Gel Polymer Electrolyte Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has flattened, not grown. the field peaked at 101 filings in 2022 and has declined since, with 2026 filings (partial year) at 22 against 53 back in 2017.
- Concentration is real but not extreme. the five most active assignees hold 46.9% of all 962 records in scope, and the top ten hold 52.7% — leaving roughly half the field to a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Polymer chemistry classes trail battery classes by a wide margin. 93.1% of records sit in H01M (batteries), but the next-largest class, C08F addition polymers, appears in only 14.0% of records — a gap worth reading closely.
What this landscape covers
Gel polymer and semi-solid electrolytes sit at the boundary of battery engineering and polymer chemistry: claims in this dataset combine ionic conductivity, in situ curing or gelation, interfacial contact and mechanical strength as the recurring technical anchors. The search captures 962 published records spanning 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from filings that explicitly claim gel polymer electrolyte, in situ gelation electrolyte, or semi-solid electrolyte battery constructions alongside at least one of those performance or processing terms.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent filing years in this dataset understate real activity — 2026's count of 22 is a partial year, not a genuine trough. Reading the trend against the 2022 peak of 101 is the more reliable signal of where the field's attention actually moved.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 962-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the underlying claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose to a peak of 101 in 2022, then declined; 2026 is a partial year at 22, down from 53 in 2017. The shape suggests the field's claim space filled during 2019–2022 and has since consolidated rather than expanded.
IPC subclass composition
H01M (batteries, cells & fuel cells) covers 93.1% of the 962 records, confirming these are battery-first filings. Polymer-specific classes are comparatively thin — C08F at 14.0%, C08L at 9.5%, C08J at 7.4%, C08G at 6.8% — each record can carry several classes, so these shares are read against the full record count, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 962 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Gel Polymer and Semi-Solid Electrolytes with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about gel polymer and semi-solid electrolytes and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20020136958A1 — High ionic conductivity gel polymer electrolyte for rechargeable polymer batteries
Filed by SKC Co., Ltd. in 2002, this record describes gel polymer precursor electrolytes formed by dissolving a gelling agent into organic liquid electrolytes, then curing the precursor in situ at elevated temperature after it is poured into an assembled cell. The claimed electrolytes report ionic conductivity up to about 10-2 S/cm with voltage stability suited to lithium rechargeable batteries, built from nitrogen-group-containing polymers, copolymers, oligomers or monomers reactive with halogen or epoxide compounds.One of the earliest filings in this dataset to combine in situ curing with a quantified conductivity claim — a construction later filers had to design around or improve on.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140272595A1 | Compositions for use as protective layers and other components in electrochemical cells | 102 |
| 2 | US20130260257A1 | Electrolyte for lithium ion secondary battery and lithium ion secondary battery comprising the same | 102 |
| 3 | US20160118638A1 | Compositions for use as protective layers and other components in electrochemical cells | 101 |
| 4 | US20110206994A1 | Gel polymer electrolytes for batteries | 77 |
| 5 | US20140127577A1 | Polymers for use as protective layers and other components in electrochemical cells | 70 |
| 6 | US20130136998A1 | Electrolyte composition, gel polymer electrolyte, and lithium battery including the gel polymer electrolyte | 69 |
| 7 | US5637421A | Completely polymeric charge storage device and method for producing same | 69 |
| 8 | US7586663B1 | Gel polymer electrolytes | 68 |
| 9 | CN103840198A | 一种锂离子电池凝胶聚合物电解质及其制备方法 | 66 |
| 10 | CN103441300A | 含有天然高分子材料的凝胶聚合物电解质及其制备方法与应用 | 62 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data says about where this field stands
Three read-outs from the filing trend, the assignee concentration, and the technology composition — each with a direct implication for filing or freedom-to-operate decisions.
The field has passed its filing peak
Activity climbed steadily from 53 filings in 2017 to a peak of 101 in 2022, then declined. Given the ~18-month publication lag, 2025–2026 figures will revise upward, but the multi-year decline from the 2022 peak predates that lag and looks structural rather than a reporting artefact.
Concentrated at the top, long tail beneath
The leading assignee alone accounts for 330 of 962 records; the fifth-ranked holds 19 and the tenth 9. The top ten combined reach 52.7% of all records, meaning roughly half the field remains distributed across the other 90 ranked entities and unranked filers.
