Wind-Assisted Ship Propulsion Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Wind-Assisted Ship Propulsion Patents: Mapping the Rotor Sail and Wing Sail Field
89.0% of records sit in B63H (marine propulsion & steering), showing claim activity is concentrated on the mechanical sail and rotor mechanism itself, not on hull or auxiliary systems. Filing rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 15 records in 2022, then settled into a flat pattern: the 2021-to-2024 comparison shows 0% growth over that three-year span. That reads as a field that found its filing pace early rather than one still accelerating.
- 1SOLAR SAILOR PTY LTD24
- 2GT GREEN TECH LTD15
- 3PROPELWIND9
- 4ROGER S FRANCIS6
- 5KATHY FRANCIS6
See the full wind-assisted ship propulsion analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on wind-assisted propulsion patents
Who holds the most patents in wind-assisted ship propulsion?
One assignee leads the ranked list with 24 records, well ahead of the rest of the field — fifth place holds only 6. The ranking covers 13 companies total, so this is a field with one dominant filer rather than several closely matched competitors. That said, family counts rather than raw document counts give the fairer read on true portfolio size, since a single family can produce multiple published documents.
Is patent filing in rotor sails and wing sails still growing?
Filing peaked at 15 records in 2022, and the 2021-to-2024 comparison shows flat, 0% growth over that span. That points to a plateau rather than continued acceleration, though the two most recent years in any dataset are always undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Do not read a downward trend into 2025 or 2026 figures on that basis alone.
What technology areas do wind-assisted propulsion patents cover?
The large majority, 89.0% of the 73 records in scope, fall under B63H, the IPC subclass for marine propulsion and steering — covering the rotor and wing-sail mechanisms themselves. Electric machines (H02N) appear in 20.5% of records, largely tied to rotor drive systems, and general ship/vessel integration (B63B) appears in 15.1%. Smaller categories like auxiliary pumps and solar power generation each cover only one or two records, marking areas that remain lightly explored.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind-Assisted Ship Propulsion covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.