NMC Battery Cell Design Patent Landscape 2026
- Flat filing trend, not a growth market. Activity peaked at just 4 families in 2018 and the 2022 midpoint recorded zero, so the claim space has not been actively contested in recent years.
- Citation weight sits with silicon-oxide electrodes, not cathode blends. The four most-cited records all concern silicon oxide active materials, while the foundational blended-cathode claim from BASF carries fewer citations but anchors the field's earliest priority date.
- Nanostructuring is almost entirely unclaimed. Only 1 of 16 families touches the B82Y nanotechnology classification, against 16 in core battery-cell IPC codes — a narrow but largely open branch.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 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.
A narrow, structurally-focused claim space
NMC battery cell design patents in this dataset sit at the intersection of cathode chemistry and cell-structure claims — electrode stacking, cell format and energy-density design — rather than broad materials chemistry. The corpus is small: 16 patent families filed between 2015 and the current data cut-off, with filing activity that peaked in 2018 and has not recovered since. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very latest years in any such dataset will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but the flat midpoint year suggests this is a genuinely quiet field rather than one still catching up on disclosure.
The most-cited records point to silicon-oxide active-material electrodes as the sub-area other filers have most often built on, while the earliest priority date in the set belongs to a blended NMC/NCA cathode claim. Receiving-office data shows United States filings dominating, with Europe, WIPO, Canada, China and Germany each holding a handful of records — a jurisdictional footprint consistent with a technology still being protected primarily in its country of origin.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Sixteen patent families make up this landscape, filed between 2015 and the current data cut-off. The trend and IPC spread below show a narrow, structurally-focused field rather than a fast-moving one.
Filing activity has not trended upward
Filings peaked at 4 in 2018 and the midpoint year, 2022, recorded zero. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent years understate true filing activity, but even allowing for that lag this is a flat-to-declining trend rather than a growth curve.
Concentrated almost entirely in core battery classification
All sixteen records sit in H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells); only one touches B82Y (nanotechnology applications). That lopsided split means the claim space here is overwhelmingly about cell and electrode structure, with nanostructuring approaches still largely unclaimed.
Shares are the percentage of the 16 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on NMC Battery Cell Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about nmc battery cell design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe claim that anchors this landscape
Mixed lithium nickel cobalt oxide and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes
A positive electrode material is provided which is a blended combination of lithium nickel cobalt oxide (and aluminum substituted compounds thereof) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide. Also provided is a non-aqueous electrolyte lithium secondary battery having high specific capacity and good thermal stability characteristics.Filed by BASF Corporation; this family sits chronologically earliest in the dataset and anchors the blended-cathode approach that later, more-cited silicon-oxide electrode families were filed alongside rather than on top of.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200411901A1 | Lithium ion cells with high performance electroyte and silicon oxide active materials achieving very long cyc… | 20 |
| 2 | WO2019126549A1 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 10 |
| 3 | US11094925B2 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 10 |
| 4 | US20210336251A1 | Electrodes with silicon oxide active materials for lithium ion cells achieving high capacity, high energy den… | 8 |
| 5 | EP2351139B1 | Mixed lithium nickel cobalt oxide and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes | 7 |
| 6 | US11973178B2 | Lithium ion cells with high performance electrolyte and silicon oxide active materials achieving very long cy… | 4 |
| 7 | WO2010045203A1 | Mixed lithium nickel cobalt oxide and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes | 2 |
| 8 | US20240297338A1 | Lithium ion cells with high performance electrolyte and silicon oxide active materials achieving very long cy… | 1 |
| 9 | EP2351139A1 | Mixed lithium nickel cobalt oxide and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes | 1 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (9 of 9 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three findings stand out once family counts, citation weight and co-filing patterns are set side by side.
A field that has gone quiet
Filing peaked at 4 families in 2018 and the midpoint year of the range recorded zero. Even accounting for the roughly 18-month publication lag that always understates the most recent years, this is a flat-to-declining trend, not a technology under active claim pressure.
Influence sits with electrode chemistry, not cell format
The most-cited record in this set, US20200411901A1, and its close relatives all address silicon oxide active materials in lithium-ion electrodes rather than NMC cathode blending or stack geometry. That concentration means later filers are building on electrode-chemistry claims more than on structural cell-design claims.
Nanostructuring is the thin branch
Sixteen of sixteen records sit in core H01M battery classifications; only one touches B82Y nanotechnology applications. That lopsidedness marks nanostructured electrode or current-collector geometry as the least-claimed sub-area in this dataset.
