Wave Energy Converter Ballast Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing has flattened, not grown. Filings peaked at 14 in 2020 and have since declined toward single digits, with the most recent year understated by publication lag.
- One IPC subclass dominates the claim space. F03B (hydraulic machines & engines) covers 64 of 108 families — nearly six times the next largest subclass, B63B marine vessels.
- Ownership is split, not concentrated. The strongest co-assignee pair links two Hong Kong institutions on 14 records, but recent-year momentum shows most tracked assignees filing zero in the latest year.
What this patent set covers
Wave energy converters extract power from ocean swell, and ballast and stability control is the subsystem that keeps a buoy, float or hinged structure oriented and loaded correctly as wave height and period vary. This landscape covers 108 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine wave energy converter or ocean wave energy terminology with ballast control, stability control or mooring stability claims. The dataset spans hydraulic power take-off, marine hull and mooring hardware, grid-facing power electronics, and a smaller cluster of adjacent mechanical control art.
Filing activity concentrates heavily in hydraulic machine claims, with power supply and marine vessel structure forming a distant second tier. The composition signals that most applicants are protecting the mechanical energy-capture and ballast-adjustment mechanism itself, rather than the electrical integration or grid-side control that sits downstream of it.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 108 families: annual filing volume, and where those filings sit across IPC subclasses. Both point to a field that built up around 2020 and has not sustained that pace since.
Filings rose then flattened
Filings climbed from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2020, dropped back near the 2022 midpoint of 4, and have stayed low since — a pattern of a short filing wave rather than sustained build-out. The 2026 figure of 1 is partial and will rise as later filings publish.
Hydraulic machines dominate the claim space
F03B (hydraulic machines & engines) accounts for 64 of 108 records, well ahead of B63B (marine vessels, 18) and H02J (power supply & grid systems, 18). Smaller clusters in A01K, G05F, F03D, G06F and A01G show occasional cross-filing into fishing/animal-husbandry hardware, variable electric control, wind turbines and software — but none approaches the density of the core hydraulic mechanism claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 108 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Wave Energy Converter Ballast and Stability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wave energy converter ballast and stability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents anchoring this landscape
US7352073B2 — Ocean wave energy converter having an improved generator and ballast control
The ocean wave energy converter uniquely includes a generator with a rotating inner rotor surrounded by a counter-rotating outer rotor for generating electricity. A reciprocating drive rod drives the inner rotor on the downstroke and the outer rotor on the upstroke through a gear-driven driveshaft with clutches. A buoy attached to the drive rod means the undulation of ocean waves relative to the buoy reciprocates the drive rod between upstroke and downstroke positions.Filed by AMES, P. FOERD; cited 61 times within this corpus, second only to the earlier US4672222A.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4672222A | Ocean wave energy converter | 102 |
| 2 | US7352073B2 | Ocean wave energy converter having an improved generator and ballast control | 61 |
| 3 | US20120080420A1 | Power control circuit and method for stabilizing a power supply | 56 |
| 4 | US7525214B2 | Wave-power system and method for generating energy at constant rotational speed at variable significant wave … | 40 |
| 5 | US20050285402A1 | Ocean wave energy converter having an improved generator and ballast control | 36 |
| 6 | US20150252777A1 | Method and system for wave energy conversion | 26 |
| 7 | US20180163691A1 | Model predictive control of parametric excited pitch-surge modes in wave energy converters | 20 |
| 8 | US20080197631A1 | Wave-power system and method for generating energy at constant rotational speed at variable significant wave … | 19 |
| 9 | US20110225965A1 | Wave energy convertor | 18 |
| 10 | US9587620B2 | Method and system for wave energy conversion | 16 |
Citation counts are measured within this searched corpus and favour older, foundational filings; treat them as a signal of influence rather than current commercial weight.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
The trend and composition data translate into three practical read-outs for anyone deciding where to file next.
The filing wave has passed its peak
Filings rose steadily to a 2020 peak of 14, sat at 4 by the 2022 midpoint, and have not recovered. Read the 2026 figure as understated given an 18-month publication lag, but the multi-year decline before that is real.
Hydraulic mechanism claims dominate
Nearly six in ten families sit in F03B, the hydraulic power take-off and machine class. That density means the core ballast-adjustment mechanism is heavily claimed; differentiation is more available in the electrical and structural subclasses around it.
