Supercapacitor Patent Landscape 2026
Supercapacitor Patent Landscape in 2026
The supercapacitor patent field is moderately concentrated, with Toyota Motor Corporation holding the top position among the hundred largest filers, while Japanese and Korean automotive-energy incumbents collectively dominate the applicant ranking. Annual filing volume peaked in 2018 and has eased since, placing the field in a post-peak phase where selective gaps in grid integration, nanotechnology, and EV propulsion remain relatively sparse.
Toyota leads a Japan-heavy field with moderate top-tier concentration
Toyota Motor Corporation ranks first among the hundred largest filers, followed by Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, Daikin Industries, LG Energy Solution, and Prime Planet Energy & Solutions — a top five composed entirely of Japanese and Korean energy-focused corporations and their spin-offs.
The top five filers account for 24% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, indicating moderate rather than extreme concentration; a second tier of well-resourced challengers from Panasonic, Zeon, and GS Yuasa occupies positions six through ten, compressing the gap between leader and mid-field.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toyota Motor Corporation | 836 | |
| 2 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 644 | |
| 3 | Daikin Industries, Ltd. | 451 | |
| 4 | LG Energy Solution, Ltd. | 429 | |
| 5 | PRIME PLANET ENERGY & SOLUTIONS INC | 338 | |
| 6 | Panasonic Holdings Corporation | 311 | |
| 7 | Zeon Corporation | 293 | |
| 8 | Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 288 | |
| 9 | GS Yuasa International Ltd. | 268 | |
| 10 | Toyota Industries Corporation | 231 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | The Regents of the University of California | 208 | |
| 12 | Honeycomb Battery Company | 180 | |
| 13 | Subaru Corporation | 163 | |
| 14 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | 159 | |
| 15 | GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 155 | |
| 16 | Tesla, Inc. | 154 | |
| 17 | TDK Corporation | 145 | |
| 18 | LG Chem, Ltd. | 140 | |
| 19 | Gogoro Inc. | 133 | |
| 20 | Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) | 129 |
Toyota’s leadership position, reinforced by deep co-development ties with Toyota Industries Corporation and Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, signals that supercapacitor IP remains embedded within broader automotive electrification platforms rather than being driven by pure energy-storage specialists.
Patent records published within approximately the last 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and likely undercount actual recent activity; the apparent step-down in 2023–2025 filings should be interpreted with that caveat.
Filing volume peaked in 2018; battery-adjacent IPC classes dominate the technology mix
Two charts together capture the temporal and technological shape of the field: one tracks annual filing volume from 2017 onward, the other shows how patent activity distributes across IPC classes.
Annual filing trend
Activity climbed to a 2018 peak and has trended downward since; the sharp drops visible in 2023–2025 partly reflect publication lag and should not be read as a sudden exit by filers. The underlying multi-year trend is nonetheless one of post-peak consolidation rather than expansion.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (batteries, cells, and fuel cells) and H01G (capacitors) are the two dominant IPC classes, reflecting the hybrid electrochemical storage context in which supercapacitor IP most often appears. Adjacent classes such as H02J (power supply and grid systems), C01B (inorganic compounds and electrode materials), and B60L (EV propulsion) represent meaningful but lower-density clusters that signal cross-domain application reach.
↗ 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.
Power-supply unit incorporating an electric double…
A power-supply unit includes a plurality of cells for supplying power to a load, a capacitor connected in parallel to the plurality of cells, at least one voltage detector which detects a terminal voltage across each of the plurality of cells, a selecting device for selecting a first combination from predetermined combinations of at least one of the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charging system that enables emergency resolutions… | 2,177 |
| 2 | Surgical apparatus configured to track an end-of-l… | 2,152 |
| 3 | Power adapter for a surgical instrument | 2,100 |
| 4 | Reinforced battery for a surgical instrument | 1,779 |
| 5 | Surgical apparatus configured to assess whether a … | 1,608 |
| 6 | Aerogel metallic compositions | 1,530 |
| 7 | System for monitoring whether a surgical instrumen… | 1,402 |
| 8 | Apparatus, method and article for authentication, … | 1,012 |
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 competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural observations — maturity, concentration, collaboration networks, and geographic reach — collectively define the risk-and-opportunity profile for new entrants and incumbents alike.
Post-peak field with selective consolidation underway
The lifecycle evidence places supercapacitor IP in a Decline stage, with annual filings easing back from the 2018 peak. Teams entering now face a shrinking pool of unclaimed broad claims but gain the advantage of a well-mapped prior-art landscape. Investment should target differentiated sub-routes — electrode materials, grid hybridization — rather than core cell architecture already densely covered by incumbents.
Lifecycle: Post-peakModerate concentration with a resilient second tier
The top five filers hold 24% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, leaving meaningful room for challengers. Positions six through ten (Panasonic Holdings, Zeon, Panasonic IP Management, GS Yuasa, Toyota Industries) are tightly spaced, indicating that displacing any top-five player would require sustained multi-year filing campaigns rather than a single burst of activity. Mid-field entrants such as Honeycomb Battery and Tesla signal that the field still attracts non-traditional competitors.
Concentration: ModerateToyota–Toyota Industries is the field’s most active co-filing pair
The most frequent co-applicant relationship is Toyota Motor Corporation with Toyota Industries Corporation at 49 joint filings, followed by Toyota Motor Corporation with Prime Planet Energy & Solutions at 16. Panasonic’s production entity co-files with Sanyo Chemical Industries (15 joint filings) and with JSR Corporation (11), while LG Chem co-files with Pohang University of Science and Technology (11) and with Kyung Hee University (8). Daikin Industries partners with Osaka University and MCD Technology (10 each), illustrating a pattern where Japanese corporates anchor university-industry bridges for materials development.