No repeated filing alliances
All ten co-assignee pairs identified in the dataset occur only once, meaning no two organisations or inventors have filed together more than a single time. Cell design in this space has so far been worked by isolated single-assignee or single-inventor efforts rather than established partnerships.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nmc battery cell design, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| BASF Corporation | LAMPERT K JORDAN | 1 |
| BASF Corporation | DICARLO JOSEPH | 1 |
| BASF Corporation | CHINTAWAR PRASHANT | 1 |
| BASF Corporation | BRAMNIK KIRILL | 1 |
| LAMPERT K JORDAN | DICARLO JOSEPH | 1 |
| LAMPERT K JORDAN | CHINTAWAR PRASHANT | 1 |
| LAMPERT K JORDAN | BRAMNIK KIRILL | 1 |
| DICARLO JOSEPH | CHINTAWAR PRASHANT | 1 |
Every co-assignee pair in this dataset appears exactly once, including the BASF-linked pairs with named individual inventors — a sign that partnerships in this niche have not yet repeated into durable alliances.
Who holds the claims, and where the gaps sit
Sixteen families, ten single-strength co-assignee pairs, and recent-year momentum at zero across every named organisation — this is a field of isolated filers rather than an entrenched incumbent set.
BASF Corporation
Holds the earliest-dated record in this set, WO2010045203A1, and the related EP2351139B1 family — both centred on blended NMC/NCA cathode composition rather than cell-format claims.
Silicon-oxide electrode cluster
US20200411901A1 and its related family members (WO2019126549A1, US11094925B2, US20210336251A1) form the most-cited cluster in the dataset, all addressing silicon oxide active materials for high-capacity, high-energy-density electrodes.
No current leader emerging
Every organisation tracked for recent-year momentum — including Zenlabs Energy, Inc., BASF Corporation, GM Global Technology Operations LLC and Ionblox, Inc. — shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with the dataset's flat overall trend.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Zenlabs Energy, Inc. | 0 | — |
| BASF Corporation | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| Ionblox, Inc. | 0 | — |
| LAMPERT K JORDAN | 0 | — |
| DICARLO JOSEPH | 0 | — |
| CHINTAWAR PRASHANT | 0 | — |
| BRAMNIK KIRILL | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis next
The filing and citation patterns above raise specific questions that are worth running down before committing a filing strategy.
Trace the silicon-oxide electrode family tree
The most-cited cluster in this dataset spans four related filings. Mapping their exact claim differences shows where the design-around room actually is.
Explore the citation network in EurekaCheck adjacent IPC codes for spillover
This landscape was scoped tightly to cell-design IPC codes; broader cathode-chemistry classifications may hold related filings from the same assignees worth reviewing.
Expand the search scope in EurekaWatch for revival in filing activity
With filings flat since 2018, any new entrant would be filing into largely open claim space — worth monitoring for early movement before it consolidates.
Set a filing alert in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this landscape
This landscape identifies 16 patent families filed between 2015 and the current data cut-off, all classified against cell-design-relevant IPC codes such as H01M10/04, H01M50/20 and H01M4/13. That is a small, structurally focused corpus rather than a broad chemistry landscape, which means individual families carry more weight in shaping the available claim space than they would in a larger field. Practitioners should treat this as a niche within the wider NMC cathode literature, not a stand-alone technology area.
No. The filing trend peaked at 4 families in 2018 and the 2022 midpoint recorded zero filings, indicating flat-to-declining activity rather than growth. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years in any dataset always look thinner than they will eventually be, but even with that adjustment this field shows no clear upward trajectory. That makes it a candidate for opportunistic filing in the open sub-areas rather than a crowded, fast-moving space.
WO2010045203A1, filed by BASF Corporation, claims a positive electrode material that blends lithium nickel cobalt oxide (and aluminium-substituted variants) with lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide in a non-aqueous electrolyte lithium secondary battery. Its blocking scope is at the cathode-composition level — mixed NCA/NMC blends for specific capacity and thermal stability — not at the electrode-stack or cell-format level. Anyone using a single-phase NMC cathode or a different blend pairing sits outside its literal claims.
The clearest white space is in the B82Y nanotechnology classification, which appears in only 1 of the 16 families against 16 in the core H01M class. Co-assignee collaboration is also thin — all 10 co-assignee pairs in the dataset appear at a strength of only one, meaning no repeated collaborative cluster has formed. That combination points to nanostructured electrode-stack or current-collector geometry, filed independently or in a fresh collaboration, as an under-claimed route.
The assignee ranking is drawn from all 16 families in this dataset, and it shows a short list of named organisations — including BASF Corporation and several named individual inventors — with most recent-year momentum figures sitting at zero, consistent with the flat overall filing trend. Rather than a single dominant filer, activity looks distributed across a handful of assignees with one or two families each. Recent-year momentum being flat across the board suggests no single player is currently pulling ahead in new filings.
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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.