US and PCT routes lead filing venue choice
The United States receives the most direct filings, with WIPO's PCT route and the EPO close behind. Australia, Canada and the UK form a secondary tier, consistent with wave energy's concentration of test sites and grid-connection pilots in those markets.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wave energy converter ballast and stability, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Versitech Limited | City University of Hong Kong | 14 |
| Monobesweed Pte Ltd | Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| Versitech Limited | POKFULAM ROAD | 2 |
| City University of Hong Kong | POKFULAM ROAD | 2 |
| Stellenbosch University | VAN NIEKERK JOHANNES LODEWIKUS | 2 |
| Stellenbosch University | RETIEF GIDEON DE FALLAUX | 2 |
| WAVEBOB | VILLEGAS CARLOS | 2 |
| Versitech Limited | WU FELIX FULIH | 1 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset. The strongest links two Hong Kong-based institutions across 14 shared records, suggesting a sustained university-affiliated research programme rather than a one-off joint filing.
Assignee landscape and recent momentum
Ownership of this 108-family set is not concentrated in a single dominant filer. Recent-year activity is thin across the board, which is consistent with a field past its filing peak rather than one building toward it.
Hong Kong institutions anchor the densest cluster
The University of Hong Kong's technology-transfer entity and City University of Hong Kong co-file on 14 records, the strongest pairing in the dataset. Neither shows filings in the latest tracked year, suggesting the programme's active filing phase has passed.
Named commercial assignees have gone quiet recently
Columbia Power Technologies, alongside several other tracked assignees, shows zero filings in the most recent year. Given publication lag, this understates true activity somewhat, but the multi-year pattern across assignees points to a genuine slowdown.
A single tracked assignee still shows recent activity
Among the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum, only one records a filing in the latest year — a modest but notable signal against an otherwise flat field, and worth watching for follow-on filings as 2025-2026 data completes publication.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Keto Intellectual Property Limited | 1 | — |
| COLUMBIA POWER TECHNOLOGIES INC | 0 | — |
| Versitech Limited | 0 | — |
| City University of Hong Kong | 0 | — |
| IMPACT9 ENERGY & MARINE LTD | 0 | — |
| Stellenbosch University | 0 | — |
| CLIMATE FOUNDATION | 0 | — |
| WAVEBOB | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This landscape identifies the pattern; the next step is testing a specific claim or filing strategy against it.
Check freedom-to-operate against the hydraulic cluster
With 64 of 108 families in F03B, a new ballast-adjustment mechanism needs a claim chart against the densest part of this landscape before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaDraft around the under-claimed branches
The gate chips above point to structural and software-side stability control that sits outside the core hydraulic claims — a lower-friction place to stake a first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the remaining active filers
Recent-year momentum has thinned to almost nothing; monitoring the one assignee still filing may surface where the next wave of activity starts.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset shows filings climbing from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2020, then falling back to 4 by the 2022 midpoint and staying low since. This pattern is typical of a technology that went through a concentrated development and funding push around 2018-2020, followed by consolidation as fewer developers continued active R&D programmes. It does not mean the underlying technology stalled technically; wave energy projects often depend on funding cycles and pilot-site availability, which can compress filing activity into a narrow window. Readers should also discount the most recent one or two years, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
F03B, the hydraulic machines and engines subclass, covers 64 of the 108 families in this dataset — by far the largest share. This reflects that most ballast and stability control innovation is being claimed as part of the core hydraulic power take-off mechanism rather than as a standalone electrical or software system. B63B (marine vessels) and H02J (power supply and grid systems) are the next largest at 18 records each, roughly a third the size of the hydraulic cluster. Anyone drafting new claims in this space should expect the densest prior art in F03B specifically.
US7352073B2, assigned to AMES, P. FOERD and published in 2008, claims an ocean wave energy converter with a dual counter-rotating rotor generator driven by a reciprocating drive rod, where a buoy's wave-driven motion powers the upstroke and downstroke through a gear-driven driveshaft with clutches. It is cited 61 times within this corpus, second only to the earlier US4672222A, making it one of the most-referenced foundational patents in wave-driven ballast and generator design. Anyone developing a reciprocating buoy-driven generator with directional drive coupling should review its claims closely, since later patents in this space frequently cite it as prior art.
Yes, based on the IPC composition: the core hydraulic mechanism (F03B) is heavily claimed at 64 of 108 records, but adjacent branches such as software-defined stability control (G06F, 6 records), variable electric control (G05F, 11 records) and hybrid wave-wind coordination (F03D, 7 records) are comparatively thin. These lower-density subclasses suggest room for claims focused on control-loop logic, grid-side smoothing, or coordination between wave and wind ballast systems rather than the mechanical energy-capture hardware itself, which is already densely occupied.
Ownership is not concentrated around a single dominant filer. The strongest co-assignee pair links two Hong Kong-based institutional filers across 14 shared records, the largest cluster in the dataset, though neither shows filings in the most recent tracked year. Commercial filers such as Columbia Power Technologies also appear among tracked assignees but likewise show no filings in the latest year. Only one tracked assignee records any filing in the most recent year, which is consistent with the broader decline in filing volume seen across the dataset since 2020.
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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.