Grid-Forming Inverter Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 48.6% of all 144 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 70.1% — a narrow group of filers controls most of the claim space.
- Filing has plateaued, not grown. Annual filings held flat from 2021 to 2024 (3 to 3, 0% change), with a peak of 14 filings in 2023, suggesting the pace of new claims has stabilised rather than accelerated.
- Protection and control classes trail power classes. H02H protective circuit arrangements appear in 16.7% of records versus 27.8% for H02J power supply and grid systems — fault-handling claims are proportionally thinner than the base power architecture they protect.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (3) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 144 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Grid-forming inverters increasingly stand in for synchronous generators on inverter-based grids, but they need a way to survive and clear faults without the fault-current headroom a rotating machine provides. This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of fault-current limiting and grid-forming or inverter-based power conversion, drawing on 144 published records filed between 2015 and 2026. The scope spans utility-scale converter architectures, wind and renewable interconnection hardware, and the protective circuitry that governs how these inverters respond when a short circuit occurs.
Filing is dominated by a handful of established power-equipment manufacturers, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025–2026 figures in any trend view understate current activity and should be read as provisional.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views matter here: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Neither view alone tells you where to file next — together they show a field that has stopped growing in volume while remaining technically broad.
Filing trend, 2015–2026
Annual filings peaked at 14 in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 span shows 3 filings in both years, a 0% change — flat rather than declining, once the understated 2025–2026 tail is set aside.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H02J (power supply and grid systems) leads at 27.8% of the 144 records, closely followed by H04B (transmission, general) at 26.4% and H02M (power conversion) at 25.0%. Protection-specific classes — H02H at 16.7% and switches/relays under H01H at 4.9% — sit well below the core power-architecture classes, and narrower branches like F03D wind motors and G05F variable control each cover 5.6% of records.
Shares are the percentage of the 144 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Grid-Forming Inverters — Fault-Current Limiting for Grid-Forming Inverters Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about grid-forming inverters — fault-current limiting for grid-forming inverters patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Modular multi-level power conversion system with DC fault current limiting capability
A power converter module built from converter legs with switching units in opposing orientations, paired with an energy storage device, to give a modular multi-level converter DC fault current limiting capability without external hardware.Filed by General Electric Company, published 2014-11-27 as US20140347898A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JP1988059764A | DC-DC converter and method of DC-DC conversion | 490 |
| 2 | WO1995029537A1 | Powerline communications network employing TDMA, FDMA and/or CDMA | 488 |
| 3 | US6670721B2 | System, method, rotating machine and computer program product for enhancing electric power produced by renewa… | 334 |
| 4 | US6144292A | Powerline communications network employing TDMA, FDMA and/or CDMA | 254 |
| 5 | EP0756786A1 | Powerline communications network employing TDMA, FDMA and/or CDMA | 219 |
| 6 | US6097582A | Short circuit protection of IGBTs and other power switching devices | 163 |
| 7 | US20030011348A1 | System, method, rotating machine and computer program product for enhancing electric power produced by renewa… | 128 |
| 8 | US20100292853A1 | Electric power distribution methods and apparatus | 104 |
| 9 | US20100176755A1 | Power conversion system and method | 93 |
| 10 | US20140078622A1 | Circuit breakers | 75 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the class mix are read together: concentration among a small group of assignees, a filing pace that has levelled off, and a technology mix weighted toward power architecture over protection-specific claims.
A small group sets the claim boundaries
With the top 5 assignees holding 48.6% of all 144 records and the top 10 holding 70.1%, most of the foundational architecture claims already sit with a handful of established power-equipment firms. New entrants are more likely to find room in narrower protective or control sub-claims than in core converter topology.
Volume has plateaued since the 2023 peak
Filings peaked at 14 in 2023 and the annual count returned to 3 by 2024, matching the 2021 level — a flat three-year span rather than a growth curve. Because 2025–2026 publications are still arriving, this plateau should be read as the current steady state, not a decline.
