Lithium Manganese Oxide Cathode Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2020 and has not recovered. the 2022 midpoint sits at just 2 filings, against a 2020 high of 13 — this is a claim space that filled early rather than one still expanding.
- H01M and C01G define the mainstream route. 180 of 181 records sit in H01M, and 94 also touch C01G, meaning almost every serious filing pairs cell architecture claims with compound-chemistry claims.
- The oldest patents still carry the most weight. US5135732A and US6183718B1, filed decades ago, are the most-cited records in the corpus — later filings build on this base rather than replacing it.
A mature, concentrated claim space
Lithium manganese oxide, most often filed as spinel LiMn2O4, is a cathode chemistry defined in patent terms by two persistent goals: stabilising the compound against manganese dissolution during cycling, and improving elevated-temperature cycle life. The 181 families in this dataset span 2017 through a partial 2026, and the vast majority sit inside a single IPC intersection — batteries and cells (H01M) layered with compounds of other metals (C01G) — rather than spreading across a wide range of adjacent technology classes.
Filing activity is not accelerating. It rose to a peak in 2020, fell back sharply, and sat at a low midpoint in 2022, which suggests the foundational stabilisation approaches were claimed early and later work has mostly built on top of them rather than opening new ground. Publication lag means the final year or two of any dataset understates true activity, but the multi-year pattern before that window is clear enough to read on its own.
Filing trends and technology composition
Filings in this dataset run from 2017 through a partial 2026, with publication lag meaning the most recent one or two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
A peak in 2020, then a flat-to-declining line
Filings rose to 13 in 2020, the high point of the series, then fell back — the 2022 midpoint sits at just 2, and the trend has not recovered toward the 2020 peak since. That pattern reads as a technology area whose core claim space filled early rather than one still building momentum.
H01M and C01G dominate; everything else is a minor branch
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) covers all but one of the 181 records, and C01G (compounds of other metals) appears in roughly half — the two together define the mainstream claim. C01B, A24F, H02J, B82Y, C01D and B60L each account for a small fraction, marking exploratory or adjacent filings rather than a second major route.
Shares are the percentage of the 181 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Lithium Manganese Oxide Battery Cathode Material with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about lithium manganese oxide battery cathode material and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents everything else in this space cites
Photo-assisted fast charging of lithium manganese oxide spinel (LiMn2O4) in lithium-ion batteries
An electrochemical cell includes a cathode, an anode, a non-aqueous electrolyte, and a cathode illumination source.Filed by UCHICAGO ARGONNE, LLC on 2018-01-25, this record layers a photo-assisted charging mechanism on top of the standard spinel LMO cathode cell architecture, rather than modifying the base chemistry itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5135732A | Method for preparation of LiMn2O4 intercalation compounds and use thereof in secondary lithium batteries | 119 |
| 2 | US6183718B1 | Method of making stabilized electrochemical cell active material of lithium manganese oxide | 116 |
| 3 | US5869207A | Stabilized electrochemical cell | 90 |
| 4 | US6489060B1 | Rechargeable spinel lithium batteries with greatly improved elevated temperature cycle life | 67 |
| 5 | US5211933A | Method for preparation of LiCoO2 intercalation compound for use in secondary lithium batteries | 60 |
| 6 | US6960335B1 | Nanostructured and layered lithium manganese oxide and method of manufacturing the same | 50 |
| 7 | WO2000023380A1 | Lithium manganese oxide and methods of manufacture | 40 |
| 8 | US5846673A | Additive to stabilize electrochemical cell | 37 |
| 9 | US6869547B2 | Stabilized electrochemical cell active material | 36 |
| 10 | US20020070374A1 | Stabilized electrochemical cell active material | 34 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings are structurally favoured, so read this as influence, not current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three figures from this dataset matter more than the raw counts: where filing peaked, how tightly the technology clusters in two IPC subclasses, and how few organisations actually collaborate on record.
Momentum has not held
The series climbs to 13 filings in 2020 and drops to 2 by the 2022 midpoint. That is not a technology accelerating toward commercialisation; it is one whose core claims were staked out earlier and has since gone quiet, publication lag aside.
Almost everything sits in one subclass
H01M covers all but a single record in this corpus, with C01G layered on top in roughly half of them. A new filer entering this space is entering an already-dense H01M/C01G intersection, not a greenfield IPC area.
