Electric Machines & Drives Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Electric Machines & Drives Patents: Who Leads and Where the Filing Activity Sits
Concentrated but not locked down. the top 5 assignees hold 15.3% of all 17,652 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 23.0% — a leader plus a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings ran from 849 in 2017 to a peak of 1,001 in 2021, then declined to 455 by 2024 — a -55% move over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are shown for completeness but should be read as undercounted, since publication typically lags the underlying filing by around 18 months.
- 1GENERAL ELECTRIC CO4.0%
- 2DENSO CORP3.4%
- 3FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC2.8%
- 4MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP2.6%
- 5ABB AB2.5%
See the full electric machines & drives patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about the electric machines and drives patent landscape
Who holds the most patents in electric machines and drives?
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, with the leading assignee holding 711 records and the fifth-place holder at 439. The top 5 combined account for 15.3% of all 17,652 records in scope, and the top 10 combined account for 23.0%. This is a leader-plus-long-tail structure rather than a market controlled by one or two firms, so freedom-to-operate work needs to look beyond just the largest filers.
Is patent filing in electric machines and drives growing or shrinking?
Filing volume rose to a peak of 1,001 records in 2021 and declined to 455 by 2024, a -55% move over that three-year span. That is the most recent period that can be treated as complete. Years after 2024 in the trend data are still filling in because publication typically lags the actual filing date by roughly 18 months, so it is too early to read those years as a continuing decline.
What technology areas dominate electric machines and drives patents?
Electric motors and generators, classified under IPC subclass H02K, appear in 67.7% of all 17,652 records — by far the largest single category. Control of motors and generators (H02P) follows at 13.6%, with magnets and transformers (H01F) and EV propulsion (B60L) forming a smaller middle tier. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than summing to 100%.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Electric Machines & Drives Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.