Motor Control Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 13.3% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 19,697 of 148,148 records in scope — a real lead, but nowhere close to lock-up.
- Filings down 52% from 2021 to 2024. The complete-year count fell from 700 in 2021 to 337 in 2024, after a 2018 peak of 1,152 — a genuine pullback, not a data-lag artefact.
- H02P dominates the class map. Control of motors & generators (H02P) touches 5.9% of all records, more than triple the next most common class.
Filing growth compares 2021 (700 records) with 2024 (337) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 148,148 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset spans 148,148 published records matched against motor control terminology combined with power-stage and fault-protection language, filed between 2015 and the 2026-08-31 cut-off. The search string deliberately pairs the motor-control concept with hardware-level terms — switching frequency, current sensor, control circuit — so the corpus skews toward implementation claims rather than pure algorithmic control theory.
Because publication trails filing by roughly eighteen months, the last one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity. The most reliable read on momentum stops at 2024, the most recent year treatable as complete.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: annual filing volume, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that recur most often in motor control disclosures.
Filings declined sharply after the 2018 peak
Annual filings ran from 784 in 2017 to a peak of 1,152 in 2018, then declined to 337 by 2024 — a 52% drop across the 2021-to-2024 window. Years from 2025 onward are still filling in and should not be read as a continued fall.
H02P carries the field; surgical and EV classes trail
H02P (control of motors & generators) appears in 5.9% of all 148,148 records, ahead of A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 1.2%), H02M (power conversion, 1.1%), B60L (EV propulsion, 0.9%), H02K (electric motors & generators, 0.8%), G05B (control & regulating systems, 0.7%), H02H (protective circuits, 0.7%) and B62D (motor vehicles & steering, 0.7%). Because records can carry several classes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 148,148 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Motor Control Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about motor control patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
US20230097060A1 — Energy conversion device and vehicle (BYD Company Limited, 2023-03-30)
An energy conversion device is provided, including: a first electrical motor control circuit, where the first electrical motor control circuit is connected with a battery pack; a second electrical motor control circuit, where the second electrical motor control circuit is connected with the first electrical motor control circuit in parallel; and a controller, configured to: when operating in a first control mode, control the first electrical motor control circuit to charge and discharge the battery pack to heat the battery pack, and control the second electrical motor control circuit to output torque.The claim structure ties battery heating to the same dual-circuit hardware that drives propulsion torque, rather than treating thermal management as a separate subsystem.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8210411B2 | Motor-driven surgical cutting instrument | 5,047 |
| 2 | US8220688B2 | Motor-driven surgical cutting instrument with electric actuator directional control assembly | 4,066 |
| 3 | US8453914B2 | Motor-driven surgical cutting instrument with electric actuator directional control assembly | 2,730 |
| 4 | US9690362B2 | Surgical instrument control circuit having a safety processor | 2,507 |
| 5 | US20170296213A1 | Systems and methods for controlling a surgical stapling and cutting instrument | 2,425 |
| 6 | US10013049B2 | Power management through sleep options of segmented circuit and wake up control | 2,407 |
| 7 | US9895148B2 | Monitoring speed control and precision incrementing of motor for powered surgical instruments | 2,353 |
| 8 | US9629629B2 | Control systems for surgical instruments | 2,344 |
| 9 | US9050083B2 | Motorized surgical instrument | 2,332 |
| 10 | US20110006101A1 | Motor driven surgical fastener device with cutting member lockout arrangements | 2,182 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had longer to accumulate citations inside this searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three figures anchor the read on this field: how concentrated ownership actually is, how the filing curve has moved since the 2018 peak, and where technology claims cluster by IPC class.
Leadership is real but not a lock-up
The five leading assignees hold 19,697 records combined, 13.3% of all records in scope; the top ten add up to 20.4%. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants — a field with recognisable leaders but plenty of open room outside their core claims.