Protection claims trail power-architecture claims
H02J and H02M together describe the bulk of filed converter and grid-interface architecture, while H02H protective circuitry and H01H switches/relays cover a smaller share of the same record set. That gap is where fault-response-specific claims — as opposed to general converter topology — have more open room.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to grid-forming inverters — fault-current limiting for grid-forming inverters patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranked leaders are drawn mostly from established power-conversion and grid-equipment manufacturers, with renewables-focused subsidiaries and a long tail of single-filing entrants beneath them. Recent-year momentum across the leading names is flat, consistent with the plateau seen in the overall trend.
A converter-hardware incumbent sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 31 of the 144 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place filer at 9. That gap indicates a first-mover advantage in core converter and fault-limiting architecture rather than a crowded, evenly split field.
A cluster of established equipment makers follows
Positions two through five hold single-digit-to-low-double-digit record counts, populated largely by long-established power and renewables equipment manufacturers rather than new entrants — consistent with a field where interconnection standards and grid codes favour incumbents.
A long tail of narrow, few-filing entrants
Beyond the top 10, which together hold 70.1% of the 144 records, the remaining ranked assignees each contribute a small number of filings. This is typical of a field where the foundational claims are staked but specific implementation variants remain open to smaller filers.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NORWEB | 0 | — |
| AMPERION INC | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Ingeteam Power Technology | 0 | — |
| GE Energy Power Conversion Technology Ltd (GB) | 0 | — |
| General Electric Renovables Espana SL | 0 | — |
| ABB (Schweiz) AG | 0 | — |
| MCDONNELL ALAN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with settled architecture claims at the top and open room in protection-specific and cross-disciplinary sub-areas. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or identifying a filing gap.
Map claims against the leader's portfolio
Before drafting new claims in DC fault current limiting or modular multi-level architecture, check freedom-to-operate against the leading assignee's 31-record portfolio, since that is where foundational claim scope is most likely to sit.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack the protection-class gap over time
H02H protective circuitry sits well below H02J and H02M in record share. Monitoring whether that gap narrows as inverter-based resources scale could signal where the next wave of filings will concentrate.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaValidate white space before drafting
The gate chips above point to under-claimed intersections rather than confirmed open space. Run a targeted search against the full corpus before committing drafting resources to any one branch.
Explore the full landscape in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
A small group of established power-equipment manufacturers dominates this field. The top 5 assignees together hold 48.6% of the 144 records in scope, and the leading single assignee alone accounts for 31 records against 9 for the fifth-ranked filer. This pattern indicates that foundational converter and fault-limiting architecture claims are concentrated rather than evenly spread across many companies, which matters for anyone assessing freedom-to-operate before filing new claims in this space.
Filing volume peaked at 14 records in 2023 and had returned to 3 by 2024, matching the 2021 level, for a 0% change across that three-year span. This reads as a plateau rather than a decline. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend chart are still filling in and should not be used to claim the field is slowing further.
The scope combines fault-current limiting techniques with grid-forming and inverter-based power conversion. The IPC composition shows the heaviest concentration in H02J power supply and grid systems (27.8% of 144 records), H04B transmission (26.4%), and H02M power conversion (25.0%), with protective circuitry under H02H covering 16.7% and narrower branches such as F03D wind motors and G05F variable control each around 5.6%. A single record can carry several of these classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
The gap between the core power-architecture classes and the protection-specific classes is the clearest signal: H02H protective circuitry and H01H switches and relays cover a smaller share of records than H02J or H02M, suggesting fault-response-specific claims are less crowded than general converter topology. Intersections with wind-turbine integration (F03D) and variable control (G05F) also show comparatively low representation. Any white-space claim should still be validated against the full corpus, since low class representation is a signal to investigate, not a guarantee of open space.
US20140347898A1, filed by General Electric Company, describes a modular multi-level power converter with converter legs arranged so switching units sit in opposing orientations relative to one another, paired with an energy storage device, giving the module DC fault current limiting capability. It is a representative example of the architecture-level claims that sit with the leading assignees in this dataset rather than a definitive blocking patent on its own. Anyone designing a modular multi-level converter with built-in DC fault limiting should review this filing's claim scope specifically, but a full freedom-to-operate view requires checking it against the wider portfolio held by the same assignee family.
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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.