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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/nmc-battery-binder-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Battery & Energy Storage · Patent LandscapeNMC Battery Binder Patents: Who Holds the Claims and Where They Thin Out
- A narrow field. Only 30 families sit at the intersection of NMC cathode chemistry and electrode binder claims — filing peaked in 2018 and has not returned to that level since.
- Coating chemistry, not binder chemistry, draws the citations. The most-cited records centre on core-shell oxide coatings and silicon oxide active materials, not on the binder polymer itself.
- Filing is US-anchored. Fifteen of the tracked filings route through the United States receiving office, more than double any other jurisdiction, with WIPO and Europe a distant second tier.
30
Published Records
77%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-80%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 30 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) cathode chemistry and electrode binder claims — PVDF-based, aqueous, and binder-free formulations captured under IPC classes H01M4/62, H01M4/1391 and C08L. The search window runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, though filings from the last eighteen months are understated because publication lags filing.
At 30 families, this is a tightly bounded field rather than a sprawling one. That makes individual filings — and individual co-filing relationships — more informative than they would be in a larger corpus, but it also means the ranking below reflects a small population and should be read as directional rather than exhaustive.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 30-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend has not recovered since its 2018 peak
Filings reached 5 in 2018, the high point of the tracked period. By the 2022 midpoint, annual filing had fallen to 2, and the series shows no sustained climb back toward peak levels through the most recent complete years. Read the final year or two as incomplete rather than as a genuine drop-off.
Classification is almost entirely battery-core, not adjacent
All 30 records classify under H01M (batteries, cells & fuel cells), confirming the search is on-target. Only a handful of records also touch B60L (EV propulsion), B22F (powder metallurgy) or C01D (alkali-metal compounds) — cross-domain filing into materials-processing or vehicle-integration claims is rare in this set.
Shares are the percentage of the 30 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The records the field cites most
Representative filing
US9614226B2 — Double-shell core lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides
UMICORE
A lithium transition metal oxide powder for use in a rechargeable battery is disclosed, where the surface of the primary particles of said powder is coated with a first inner and a second outer layer, the second outer layer comprising a fluorine-containing polymer, and the first inner layer consisting of a reaction product of the fluorine-containing polymer and the primary particle surface. An example of this reaction product is LiF, where the lithium originates from the primary particles surface. Also as an example, the fluorine-containing polymer is either one of PVDF, PVDF-HFP or PTFE.Filed by UMICORE, granted 2017-04-04. Notable for claiming a reaction layer formed between the binder polymer and the active particle surface, rather than the binder itself as a distinct phase.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190207209A1 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 51 |
| 2 | US20120270104A1 | Double-Shell Core Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxides | 35 |
| 3 | US20200411901A1 | Lithium ion cells with high performance electroyte and silicon oxide active materials achieving very long cyc… | 20 |
| 4 | WO2011054440A1 | Double-shell core lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides | 20 |
| 5 | WO2019126549A1 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 10 |
| 6 | US11094925B2 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 10 |
| 7 | US20210336251A1 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 8 |
| 8 | US20180331389A1 | Lithium ion battery | 6 |
| 9 | US20210028445A1 | Method of Preparing Positive Electrode Active Material | 5 |
| 10 | US11973178B2 | Lithium ion cells with high performance electrolyte and silicon oxide active materials achieving very long cy… | 4 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting claims or scoping freedom-to-operate in this space.
Filing volume
30 families
total tracked
A small, bounded field
With 30 families across eleven years, this is not a crowded art. Claim space around binder-free electrodes and aqueous binder formulations for NMC cathodes remains genuinely open rather than merely under-searched.
Peak year: 2018 (5 filings)
Citation pattern
51 citations
top-cited record
Citations cluster on active-material coatings
The two highest-cited records concern silicon oxide active materials and core-shell cathode coatings, not binder polymer chemistry itself. A binder-specific filing that references these will be citing adjacent art, not direct precedent.
Top record: US20190207209A1
Jurisdiction
15 of 30
route via USPTO
Filing is concentrated in the US
Half the tracked families file through the United States, with WIPO and European filings a distant second tier and Canada, India and Brazil registering only one or two filings each. A freedom-to-operate check weighted toward the US will cover most of the documented art.
WIPO: 5 · EPO: 4 · Canada: 2
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
identified
Co-filing is concentrated among a few individuals
The strongest co-assignee links all run through a single named inventor paired separately with two others, each appearing three times. That is a tight collaboration core rather than a broad industry consortium.