A real pullback from the 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 1,152 in 2018 and fell from 700 in 2021 to 337 in 2024 — a documented 52% decline across a complete-year window. Several of the most active historical filers show similarly steep year-on-year drops in the most recent tracked year, though 2025-onward figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
Control of motors & generators anchors the field
H02P covers 5.9% of all 148,148 records, well ahead of A61B surgical applications (1.2%) and H02M power conversion (1.1%). Protective-circuit and vehicle-steering classes (H02H, B62D) sit further down at 0.7% each, marking them as smaller but still active sub-fields.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to motor control patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the crowding is lighter
The ranked leaders include diversified industrials, automotive OEMs and a surgical-instrument specialist whose motor-driven cutting tools rank among the most-cited records in the corpus — a reminder that this search string catches both power-electronics hardware and surgical actuation claims.
The single largest filer by record count
The leading assignee's 4,728 records sit well above fifth place at 3,302 and tenth place at 1,612, showing a clear step-down rather than a tight cluster at the top.
Automotive supplier ties dominate co-assignment
Of 10 identified co-assignee pairs, the strongest link — an automotive OEM and its major electronics supplier — appears on 31 shared records, with two further OEM-supplier pairs at 18 and 15. Co-filing here tracks vertical supply relationships more than horizontal alliances.
Several long-time leaders show zero recent-year output
Two of the historically active assignees register zero filings in the latest tracked year, a -100% year-on-year change, while others among the recent-momentum group show declines of -85% to -96%. Read cautiously: the latest year is still filling in under normal publication lag.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Cilag GmbH International | 4 | -85% |
| Black & Decker (U.S.), Inc. | 1 | -88% |
| Lutron Technology Company LLC | 1 | -96% |
| Ethicon, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Denso Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The published trend and class map answer where the field has been. Deciding where to file next means testing a specific claim against the live art, not just the aggregate counts.
Check a draft claim against the crowded classes
H02P and H02M carry the densest prior art in this corpus. A claim landing there needs a tighter novelty search before drafting, not after.
Search this claim in Eureka →Track the assignees still filing after the 2018 peak
Momentum has dropped for several historical leaders; identifying who is still active tells you who to monitor for freedom-to-operate risk.
Monitor assignees in Eureka →Map the white space branches in detail
Lighter-filed classes like H02H and B62D may hold room for a defensible first claim, but that needs class-by-class inspection beyond this summary.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions about the motor control patent landscape
Filing in this corpus is led by a mix of diversified industrials and automotive-electronics suppliers, with the leading assignee holding 4,728 of the 148,148 records in scope. The gap from first to fifth place (3,302 records) and again to tenth (1,612) shows a step-down rather than a tight cluster, meaning no single company holds a dominant share. The top five combined account for 13.3% of all records, and the top ten for 20.4% — real leadership, but a long tail of smaller filers still covers the majority of the field.
Filings peaked in 2018 at 1,152 and have declined since, falling from 700 in 2021 to 337 in 2024 — a documented 52% drop across that window. Publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not yet be read as confirming a continued fall. Based on complete-year data, the trend through 2024 is a genuine pullback from the 2018 peak rather than steady growth.
H02P, covering control of motors and generators, is the largest single class, appearing in 5.9% of all 148,148 records — more than triple the next most common class. Power conversion (H02M) and surgical/diagnostic applications (A61B) follow at around 1% each, with EV propulsion (B60L), electric motor hardware (H02K), and protective circuits (H02H) trailing further behind. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages describe overlapping coverage rather than a strict partition of the field.
The search string used to build this corpus combines motor control terminology with hardware terms like current sensor and control circuit, which also appear heavily in motor-driven surgical instrument disclosures. Several of the most-cited records in this dataset are surgical cutting instruments with electric actuator control assemblies, reflecting that surgical robotics relies on precise motor control circuitry much like industrial and automotive applications do. This is a real technical overlap, not a search artefact, since surgical actuators and industrial drives share switching, sensing and fault-protection claim language.
Classes with lower record density than H02P — including protective circuit arrangements (H02H) and motor-vehicle steering integration (B62D), each at 0.7% of records — carry lighter filing pressure and may offer room for a defensible first claim. Sub-areas like fault-tolerant multi-phase current sensing and torque-linked battery self-heating circuits, visible in specific filings such as the BYD energy conversion device, also show thinner coverage than the core motor-control classes. Confirming true white space requires a claim-level search against live prior art, since aggregate class density is a starting signal, not a final answer.
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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.