Few organisations file together
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across 181 families, and the strongest links trace to a small number of named inventors tied to their home institutions. This is a field of largely independent filers rather than a densely networked research consortium.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to lithium manganese oxide battery cathode material, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who filed, and who has gone quiet
Recent-year momentum across the named assignees in this corpus is uniformly flat — every one of the tracked organisations, from Valence Technology to UChicago Argonne, shows zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader post-2020 decline. That makes the historical filing record, not recent activity, the more useful signal for this field.
A field defined by past filings, not present ones
Every named assignee tracked in this dataset, including national-laboratory and named-inventor entities, shows no filings in the most recent year. Combined with the 2020 peak and 2022 decline, this points to a technology whose active claim-staking period has passed, at least in this searched corpus.
Valence Technology and Jeremy Barker anchor one cluster
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links Valence Technology with named inventor Jeremy Barker, appearing together across several families — a tight, identifiable cluster rather than a broad industry consortium.
National-lab and university collaboration is narrow but real
UChicago Argonne and Northwestern University form the second-strongest co-assignee pair, reflecting a national-laboratory-to-academia pipeline that is present but limited to a small number of shared families.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Valence Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| UChicago Argonne, LLC | 0 | — |
| Dyson Technology Limited | 0 | — |
| Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| BELL COMMUN RES INC | 0 | — |
| BARKER JEREMY | 0 | — |
| Leyden Strategic Holdings | 0 | — |
| SVOLT Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The filing and citation patterns above point to specific next checks rather than general conclusions.
Check freedom-to-operate against the core lineage
Before filing on any spinel-stabilisation mechanism, check it against the citation cluster anchored by US5135732A and US6183718B1 — those claims still define the base chemistry that later filings build on.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaExplore the thin IPC branches directly
B60L and B82Y carry only a handful of records each in this corpus. Pulling the full text of those filings is the fastest way to confirm whether the white space is real or already narrowly claimed.
Explore adjacent branches in EurekaTrack named-inventor clusters, not just company names
Several of the strongest co-assignee pairs here link a company to a specific named inventor. Watching those individuals' continued filings can surface activity before it shows up under a corporate assignee search.
Set up inventor tracking in EurekaFrequently asked questions
Lithium manganese oxide, typically in its spinel form LiMn2O4, is used as a cathode active material in lithium-ion batteries. It is valued for thermal stability and rate capability compared with some layered oxide chemistries, which is why patent claims in this space concentrate on doping and stabilisation methods that address its main weakness: manganese dissolution into the electrolyte during cycling. The dataset behind this page shows claims spanning both the battery-cell architecture (H01M) and the underlying compound chemistry (C01G), reflecting that dual focus.
Citation counts in this corpus point to a small group of foundational filings rather than a single dominant owner — the most-cited records cover core LiMn2O4 preparation methods and stabilised active-material formulations dating back to the 1990s. Later filers in the space, including university and national-laboratory groups, tend to build on that base chemistry rather than replace it. Because citation counts favour older records, treat this as a map of technical influence, not a ranking of who is most active today.
Not on the evidence here. Filings peaked in 2020 and the 2022 midpoint sits well below that level, indicating flat-to-declining activity rather than sustained growth. That does not mean the chemistry is abandoned — publication lag of roughly 18 months means the last one or two years in any dataset understate true filing activity — but the multi-year trend before that lag window shows no clear upward momentum.
Manganese dissolution is the gradual loss of manganese ions from the spinel LiMn2O4 structure into the electrolyte during cycling, which degrades capacity over time. It is one of the core search terms defining this dataset because a large share of LMO cathode patent claims exist specifically to suppress it, through doping, surface coating or electrolyte additive approaches. Any new filing in this space needs to check its suppression mechanism against the heavily cited stabilisation patents already in force, since those cover the general concept broadly.
The smallest IPC branches in this dataset — B60L (electric vehicle propulsion integration) and B82Y (nanotechnology applications) — carry only a handful of records each, far below the dominant H01M and C01G branches. That gap suggests EV-specific duty-cycle claims and nanostructured-particle approaches to dissolution suppression are comparatively open, though a new filer still needs to differentiate from the broad stabilisation claims that anchor the core corpus.
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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.