Ship Propulsion Motor Materials Patent Snapshot 2026
The patent corpus for ship propulsion motor materials is extremely small — only 5 patent families in scope — and is heavily concentrated among a handful of filers led by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology. Activity peaked around 2018 and annual volume has since eased back, signalling a field that remains technically niche with limited broad-based R&D investment.
Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology leads a highly concentrated, small-corpus field
The Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology holds the leading position with 3 patent records, followed by Raider Outboards Inc. with 2 patent records. Cheng Chang Machine Electronic Corp. and Shanghai Mashidi Electric Technology Co., Ltd. each hold 1 patent record.
The top five filers account for 100% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query, confirming extreme concentration with no meaningful second tier. With only 4 ranked applicants, the field has no distributed ecosystem of followers.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KOREA INSTITUTE OF OCEAN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | 3 | |
| 2 | Raider Outboards Inc. | 2 | |
| 3 | Cheng Chang Machine Electronic Corp. | 1 | |
| 4 | Shanghai Mashidi Electric Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 |
The leader’s dominance in marine propulsion and steering subclasses (B63H) indicates a research-institute-driven field rather than a commercially contested one; the barrier to entry in terms of prior-art density is low, but expertise requirements are high.
The most recent filing years should be treated with caution given standard patent publication delays of 18–24 months; apparent low activity in 2023–2024 may partly reflect pending publications rather than confirmed disengagement.
A narrow filing history dominated by marine propulsion subclasses, with adjacent electric-vehicle and power-grid classes underrepresented
The filing trend and technology composition together show a sparse, sporadically active field where a single IPC class — B63H (Marine propulsion & steering) — is visible in, while adjacent electrical and power classes appear in isolated filings.
Annual filing trend
Filings recorded a modest pulse in 2018–2019, fell silent through 2020–2024, and show a cluster of records in 2025. The 2025 uptick likely reflects delayed publication of applications filed earlier rather than a sudden burst of new inventive activity; treat those records as confirmations of earlier work rather than a new trend. The lifecycle stage is characterised as Decline, with annual volume having eased from the 2018 peak.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B63H (Marine propulsion & steering) accounts for the clear majority of records. H02K (Electric motors & generators), B60L (Electric vehicle propulsion), G06Q (Business, commerce & admin data processing), and H02J (Power supply & grid systems) each appear in only one or two records, indicating that the electrical and power-systems dimensions of ship propulsion motor materials remain largely unexplored in this corpus.
↗ 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.
Hull-directed propulsion system of contra-rotating…
The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a hull-directed propulsion system of a contra-rotating propeller and a method for manufacturing the same, in which the contra-rotating propulsion unit mounted on an electric propulsion vessel is directly connected to the hull, thereby significantly improving the propulsion efficiency of the electric… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sternboard drive for marine electric propulsion | 39 |
| 2 | 一种电动船舶推进系统和电动船舶 | 9 |
| 3 | Sternboard drive for marine electric propulsion | 7 |
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.
What the structure implies for R&D investment decisions
With only 5 patent families in scope and 4 named applicants, the field is thin enough that a single focused R&D programme could meaningfully shift the assignee snapshot. The insights below highlight the key structural signals.
Field is in Decline — annual filings have eased from the 2018 peak
The lifecycle stage is Decline, driven by annual filings easing back after the 2018 peak. This does not necessarily mean the underlying technology is exhausted; rather, the narrow patent corpus suggests the topic has not attracted sustained commercial patenting. An entrant with a focused materials or motor-design claim could re-open activity.
Lifecycle: DeclineExtreme concentration — four applicants hold all ranked records
The top five filers account for 100% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query. With just four active applicants and one research institute holding the majority of records, this is not a competitively contested space. New entrants face minimal prior-art friction but must navigate a field where institutional knowledge is concentrated in one organisation.
Top-5 share: 100%No co-applicant activity detected in this corpus
The collaboration dataset is empty — no co-filed or jointly assigned patents are recorded. This absence of collaborative structures reinforces the picture of an isolated research-institute-led field. Consortium-based filings or industry-academia partnerships could be a meaningful differentiator for new entrants looking to accelerate coverage.
Collaboration: none detectedUnited States is the lead filing jurisdiction, with limited Asia-Pacific coverage
The United States leads with 3 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 2, China with 1, and Taiwan with 1. The relative absence of filings in major shipbuilding jurisdictions such as South Korea, Japan, and China suggests either a deliberate strategic choice or an underdeveloped filing programme. Filling these jurisdictional gaps could be strategically relevant given the concentration of global shipbuilding activity in those regions.
Lead office: United StatesGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
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.
Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology
The institute holds 3 patent records, all concentrated in B63H subclasses covering marine propulsion and steering (B63H 21, B63H 5, and B63H 20). As a government research body, its filing is likely driven by national maritime R&D programmes rather than commercial product strategy. Applicant momentum data is not available for this corpus.
patent records: 3Raider Outboards Inc.
Raider Outboards Inc. holds 2 patent records, with named inventors covering B63H 21, B63H 20, and B60L 50 (electric vehicle propulsion) — indicating a product-oriented approach that bridges marine and electric mobility. The cross-domain scope distinguishes it from the institute leader and may position it to capture value as electric outboard technology converges with broader EV platforms. Applicant momentum data is not available for this corpus.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 5 patent families in scope. This is an unusually small corpus, indicating that ship propulsion motor materials as a specifically defined topic has attracted very limited dedicated patent activity to date.
The Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology leads with 3 patent records, all focused on marine propulsion and steering subclasses (B63H). Raider Outboards Inc. follows with 2 patent records.
The field is assessed as being in Decline, with annual filings having eased back from a peak around 2018. However, given the very small corpus size, this characterisation reflects low absolute volume rather than a large-scale withdrawal of investment.
The United States leads with 3 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 2, and China and Taiwan with 1 each. Major shipbuilding jurisdictions such as South Korea and Japan are not prominently represented in this corpus.
No co-applicant or jointly assigned filings are recorded in this corpus. All filings appear to be single-entity or individually attributed, which is consistent with the isolated, research-institute-led character of the field.
The most-cited work in the corpus relates to sternboard drive systems for marine electric propulsion, with one document cited 39 times and another version of the same title cited 7 times. A Chinese-language patent describing an electric vessel propulsion system and electric vessel also appears, cited 9 times. Patent numbers were not available in the evidence for these titles.
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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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