Internal-Combustion Engines Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Internal-Combustion Engine Patents: Who Files, What They Claim, and Where Filings Are Slowing
20.6% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 37,210 of the 181,055 records in scope — a dense core surrounded by a long tail of smaller filers. Filings ran at 672 in 2017 and peaked at 683 in 2018, then declined; the clearest comparable window is 2021 (324) to 2024 (209), a 35% drop, taken as the most recent pair of years both largely complete.
- 1TOYOTA JIDOSHA KK8.7%
- 2FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC3.5%
- 3HONDA MOTOR CO LTD3.2%
- 4NISSAN MOTOR CO LTD2.8%
- 5DENSO CORP2.5%
See the full internal-combustion engines 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
Frequently asked questions
Who holds the most internal-combustion engine patents?
The ranking is led by a single assignee with 15,668 records, well ahead of the field — fifth place holds 4,438 and tenth place 2,136. The leaders are almost all automotive OEMs and their major component suppliers rather than combustion-technology specialists, reflecting how deeply engine control and fuel-system claims are tied to whole-vehicle platforms. The gap between first and fifth place is large enough that the leader’s own filing rate materially moves the field-wide trend.
Is internal-combustion engine patent filing still growing?
No — filings fell from 324 in 2021 to 209 in 2024, a 35% decline over that span, and the field peaked back in 2018 at 683 filings. The most recent one to two years in any chart will look even lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a further real drop. Taken together, the multi-year trend through the last complete year shows genuine contraction, not just an artefact of recent incomplete data.
What technology areas get the most internal-combustion engine patent filings?
Engine control (F02D) is the busiest IPC subclass, touching 5.8% of the 181,055 records in scope, ahead of fuel supply and carburettors (F02M, 3.5%) and core internal-combustion engine architecture (F02B, 3.5%). Exhaust treatment, separation processes, valve gear, ignition and cooling each sit well below that, at 2.3% or less. Because records often carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages describe filing density per class against the full record base, not a breakdown that sums to 100%.
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 Internal-Combustion Engines 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.