B65B, and H05B — appear to reflect specific applicant portfolios rather than broad community activity.
↗ 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.
Charge control device
A charge control device of the disclosure including a charger to perform a constant current charge control to maintain a charge current to an electric double-layer capacitor as a predetermined charge current value for a constant current charge period after a beginning of a charge of the electric double-layer capacitor. (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plastic bag sealing apparatus with an ultracapacit… | 78 |
| 2 | System and method for dual energy storage management | 64 |
| 3 | Lithium-ion auto startup storage battery with a su… | 41 |
| 4 | Power supply device and control method for use in … | 40 |
| 5 | 一种基于双有源全桥变换器的混合储能系统及其控制方法 | 25 |
| 6 | 储能装置 | 22 |
| 7 | Integrated power system and method for energy mana… | 21 |
| 8 | 城轨混合储能系统的功率动态分配控制方法 | 21 |
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 patent structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural dimensions — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — each carry distinct implications for teams evaluating entry points or portfolio gaps in EDLC management.
Mature field, annual volume plateaued near 2017 peak
The lifecycle evidence classifies EDLC management and balancing as Mature, with annual filings having plateaued near their 2017 peak. New entrants face an established body of prior art concentrated in power-supply integration (H02J). Incremental differentiation through system-level innovation or application-specific balancing algorithms is more viable than broad foundational claims.
Lifecycle: MatureModerate concentration with a clear leader but open mid-tier
The top five filers hold 24 percent of the top-100 filers’ combined total, indicating moderate rather than extreme concentration. The mid-tier (ranks 3–10) is closely contested among players such as Tilia International, Rohm Co., and both Michelin entities. This structure leaves meaningful room for a focused challenger to accumulate a defensible position without needing to displace the leader directly.
Concentration: ModeratePaul Scherrer Institut and Michelin entities are the most active co-filers
The most active co-filing relationships in the dataset involve Paul Scherrer Institut filing jointly with Michelin Recherche et Technique SA and with Conception & Developpement Michelin SA. These relationships account for the most frequent bilateral co-filing pairs observed. The Michelin-PSI axis suggests a vehicle-electrification application focus for collaborative R&D, and represents an existing ecosystem boundary that independent entrants would need to navigate.
Collaboration: PSI–Michelin axisUS leads protection; China is the second-largest filing destination
The United States is the leading jurisdiction by patent-record count, followed by China and Europe (EPO). Japan and India also feature meaningfully. The geographic spread suggests applicants are pursuing multi-market protection strategies, and China’s second-place position reflects both domestic filers and inbound foreign filings. Teams planning freedom-to-operate analysis should prioritize US, CN, and EP as the three most active jurisdictions.
Geography: US > CN > EPGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Scherrer Institut | Michelin Recherche et Technique SA | 3 |
| Paul Scherrer Institut | CONCEPTION & DEV MICHELIN SA | 3 |
| Paul Scherrer Institut | Conception & Developpement Michelin SA | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Kilowatt Labs and Paul Scherrer Institut define the top tier by distinct technical routes
The two leading filers occupy complementary technical positions: a commercial startup focused on integrated battery-capacitor systems, and a public research institute focused on vehicle-electrification power management. No applicant momentum data is available for trajectory comparison in this corpus.
Kilowatt Labs Inc
Kilowatt Labs Inc holds 11 patent records, the largest position in the ranking. Its technology emphasis spans H01M (batteries and cells), H02J (power supply and grid systems), and H01G (capacitors), reflecting a vertically integrated approach to hybrid energy-storage management. No applicant momentum data is available to characterize recent trajectory.
patent records: 11Paul Scherrer Institut
Paul Scherrer Institut holds 8 patent records and concentrates its filings firmly in H02J (power supply and grid systems), with secondary coverage in B60L (electric vehicle propulsion). Its co-filing partnership with two Michelin entities gives it an applied-vehicle focus that distinguishes it from the commercial applicants in the ranking. No applicant momentum data is available to characterize recent trajectory.
patent records: 8Under-served adjacent branches worth monitoring
Several IPC branches adjacent to the dominant H02J core carry low record counts relative to the corpus, suggesting areas where EDLC balancing methods have seen limited patent coverage. These are observations of relative sparsity; technical and commercial viability should be assessed independently.
H01G · Capacitors (device-level)
H01G carries 14 patent records in this corpus, representing only 5 percent of the IPC class distribution, despite capacitors being the core physical component of EDLCs. The gap between device-level capacitor patents and system-level power-management patents suggests that cell-level balancing innovations — such as internal charge redistribution architectures or novel electrode configurations — remain relatively sparse. Teams with materials or device expertise may find this branch accessible without crowding from established system-integrators.
Search this in Eureka →H02M · Power Conversion (AC/DC)
H02M (power conversion circuits) accounts for only 10 patent records and 4 percent of the class distribution, even though DC-DC converters and bidirectional converters are central to practical EDLC balancing implementations. The sparsity here may reflect that applicants are filing converter-related claims under H02J rather than H02M, but it also points to a potential entry path for power-electronics specialists targeting converter topologies specifically optimized for ultracapacitor charge equalization.
Search this in Eureka →How leading filers differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H02J 7 · Power supply & grid systems | H01M 10 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01G 11 · Capacitors | H02M 3 · Power conversion (AC/DC etc.) | H02J 3 · Power supply & grid systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilowatt Labs Inc | Strong · 15 | Strong · 15 | Moderate · 5 | Absent | Absent |
| Paul Scherrer Institut | Strong · 10 | Absent | Absent | Emerging · 1 | Absent |
| Tilia International Inc | Strong · 7 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Rohm Co., Ltd. | Strong · 5 | Emerging · 1 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | Strong · 3 | Absent | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent |
| Vanner Inc | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Geotab Inc | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The current corpus contains 56 patent families in scope. This represents the deduplicated family count used as the basis for the landscape analysis.
Kilowatt Labs Inc holds the top position with 11 patent records, followed by Paul Scherrer Institut with 8 and Tilia International Inc with 6, based on the applicant ranking within the top-100 filers.
The lifecycle evidence classifies EDLC management and balancing as Mature. Annual filing volume has plateaued near its 2017 peak. The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag and should be treated as provisional.
The United States leads by patent-record count, followed by China and Europe (EPO). Japan and India are also active filing destinations. Teams conducting freedom-to-operate analysis should prioritize US, CN, and EP as the three highest-density jurisdictions.
The most active co-filing relationships involve Paul Scherrer Institut filing jointly with Michelin Recherche et Technique SA and with Conception & Developpement Michelin SA, with three co-filed records for each pair. This PSI–Michelin axis is the clearest collaborative cluster in the evidence.
H01G (capacitors, at 14 patent records) and H02M (power conversion, at 10 patent records) are the most notable adjacent branches with low coverage relative to the dominant H02J class. B60L (electric vehicle propulsion) and H05B (electric heating and lighting circuits) are also sparse. These observations reflect relative sparsity and do not in themselves confirm commercial opportunity.
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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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