Li-Ion Capacitor Current Collector Patent Snapshot
The Li-ion capacitor current collector space is a tightly held, mature niche dominated by the Sumitomo Electric group, which together accounts for the substantial majority of documented filings. Annual activity peaked in 2019 and has since eased, signalling a field in decline where incumbent know-how is deeply entrenched and entry barriers for new filers are correspondingly high.
Sumitomo Electric and its affiliate command the field
Sumitomo Electric Industries leads the applicant ranking with 41 patent records, followed closely by its affiliate Sumitomo Electric Toyama with 37 patent records — together they represent the overwhelming majority of activity in the top-100 filer group.
The top five filers collectively hold 87% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query, a concentration level that leaves almost no meaningful share for the remaining ranked applicants. The tier gap between the Sumitomo pair and the third-ranked Subaru Corp (9 patent records) is stark.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd | 41 | |
| 2 | Sumitomo Electric Toyama Co Ltd | 37 | |
| 3 | Subaru Corporation | 9 | |
| 4 | UACJ Corporation | 5 | |
| 5 | Musashi Energy Solutions Co Ltd | 3 | |
| 6 | Shin-Kobe Electric Machinery Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 7 | JM Energy Corporation | 2 | |
| 8 | DONGGUAN DONGYANG SOLAR SCI RES & DEV CO LTD | 1 | |
| 9 | Xike Micro-Nano (Chongqing) New Energy Technology Research Institute Co Ltd | 1 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Vinatech Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 11 | Korea Electric Power Corporation | 1 | |
| 12 | Semicon Energy Lab Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 13 | GODI India Pvt Ltd | 1 | |
| 14 | KOREA INST OF CERAMIC ENG & TECH | 1 | |
| 15 | Furukawa Electric Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 16 | Amotech Co Ltd | 1 | |
| 17 | Lingrong New Energy Technology (Shanghai) Inc | 1 |
This degree of concentration means the Sumitomo group effectively defines the prior art evidence snapshot; any new entrant must navigate a dense thicket of aluminum porous-body and electrode-structure patents before establishing a differentiated position.
Filings from approximately 2024 onward are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; the apparent low recent activity should be interpreted cautiously. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2019 peak followed by easing activity across a dual-class technology base
The annual filing trend and the IPC technology composition together reveal a field that is technically mature and narrowly defined, with most innovation anchored in two primary classification areas.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings reached their highest point in 2019 (4 records) and have been intermittent and low-volume since. The field is classified as Decline, with annual volume easing back from that peak. Data for 2024–2026 is subject to publication lag and should be treated as a lower bound.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01G (Capacitors) and H01M (Batteries, cells and fuel cells) are visible in the IPC mix, reflecting the hybrid electrochemical nature of the device. Secondary branches — B32B (layered products), C25D (electroplating), and B30B (presses) — each account for a small share, indicating that manufacturing-process and materials-structuring angles are comparatively under-developed.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Three-dimensional network aluminum porous body for…
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet-shaped three-dimensional network aluminum porous body which is suitably used as current collector base materials of an electrode for a nonaqueous electrolyte battery and an electrode for a capacitor using a nonaqueous electrolytic solution, and an electrode, a capacitor and a lithium-ion capacitor… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three-dimensional network aluminum porous body, el… | 57 |
| 2 | Electrode, power storage device, electronic device… | 43 |
| 3 | 一种锂离子电容器用负极片及其制备方法 | 38 |
| 4 | Three-dimensional network aluminum porous body for… | 25 |
| 5 | Lithium-ion capacitor | 25 |
| 6 | Three-dimensional network aluminum porous body for… | 18 |
| 7 | 一种锂离子电容器集流体用多孔铜箔的制备方法 | 16 |
| 8 | Lithium ion capacitor electrode using fibrous curr… | 16 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Sumitomo Electric Industries
The top-ranked filer with 41 patent records, Sumitomo Electric Industries concentrates its portfolio in H01G 11 (Capacitors), H01M 4, and H01M 10 (Batteries and cells) — the full electrochemical stack relevant to hybrid energy storage. Its affiliate Sumitomo Electric Toyama mirrors this focus with 37 patent records and an identical IPC emphasis, indicating a coordinated group strategy built around three-dimensional aluminum porous-body current collectors. No recent momentum data is available to assess trajectory.
patent records: 41Subaru Corp
Third-ranked with 9 patent records, Subaru Corp is the most significant filer outside the Sumitomo group. Its IPC focus covers H01G 11, H01G 9 (broader capacitors), and H01M 10, suggesting an automotive application driver for its current-collector work — consistent with its vehicle electrification business. The gap to the Sumitomo pair is substantial. No momentum data is available to determine whether Subaru’s activity is accelerating or tapering.
patent records: 9Frequently asked questions
Sumitomo Electric Industries leads with 41 patent records, and its affiliate Sumitomo Electric Toyama follows with 37 patent records. Together they account for the visible share of the top-100 filer group, with technology concentrated in capacitor (H01G 11) and battery cell (H01M 4, H01M 10) classifications.
The field is assessed as being in Decline. Annual filings peaked in 2019 and have since eased. This indicates the foundational patent landscape is largely set, and new broad claims in the core architectural space will be difficult to obtain.
The United States leads by patent-record count, followed by South Korea, Europe (EPO), and China. The United States has been the primary protection market for incumbent filers. China’s relatively low record count, alongside two Chinese applicants now appearing in the ranking, suggests the jurisdiction may see incremental activity going forward.
Co-filing activity is almost entirely confined to the Sumitomo group: Sumitomo Electric Industries and Sumitomo Electric Toyama have 32 joint filings. UACJ Corp has one joint filing each with two partners, but no broad cross-industry or academic collaboration pattern is evident in the evidence.
C25D (Electroplating and electroforming) and B32B (Layered products and laminates) each have very low patent-record counts — 4 and 5 respectively — despite being technically adjacent to current-collector manufacturing. These are observations of relative sparsity; any entry would require freedom-to-operate analysis against the Sumitomo prior art base.
The most-cited document in the evidence concerns three-dimensional network aluminum porous bodies for electrodes, with 57 citations. The second most-cited covers electrode and power storage device structures (43 citations), followed by a Chinese-language document on Li-ion capacitor negative electrode sheets (38 citations). These citation leaders confirm that porous aluminum current-collector architecture is the technical core of the field.
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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.
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