Ecosystem: Incumbent-ledUS filing office dominates; EPO and PCT are meaningful secondary routes
The United States is the lead jurisdiction, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO PCT as the principal secondary routes for international coverage. Japan, China, and Germany form a third tier of material filing destinations, with India, Canada, and Australia rounding out the top ten. The geographic spread confirms that commercial expectations extend well beyond any single regional market, and R&D teams should plan multi-jurisdictional filing strategies from the outset.
Geography: US-led, broad reachGo 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.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Toyota Industries Corporation | 49 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, Inc. | 16 |
| Panasonic Corporation | Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd. | 15 |
| Panasonic Corporation | JSR Corporation | 11 |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) | 11 |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | Osaka University | 10 |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | MCD Technologies, Inc. | 10 |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | Kyung Hee University | 8 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Yazaki Corporation | 7 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Panasonic EV Energy Co., Ltd. | 7 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Toyota leads on volume; Prime Planet Energy & Solutions shows the strongest recent momentum
The top two players differ sharply in trajectory: Toyota holds the largest accumulated position but is filing at a reduced rate, while Prime Planet Energy & Solutions is scaling rapidly from a smaller base.
Toyota Motor Corporation
Toyota Motor Corporation leads the applicant ranking with 836 patent records, concentrated in battery and cell chemistry (H01M 10) with additional weight in cell components (H01M 50 and H01M 4). Recent-period filings show a 66% decline versus the prior three years, consistent with the field’s post-peak consolidation phase and Toyota’s apparent shift of emphasis toward its affiliated spin-offs. The firm’s deep co-development ties with Toyota Industries Corporation and Prime Planet Energy & Solutions suggest that portfolio responsibility may be redistributing within the Toyota ecosystem rather than winding down entirely.
patent records: 836Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc
Prime Planet Energy & Solutions ranks fifth overall with 338 patent records and is the field’s standout momentum story, posting 6.0× the filing volume of its prior three-year period in its most recent three years. Its technology focus mirrors Toyota’s core H01M 10 and H01M 50 classes, indicating a deliberate build-out of a parallel but increasingly independent cell IP position. Given that it is a Toyota–Panasonic joint venture, its trajectory may signal where the parent consortium is concentrating next-generation supercapacitor-adjacent energy-storage development.
patent records: 338| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 49 | ▼ -66% |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 125 | ▼ -35% |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | 69 | ▼ -38% |
| Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, Inc. | 263 | ▲ 6.0× vs prior 3-yr |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 2 | ▼ -93% |
| Zeon Corporation | 46 | ▼ -53% |
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 43 | ▼ -66% |
Under-served branches where supercapacitor IP intersects sparse adjacent fields
Relative to the dominant H01M and H01G clusters, several IPC branches show substantially lower filing density despite plausible technical linkage to supercapacitor systems. These are observations of relative sparsity, not validated market opportunities.
H02J · Power supply & grid integration
With 2,435 patent records, H02J is the largest of the lower-density adjacent branches but still represents only a fraction of the H01M total. Supercapacitors used as grid buffer or peak-shaving devices — rather than as cell-level components — fall naturally into this class, yet filing density remains low relative to the scale of grid-storage deployment interest. An entrant with grid-side system architecture IP could occupy a meaningful position here, particularly if claims target the supercapacitor-battery hybrid control interface.
Search this in Eureka →B82Y · Nanotechnology applications
B82Y carries 748 patent records in this corpus, reflecting activity at the intersection of supercapacitor electrode design and nanomaterial science (graphene, carbon nanotubes, MXenes). The branch is sparse relative to the core electrochemistry classes, and most nanotech-tagged filings cluster around a small number of research institutions rather than industrial incumbents. For teams with advanced materials synthesis capabilities, this branch represents an area where new claims on nanostructured electrode architectures face comparatively lower prior-art density from commercial players.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ across technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H01M 10 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 4 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01G 11 · Capacitors | H01G 9 · Capacitors | H01M 50 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Strong · 472 | Strong · 443 | Moderate · 162 | Absent | Moderate · 99 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Strong · 716 | Moderate · 206 | Absent | Absent | Moderate · 224 |
| Panasonic Corporation | Strong · 231 | Strong · 176 | Strong · 194 | Strong · 195 | Absent |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | Strong · 383 | Absent | Strong · 321 | Moderate · 85 | Absent |
| Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, Inc. | Strong · 278 | Strong · 166 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 171 |
| Zeon Corporation | Absent | Strong · 261 | Strong · 212 | Absent | Moderate · 81 |
| GS Yuasa International Ltd. | Strong · 192 | Strong · 137 | Strong · 111 | Absent | Strong · 110 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 9,048 patent families. Filing records across jurisdictions and IPC classes are counted at the patent-record level and can exceed this family total because a single family may be filed in multiple offices or carry multiple IPC class assignments.
Toyota Motor Corporation leads the ranked-100 applicant set with 836 patent records, ahead of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory at 644 and Daikin Industries at 451.
No. The lifecycle evidence places the field in a post-peak phase. Annual filing volume peaked in 2018 and has trended downward since. The most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag, but the multi-year direction is one of consolidation rather than expansion.
The United States is the lead filing office, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO PCT as the principal international routes. Japan, China, and Germany form a significant third tier.
Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc shows the strongest momentum among tracked applicants, with recent-period filings running at 6.0× the volume of the prior three-year window. This is measured from a smaller base than the overall leader and reflects the joint venture’s active build-out of an independent IP position.
H02J (power supply and grid systems), C01B (inorganic compounds for electrode materials), B60L (EV propulsion integration), H01B (conductors and insulators), and B82Y (nanotechnology applications) all carry substantially lower filing density than the dominant H01M and H01G classes, making them the most plausible areas for differentiated IP development.
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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.