HVDC Circuit Breaker Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
High-Voltage DC Circuit Breaker Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 50.8% of all 181 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 75.1% — a narrow field to watch, not a fragmented one. Filings ran from 19 in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2018, then eased through the early 2020s — 10 in 2021 down to 5 in 2024, a -50% move over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as a continued decline.
- 1STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA23
- 2GLOBAL ENERGY INTERCONNECTION RES INST CO LTD23
- 3NR ELECTRIC CO LTD16
- 4NR ENG CO LTD16
- 5GENERAL ELECTRIC TECH GMBH14
See the full high voltage dc circuit breakers 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 on HVDC circuit breaker patents
Who holds the most patents on high-voltage DC circuit breakers?
The dataset shows a clear leader holding 23 of the 181 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 14 and the tenth-ranked at 6. The top 5 assignees combined account for 50.8% of all records, and the top 10 account for 75.1%, so filing activity is concentrated in a small group of grid operators, research institutes and switchgear manufacturers rather than spread evenly across the 77 companies in the ranking. Anyone assessing competitive risk in this space should start with that leadership group rather than the long tail.
Is patent filing for HVDC circuit breakers growing or slowing?
Filing peaked at 20 records in 2018 and had fallen to 5 by 2024, down from 10 in 2021 — a -50% move over that three-year span. However, because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any such dataset are still incomplete and understate real activity. The honest read is that 2024 marks the most recent complete year, and it shows a cooled but still active field.
What technology areas do HVDC circuit breaker patents cover?
The large majority of records sit in two IPC subclasses: H02H, protective circuit arrangements, at 61.9% of all 181 records, and H01H, switches and relays, at 58.0%. Smaller shares touch power supply and grid systems (H02J, 8.3%), pulse-logic control (H03K, 5.5%) and measurement (G01R, 5.0%), with power conversion and EV propulsion barely represented. This tells a filer that claim density concentrates on fault protection and physical switching mechanisms, not on the surrounding conversion electronics.
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 High Voltage DC Circuit Breakers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.