Grid-Forming Inverter Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. the ranked leader holds 140 families and the top 5 combined account for just 14.1% of all 3,595 records in scope — no single filer controls the field.
- Power conversion dominates the claim space. H02M (power conversion) touches 46.1% of records, nearly 16 points ahead of H02P (motor and generator control) at 30.3%.
- Filing activity has cooled from its 2021 peak. volume ran from 208 filings in 2021 down to 127 in 2024, a 39% pullback over that span, even as several established leaders show zero filings in the latest tracked year.
Filing growth compares 2021 (208 records) with 2024 (127) — 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 3,595 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the grid-forming inverter patent record shows
Grid-forming inverters sit at the intersection of power electronics and grid control: patenting activity in this dataset spans power conversion topologies, motor and generator control, and grid-supply management, reflecting how the underlying technology serves both vehicle propulsion and utility-scale power systems. The search set covers 3,595 published records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from a query built around grid-forming and voltage-source inverter terminology paired with control-circuit and grid-frequency concepts.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2021, and has since pulled back — a pattern consistent with an initial wave of core topology and control claims giving way to a slower, more selective phase of filing. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate true filing volume and should be read as provisional.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,595-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the underlying technology splits across IPC subclasses.
A 2021 peak followed by a multi-year pullback
Filings climbed from 132 in 2017 to a peak of 208 in 2021, then fell to 127 by 2024 — a 39% decline over that three-year window. Readers should treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as evidence of a further slide, given the roughly 18-month publication lag.
Power conversion leads, but grid and motor control are close behind
H02M (power conversion) appears in 46.1% of the 3,595 records, ahead of H02P (motor and generator control) at 30.3% and H02J (power supply and grid systems) at 24.6%. Smaller but notable shares in B60L, G01R, H02K, G05F and H05B show the technology's reach into EV propulsion, measurement and thermal management, though these classes overlap heavily with the leaders rather than standing apart from them.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,595 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 Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about grid-forming inverters patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records anchoring this field
US20100171456A1 — Voltage source inverter with a voltage offset
Methods and apparatus are provided for operation of a voltage source inverter. A method of operating a voltage source inverter having an output with multiple voltage phases having a DC voltage level, the method comprising sensing a low output frequency condition; determining a DC voltage offset responsive to the low output frequency condition; and applying the DC voltage offset when operating the voltage source inverter resulting in a change to the DC voltage level of the multiple voltage phases.Filed by GM Global Technology Operations LLC, published 2010-07-08.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4965709A | Switching converter with pseudo-resonant DC link | 1,392 |
| 2 | US5798631A | Performance optimization controller and control method for doubly-fed machines | 692 |
| 3 | US5642275A | Multilevel cascade voltage source inverter with seperate DC sources | 559 |
| 4 | JP1983012577A | Controlling method for inverter | 524 |
| 5 | US7158395B2 | Method and apparatus for tracking maximum power point for inverters, for example, in photovoltaic applications | 405 |
| 6 | US7256566B2 | Method and apparatus for determining a maximum power point of photovoltaic cells | 402 |
| 7 | US5329222A | Apparatus and method for dynamic voltage restoration of utility distribution networks | 390 |
| 8 | US6031738A | DC bus voltage balancing and control in multilevel inverters | 327 |
| 9 | US20050002214A1 | Method and apparatus for tracking maximum power point for inverters, for example, in photovoltaic applications | 321 |
| 10 | US6469919B1 | Power supplies having protection circuits | 297 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, technology and citation data — useful for deciding where a new filing is likely to land clean and where it will compete against dense prior art.
No single filer controls grid-forming inverter claim space
The leader holds 140 families and the top 5 combined account for 14.1% of all records — a meaningfully lower concentration than fields with a dominant incumbent. A long tail of single- and few-filing entrants sits behind the ranked leaders, which points to a still-open competitive field rather than one locked up by a handful of players.
Power conversion claims dominate, but control-side claims are close behind
H02M (power conversion, AC/DC and related) touches nearly half of all records, reflecting how much of the field's IP sits in switching topology and power-stage design rather than in higher-level grid control. H02P and H02J together show that motor/generator control and grid-supply integration are substantial secondary claim areas, not afterthoughts.