Battery framing dominates; polymer chemistry claims trail
Nearly all records frame their claims through H01M (battery cell construction), while polymer-specific classes such as C08F, C08L and C08J each cover well under 15% of records. That gap points to claim space in polymer formulation and processing that is comparatively under-filed relative to the battery-side art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to gel polymer and semi-solid electrolytes, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| LG Energy Solution, Ltd. | Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Hanyang University | 12 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Sion Power Corp. | 9 |
| Sion Power Corp. | BASF SE | 8 |
| Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. | Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Hanyang University | 5 |
| South China Normal University | Guangdong Jingjin Energy Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| Xerox Corporation | National Research Council of Canada | 4 |
| The Regents of the University of California | C.Uyin Incorporated | 3 |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | HA SOO HYUN | 2 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset; the strongest links a leading Korean battery manufacturer with a university partner (12 shared records), and a US national laboratory partner with a solid-state specialty firm (9 shared records) — evidence of applied-research collaboration rather than broad industry-wide co-filing.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The leader holds more than a third of the top-5 total on its own; beneath the top ten, filing activity spreads thinly across universities, specialty electrolyte firms and diversified battery makers.
One filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee's 330 records dwarf the rest of the field — more than the combined total of the next four leading filers. That scale reflects a battery manufacturer treating gel and semi-solid electrolyte claims as core defensive territory rather than a peripheral research line.
A sharp drop-off after the leader
Filing counts fall quickly outside the top few positions — the fifth-ranked assignee holds 19 records and the tenth holds 9, a gap that suggests most competitive activity concentrates among a small group rather than being evenly spread across the 100 ranked companies.
Even the leaders are pulling back
Recent-year filings from the most active assignees have dropped sharply — several of the top filers show zero filings in the latest year against their prior-year baseline. Combined with the publication lag, this likely mixes real slowdown with filings not yet published, but the direction across multiple leaders is consistent.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LG Energy Solution, Ltd. | 1 | -50% |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Hanyang University | 0 | -100% |
| South China Normal University | 0 | — |
| Sion Power Corp. | 0 | — |
| Kuraray Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above answer where the field has been. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means drilling into specific claims and specific assignees.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 330 of 962 records, any new filing in this space should be checked against that portfolio's claim scope before drafting, not after.
Search assignee portfolios in EurekaMap the under-claimed polymer classes
C08F, C08L and C08G each cover a small minority of records relative to H01M. Confirm whether that gap reflects genuine white space or claims filed under different IPC framing.
Run a class-level query in EurekaTrack momentum, not just cumulative counts
Several top assignees show sharp year-over-year declines. Rechecking this trend in six months, once the publication lag clears, will show whether the slowdown is real or a reporting gap.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This dataset contains 962 published patent records in scope, spanning filings from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. The assignee ranking covers 100 companies, and because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent years in the count will still revise upward as later filings publish. Patent families are the more reliable unit than raw document counts here, since families neutralise duplicate filings across jurisdictions.
Filing is concentrated: the top five assignees together hold 46.9% of all 962 records, and the top ten hold 52.7%. The single largest filer accounts for 330 records on its own, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 19. Beneath the top ten, activity spreads across a long tail of universities, specialty electrolyte makers and diversified battery manufacturers, each holding a handful of records.
Filings rose from 53 in 2017 to a peak of 101 in 2022, then declined in the years since, with 2026 (a partial year) at 22. That decline predates the publication lag that always understates the most recent one to two years, so the slowdown from the 2022 peak looks like a genuine shift in filing activity rather than a data artefact. Recent-year momentum figures for individual leading assignees show similarly sharp pullbacks.
Almost all records, 93.1% of the 962 in scope, are classified under H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells), confirming these are primarily battery-construction filings. Polymer-chemistry-specific classes are comparatively thin: C08F covers 14.0%, C08L 9.5%, C08J 7.4% and C08G 6.8%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add to more than 100% and should each be read against the full 962-record total, not against one another.
The clearest gap sits between the dominant battery-side framing (H01M at 93.1%) and the much thinner polymer-chemistry classes beneath it — condensation-polymer backbones (C08G, 6.8%), additive-driven mechanical tuning (C08K, 4.7%) and cable/insulator applications (H01B, 2.9%) all show comparatively low filing density. That does not guarantee an open field, since claims may exist under different classification, but it flags where a focused prior-art search is worth the time before assuming the space is closed.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
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.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.