Strongest pairs: 3 co-filings each
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nmc battery binder, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the claims
The assignee ranking spans corporate filers and named individual inventors, with recent-year momentum flat across the tracked leaders — consistent with the overall filing slowdown after 2018.
Corporate assignee
0 in latest year
recent momentum
UMICORE and peers hold the coating-layer claims
UMICORE's double-shell core oxide patents anchor the most-cited cluster in this dataset, but recent-year filing activity for the tracked corporate assignees, including UMICORE, GM's global technology operations entity and others, sits flat rather than climbing.
Representative record: US9614226B2
Individual inventor cluster
3 co-filings
strongest pair
A small named-inventor core drives co-filing
PAULSEN JENS appears as the common node across the three strongest co-assignee pairs in this dataset, each linked to a different named co-inventor. This points to one research group as the field's most consistent collaborative filer.
Pairs: Paulsen+Kim, Paulsen+Hong, Paulsen+De Palma
Recent activity
0 in latest year
across tracked leaders
No assignee shows fresh momentum
Every leading assignee tracked, corporate and individual alike, shows zero filings in the most recent year captured. Given the 18-month publication lag, this likely understates true recent activity rather than confirming a full stop.
Check again once the current filing year is complete
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Zenlabs Energy, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Umicore (Belgium) | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| PAULSEN JENS | 0 | — |
| KIM KYUBO | 0 | — |
| HONG HEONPYO | 0 | — |
| DE PALMA RANDY | 0 | — |
| VIDYASIRIMEDHI INSTITITE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (VISTEC) | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Turning this landscape into a filing or FTO decision
A 30-family dataset narrows the questions worth asking next, but answering them for a specific product design needs claim-level analysis this page does not attempt.
Map claims against a specific binder formulation
Run the exact aqueous or binder-free formulation under review against the coating-layer and reaction-product claims held by the leading assignees here, rather than against the field in aggregate.
Explore this in Eureka →Watch the named-inventor collaboration core
The strongest co-filing links in this dataset run through one inventor group. Track their continuation filings specifically, since they are the most active drafting hand in the field.
Set up monitoring in Eureka →Revisit the trend once the current year completes
Recent-year filing counts are understated by the publication lag. Re-run this landscape after the current filing year closes before concluding the field has gone quiet.
Track filing trends in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Questions practitioners ask about this space
This dataset identifies 30 patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off that combine NMC cathode chemistry claims with electrode binder claims under IPC classes H01M4/62, H01M4/1391 and C08L. That is a small, bounded field compared with broader lithium-ion cathode or electrolyte categories. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true current total is likely somewhat higher than what has published so far.
UMICORE holds one of the most-cited filings in this space, centred on double-shell core lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide coatings that interact with fluorine-containing binder polymers like PVDF. A small group of named individual inventors, led by a researcher who appears in the field's three strongest co-assignee pairs, drives much of the collaborative filing. No single assignee shows growing filing momentum in the most recent tracked year, though that likely reflects publication lag rather than an actual stop in activity.
PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) is the incumbent binder chemistry for NMC cathodes, typically dissolved in an organic solvent like NMP during electrode fabrication, and it appears repeatedly in this dataset's coating and reaction-layer claims. Aqueous binder systems replace that solvent with water-based formulations, which can lower processing cost and environmental impact but raise different adhesion and cathode-stability challenges. This dataset shows aqueous binder claims as a comparatively thin sub-area relative to PVDF-linked coating claims, suggesting more open claim space there.
Based on the IPC composition in this dataset, binder-free electrode fabrication is a relatively under-claimed branch compared with the core PVDF and coating-layer claims that dominate the most-cited records. Thin filing density here means less prior art to design around, not that the technology is unproven or unworkable. Anyone drafting in this area should still run a dedicated freedom-to-operate search, since a 30-family public dataset will not surface every relevant pending application.
US9614226B2, assigned to UMICORE and granted in 2017, claims a lithium transition metal oxide powder with a two-layer surface coating where the inner layer is a reaction product between a fluorine-containing polymer (such as PVDF, PVDF-HFP or PTFE) and the particle surface. It sits among the most-cited records in this dataset because it links cathode surface chemistry directly to binder polymer interaction, a combination that later coating and binder filings frequently reference. Its citation count reflects influence on subsequent filings in a searched corpus, not a claim to current market dominance.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on NMC Battery Binder covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.