New Patents Emerge Due to Alternative Power Vehicles

The auto industry is now heading in more directions then ever before. The new wave of alternative powered vehicles needs as much technology innovation as it can get, so last year there were 15,077 patents and patent applications for alternative-power innovations around the global industry, according to the Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index, a database of global patent activity managed in London. Just five years earlier, this field only generated 6,847 patents and patent applications.

A patent application usually takes about four or five years to make it onto production, so today’s data are significant for new products being developed in secrecy in research and engineering labs around the world. Over the five years, an 84% increase in volume of patens activity in vehicle security systems and a 73% growth related to vehicle navigation.

“Despite the recession, people aren't patenting less,” said Jeremy Rosie, Thomson Reuters' director of intellectual-property solutions in London. “As you can see in the volumes of new patents, the activity is increasing rather than diminishing.”

The database shows a disproportionate share of the new patents is coming from automakers in Japan and South Korea and their suppliers. The top 10 automotive companies for patent applications and awards in alternative-power technology is led by Toyota Motor Corp. with 2,379 patents in 2008, followed by Nissan and Hyundai.

But it’s not just the new areas that generate new patents. "Mature technology areas like brakes and seat belts continue to generate innovations," says Rosie. "But the big growth we're seeing in the areas of alternative power and vehicle security give us a glimpse of change that's coming to the industry."