Volume has pulled back from its 2021 peak, but several leaders show zero recent activity
Filings fell 39% from the 2021 peak of 208 to 127 in 2024, the last year that can be read as complete. Several of the field's established leaders show no filings in the latest tracked year, which may reflect either portfolio maturity or a lag in newer filings reaching publication.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to grid-forming inverters patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape: leaders, and where the gaps sit
The ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the full 3,595-record corpus. It is not a top-50 or top-100 cut of a larger universe — it is the complete ranked list the dataset returns, and the tail beyond it is unranked single-filer activity.
Automotive and industrial electronics majors set the pace
The leading assignee's 140 families sit well ahead of fifth place at 81 and tenth place at 51, showing a real but not overwhelming gap between the top of the ranking and the rest of the field. Several leaders combine automotive propulsion and grid-scale power electronics portfolios, consistent with the technology's dual use.
The top 10 hold under a quarter of all filings
Combined, the ten highest-ranked assignees account for 22.5% of the 3,595 records in scope. That leaves more than three-quarters of filing activity distributed across the remaining ranked companies and the unranked tail — a structure that rewards a freshly filed, well-drafted claim rather than one that simply outlasts an incumbent.
Some of the biggest historical filers show no activity in the latest tracked year
A number of assignees with substantial historical portfolios recorded zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this is at least partly a reporting artefact rather than a clean signal of withdrawal, but it is still worth checking against each company's more recent public announcements before assuming continued investment.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ENECSYS | 0 | — |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 0 | — |
| Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation | 0 | — |
| GE Renewable Technologies | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with real white space alongside dense prior art in specific claim areas. The next step is usually narrowing from subclass-level composition down to claim-level freedom-to-operate.
Map claim-level overlap in H02M before drafting
Power conversion claims cover 46.1% of records — the densest single area. Before drafting a new power-stage claim, check it against the most-cited filings in this class rather than relying on subclass share alone.
Explore H02M filings in EurekaTrack the under-claimed control branches
Droop control tuning, black-start sequencing and inertia emulation show thinner filing density than core power-stage claims. These are worth a freedom-to-operate check before a competitor closes the gap.
Run a white space search in EurekaWatch assignees with paused recent filing
Several established leaders show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Confirm whether that reflects a real pause or a publication-lag artefact before adjusting competitive assumptions.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaCommon questions about grid-forming inverter patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 140 patent families, with fifth place at 81 and tenth place at 51. The gap between the leader and the rest of the ranked field is real but not extreme — the top 5 assignees combined account for only 14.1% of all 3,595 records in scope, so no company controls the field outright. Automotive propulsion and industrial power-electronics companies appear prominently, reflecting the technology's use in both vehicle drivetrains and grid-scale power conversion.
The dominant class is H02M, covering AC/DC power conversion, which appears in 46.1% of the 3,595 records. H02P (control of motors and generators) and H02J (power supply and grid systems) follow at 30.3% and 24.6% respectively. Smaller shares in B60L, G01R, H02K, G05F and H05B show the technology's overlap with electric vehicle propulsion, measurement instrumentation and thermal management, though a single record often carries several of these classes at once.
Filing volume grew from 132 in 2017 to a peak of 208 in 2021, then declined to 127 by 2024 — a 39% drop over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still filling in and should not be read as confirmation of a continued decline. The honest read is that the field has moved past its initial filing surge into a more selective phase, not that interest has disappeared.
Relative to the dense claim activity in core power-stage and switching-topology work under H02M, several control-layer sub-areas show thinner filing density — droop control tuning, black-start sequencing for inverter-based resources, virtual synchronous machine inertia emulation, and multi-inverter frequency synchronization among them. These are grid-integration and control-behaviour claims rather than power-stage hardware claims, and they sit adjacent to where most existing filings are concentrated. A freedom-to-operate check in these specific sub-areas is more likely to surface open claim space than a search across the field as a whole.
US20100171456A1, filed by GM Global Technology Operations LLC and published 2010-07-08, claims a method of operating a voltage source inverter that senses a low output frequency condition, determines a DC voltage offset in response, and applies that offset to change the DC voltage level across the inverter's multiple voltage phases. The claim is specifically about correcting for low-frequency operating conditions through a voltage-offset mechanism, not about voltage source inverter topology generally. Anyone designing an offset-based correction scheme for low-frequency inverter operation should review this filing's exact claim language before assuming their approach is clear of it.
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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.