PEMFC Catalyst-Ionomer Interface Patent Snapshot
The PEMFC catalyst-ionomer interface patent corpus is nascent, comprising just 5 patent families concentrated entirely among three Indian academic and research institutions. Activity is highly concentrated, with India accounting for the dominant share of filing offices, and the field shows an early-emergence pattern with meaningful volume appearing only from 2022 onward.
Three institutions hold all recorded families; Council of Sci & Ind Res leads clearly
The visible assignee structure is extremely concentrated: the top three applicants — Council of Sci & Ind Res, Saveetha Engineering College, and Birla Institute of Technology Mesra — together account for all 5 patent families in scope. Council of Sci & Ind Res leads with 3 patent families, placing it well ahead of the other two institutions, each holding 1 patent family.
The top five filers’ share of the ranked applicants visible in this query stands at 100%, indicating that no diffuse long tail of smaller filers exists at this stage. The tier gap between the leader and its nearest challengers is substantial relative to a corpus of this size.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | COUNCIL OF SCI & IND RES | 3 | |
| 2 | Saveetha Engineering College | 1 | |
| 3 | Birla Institute of Technology Mesra | 1 |
The leader’s position — an established national research council acting as a new entrant in this specific niche — suggests the field is being pioneered from within government-linked R&D rather than driven by industrial players, which leaves the space structurally open to commercial applicants.
The most recent filings (2024–2026) should be treated with caution because publication lag means a portion of recent applications will not yet appear in the corpus. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity emerging from 2022; fuel-cell IPC classes dominate the technology mix
The two charts below show when families were filed and which IPC branches they occupy — together they reveal a field in its earliest stages of patent activity with a clear technology anchor.
Annual filing trend
No families were recorded before 2022. A first filing appeared in 2022, followed by two in 2023, and two more in 2025, with zero recorded in 2024 and 2026. The 2024 and 2026 zeros are likely artefacts of publication lag rather than genuine gaps, so the underlying pace of new filings should be read cautiously for those years.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) anchors all 5 families, reflecting the core PEMFC focus. B01J (chemical and physical processes and catalysis) and B82Y (nanotechnology applications) each appear in 2 families, confirming that catalyst and nanomaterial work is central. C01B, C08K, and C25B each appear in 1 family, indicating exploratory reach into inorganic compounds, polymer additives, and electrolytic processes.
↗ 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.
Pt-anchored over zirconium phosphate for proton ex…
The present invention provides a carbon-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Described herein is a Pt decorated carbon-free catalyst with solid-state proton conducting zirconium phosphate (ZrP) as support material for PEMFC. The invention further describes the process for obtaining… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
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.
Council of Sci & Ind Res
With 3 patent families, Council of Sci & Ind Res holds a clear lead in this nascent corpus and is classified as a new entrant, reflecting that its filings in this specific sub-field are entirely recent. Its technology emphasis spans H01M 4 (electrode materials for fuel cells), H01M 8 (fuel cell systems), and B01J 20 (adsorption and ion-exchange processes), suggesting a broad approach to the catalyst-ionomer interface problem covering both electrode and system perspectives.
families: 3Saveetha Engineering College
Saveetha Engineering College holds 1 patent family, distinguished by its emphasis on B82Y 30 (nanotechnology applications) alongside the standard H01M 4 and H01M 8 classes. This nanotechnology angle is the most differentiated technical posture among the three applicants and could indicate work on nanoscale ionomer or catalyst structuring at the interface. Momentum data places this institution as a new entrant with a single recent filing.
families: 1Frequently asked questions
The current corpus contains 5 patent families. This is a very small corpus, indicating the specific patent dimension of this sub-technology is in an early-emergence phase.
Council of Sci & Ind Res is the leading applicant with 3 patent families, followed by Saveetha Engineering College and Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, each holding 1 patent family.
India is visible in, with 4 of the recorded filing jurisdictions. One family has been filed in the United States. No filings have been recorded in Europe, Japan, Korea, or China based on current evidence.
The first family appeared in 2022. Two families were filed in 2023 and two more in 2025. No activity was recorded before 2022 in the corpus, though 2024 and 2026 entry counts may be affected by publication lag.
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) is present across all 5 families. B01J (chemical and physical processes and catalysis) and B82Y (nanotechnology applications) each appear in 2 families. C01B, C08K, and C25B each appear in 1 family.
Yes — C08K (use of additives in polymers), C25B (electrolytic production of compounds), and C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) each hold only 1 patent family, making them the most sparsely populated branches adjacent to the visible H01M cluster. These are observations of sparsity; their value as entry points depends on an applicant’s specific technical approach.
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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.
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