Humanoid robot patents: mapping who leads, where filings cluster, and what is still open
Concentrated but not closed. The top 5 assignees hold 26.8% of all 2,085 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 37.6% — leaving most of the field to a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Annual filings moved from 66 in 2017 to a peak of 235 in 2025. The 2021→2024 span alone shows +18% growth (114 to 135), a complete-year comparison that avoids the understated tail of 2025-2026 filings still working through publication.
- 1HONDA MOTOR CO LTD10.3%
- 2SONY GROUP CORP7.6%
- 3UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD3.4%
- 4GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC2.9%
- 5SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD2.7%
See the full humanoid robots 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 humanoid robot patents
Who holds the most humanoid robot patents?
The ranked assignee list is led by a single company with 214 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked firm at 56 and the tenth at 40. The leader tier includes automotive OEMs, consumer electronics firms and dedicated robotics companies, but the top 10 combined only account for 37.6% of the 2,085 records in scope, so leadership is real but far from a monopoly. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at the full ranked list rather than assume the field is a two- or three-way race.
Is the humanoid robotics patent field growing or slowing down?
Filings grew from 114 in 2021 to 135 in 2024, an 18% increase over that three-year span, which is the most reliable complete-year comparison available. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in raw counts, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, not a real slowdown. Treat any apparent recent-year dip as provisional until later publication catches up.
What technology areas are most heavily patented in humanoid robots?
Mechanical manipulation and robot structure (IPC class B25J) dominate, appearing on 59.2% of the 2,085 records in scope. Control-related classes — electric data processing (G06F), non-electric variable control (G05D) and control/regulating systems (G05B) — each cover between 12% and 16% of records. Vision and recognition classes (G06T, G06V) are comparatively thin, at 6.8% and 3.9% respectively, despite their importance to real-world navigation and interaction.
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 Humanoid Robots 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.