Wind-Assist Ship Stability Patent Snapshot 2026
Wind-assist ship stability is a nascent, highly concentrated field in which PROPELWIND holds a commanding share of the patent corpus, with all activity concentrated among a handful of specialized filers. The field is still expanding on a multi-year basis, though annual volume has eased from its 2022 peak and recent years remain understated by publication lag.
PROPELWIND dominates a tightly held, early-stage field
PROPELWIND leads the applicant ranking with 6 patent records, followed by HIGGINSON TIMOTHY B with 4 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 3, establishing a clear two-tier structure in a field with a very small overall corpus.
The top five filers collectively account for 100% of the combined total among the ranked applicants visible in this query, confirming an extreme concentration that leaves little coverage beyond this core group. There is essentially no long tail of secondary filers.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PROPELWIND | 6 | |
| 2 | HIGGINSON TIMOTHY B | 4 | |
| 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 3 | |
| 4 | Technology Innovation Institute Sole Proprietorship LLC | 2 | |
| 5 | NAUTIT | 2 |
PROPELWIND’s positional advantage in marine propulsion and steering (B63H) suggests it has established early blocking coverage in the core technical route; any new entrant will need to navigate around or differentiate from that position.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are likely undercounted due to standard patent publication lag, so current-period activity should be treated as a floor rather than a ceiling. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Post-2020 acceleration in filings, with wingsail propulsion dominating the technology mix
The annual trend and technology composition charts together show a field that activated around 2020 and has seen sustained if modest annual output since, with marine propulsion and steering accounting for the bulk of classified activity.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity was negligible before 2020, then stepped up in 2022 before settling at a steady pace in subsequent years; the three-year recent window sits well above the prior baseline, reflecting 250% growth. The 2025–2026 bars will grow as publications clear the lag window and should not be read as a plateau.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B63H (marine propulsion and steering) is visible in with 22 patent records, followed by B63B (ships and marine vessels) with 6 and G06N (AI-based computing) with 4. The presence of G06N signals that AI-assisted stability and control is already being claimed alongside physical hardware. B32B (layered products) and H02K (electric motors and generators) each appear only once, marking them as the sparsest branches in the current 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.
Rotor sail system
The invention relates to a rotor sail system (RSS) for a water vessel comprising one or more rotor sails rotatably and multiaxially tiltably coupled with the water vessel which can comprise defined propelling means. The RSS can comprise a drive flange, a defined joint, an end plate, a defined fin, a thermal management system, an array of solar cells and/or… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vessel with a rigid wingsail installation | 22 |
| 2 | A vessel with a rigid wingsail installation | 20 |
| 3 | Improved airfoil sail structure, or "wingsai" | 14 |
| 4 | Vessel with a rigid wingsail installation | 10 |
| 5 | A vessel with a rigid wingsail installation | 6 |
| 6 | Rotor sail system | 4 |
| 7 | A vessel with a rigid wingsail installation | 3 |
| 8 | Wind-propelled boat having parallel self-righting … | 2 |
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.
PROPELWIND
PROPELWIND holds 6 patent records, all concentrated in B63H 9 (marine propulsion and steering) with secondary coverage in B63B (ships and marine vessels). This focused hardware position in the core propulsion route gives it the strongest single-assignee footprint in the field. No momentum trend data is available for PROPELWIND in the recent-entrant analysis, suggesting its base was established before the recent measurement window.
patent records: 6HIGGINSON TIMOTHY B
HIGGINSON TIMOTHY B holds 4 patent records spanning B63B 15, B63H 9, and G06N 20 (AI-based computing), marking the only applicant in the top tier to combine physical sail hardware with AI-model claims. The applicant momentum data shows a trend of new entrant, indicating all recent filings came within the recent measurement window from a zero prior base — a rapid ramp that signals active, ongoing prosecution.
patent records: 4Frequently asked questions
There are 11 patent families in scope for this topic as captured in the current dataset.
PROPELWIND is the leading filer with 6 patent records, concentrated in marine propulsion and steering (B63H) and ships and marine vessels (B63B).
The field is classified as Growth. Recent three-year filings sit well above the prior three-year window, representing 250% growth on a multi-year basis. Annual volume peaked in 2022 and has since eased, and the most recent years are further understated by publication lag.
The United States leads with 10 patent records, followed by WIPO (PCT) with 6 and Europe (EPO) with 4. India and the Netherlands each hold 1 record. Major maritime jurisdictions such as China, Japan, and South Korea are absent from the current evidence.
No co-applicant filings are present in the evidence. All patents in scope are filed by single assignees, including independent activity by MIT and the Tech Innovation Institute without any recorded joint applications.
The most-cited inventions are related to rigid wingsail installations on vessels, with the highest-cited document receiving 22 citations, followed closely by a related wingsail installation at 20 citations. An improved airfoil sail structure (wingsail) appears at 14 citations, and a rotor sail system at 4 citations.
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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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