Have you ever used wireless charger to charge your phone? Our interest towards wireless charging has been growing so rapidly that people believe phones without a charging port will be released soon. The capability of wireless charging has been constantly developed throughout past years, which has significantly enhanced user convenience. In this article, patent trend related to wireless charging for past 10 years in major countries will be discussed.
How are the patent trends in major countries like?
Wireless charging is defined by transferring power into an electrical device in a wireless format. Depending on the distance, wireless charging can be classified into inductive charging, magnetic resonance and microwave radio. Standards of inductive charging (Qi and PMA) are the ones that are most frequently used by firms from United States, Republic of Korea and Japan. Therefore, the patent trend of wireless charging in United States, Republic of Korea and Japan will be further investigated in detail. Half of the total patents of wireless charging are occupied by US, while Korea and Japan holds 36% and 15% of the total, respectively.
Which firm has
applied for the most patents?
Among the three major countries, Samsung Electronics has been identified as a firm with the highest number of patents. LG Innotek and Qualcomm are each ranked 2nd and 3rd position following Samsung Electronics. Electronical or communication corporate firms are mostly found at the top ranks, together with businesses specializing in wireless charging technology including WiTricity and Energous. By releasing wireless charger MacSafe into the market last year, Apple has also been included in top ranking, together with Hyundai Motors that produce electric vehicles.
According to annual patent trends of wireless charging, firms such as LG Innotek, Apple, Hyundai Motors and LG Electronics that are well known for wireless charging communication module, have largely increased in their patent applications during the late 2010’s. Meanwhile, patent applications from Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm have reduced. In 2019, wireless charging technology ‘Halo’ from Qualcomm has been sold to WiTricity. It has been found that WiTricity now holds most of the patent rights that have been applied initially from Qualcomm.
Moreover, LG Innotek that has aggressively applied for wireless charging patents has been found to sell parts of their U.S wireless charging patents to NPE. After buying patents from LG Innotek, NPE has accused Samsung Electronics for infringing some of the patents that were bought from LG Innotek. Overall, it is implicated that firms are very active regarding patents released to wireless charging.
Who are the top
applicants in each country?
There are few differences that exist between the top
rankings of each different country. In US, Samsung Electronics,
Qualcomm, and WiTricity are ranked highest for patent applications. Meanwhile,
LG InnoTek, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been ranked highest in Korea. Panasonic, Qualcomm and TDK are found at the highest
rankings in Japan. TDK Corporation is a Japanese company that specializes in
manufacturing electronic components and materials. They develop and sell
smartphones and portable wireless charging coils as their main products.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which has been
ranked at the top in both United States and South Korea, has sold their wireless
charging business to Chemtronics. Chemtronics is a company that manufactures
wireless charging module related to mobile phone/electronics. After the
acquisition of wireless charging business from Electro-Mechanics, Chemtronics
has formed a subsidiary company called WITS. It is included as one of the top
firms to have the highest number of patents related to wireless charging in
South Korea.
AMOSENSE is another top ranked Korean technology company that is found in 2008, which specializes in the field of wireless charging, IoT and 5G. They are currently known to develop ultra-thin magnetic shielding sheet and wireless power transmission antenna module.
What kind of
companies are Energous and WiTricity?
Now, we will be taking a closer look into Energous and
WiTricity, which are wireless charging technology companies based in the United
States. Energous, which specializes in RF-based wireless charging technology,
is listed on NASDAQ. WattUp is a wireless charging technology developed by
Energous and it can simultaneously charge multiple devices at a short distance
without making contact with the charger. Whereas, WiTricity is a company found
in 2007 that specializes in charging system for electric vehicles. As mentioned
previously, WiTricity has acquired large portion of Qualcomm’s patents that are
related to wireless charging technology.
▲ energous.com ▲witricity.com
Although these two companies are not ranked highly in terms of total patent number, both hold more than 10 family countries or are ranked first and second place as a company that has technologies that have been cited in more than 30 of patent literatures, when referring specifically to their family country and cited information (F1). Therefore, it is implicated that both companies are highly active in the global market and hold a strong technological impact.
Let’s study the
major technology fields using International Patent Classification (IPC).
At last, if we focus on the technology field that has the latest patent application, patent application for H02J (circuit arrangements or systems for supplying or distributing electric power; systems for storing electric energy) are highly abundant. Following to that, H01F (magnets; inductances; transformers; selection of materials for their magnetic properties), H04B (transmission) are most abundant. While the general patent trends between different countries are similar, it is implicated that patents of B60L (propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles), which is related to electric vehicle, and H01Q (antennas) are higher in South Korea than United States.
Up to now, we have investigated the patent trend for
wireless charging technology. The use of rechargeable electric devices and
electric vehicles are now increasing. Not only there is a higher demand for an
improved convenience in the aspect of charging distance and charging speed, but
there are also rising awareness of environmental issues. Therefore, we are
expected to observe continuous growth of wireless charging technology.
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< Footnote >
LG Innotek sells 123 US patents to NPE... Will it
become a boomerang for domestic companies? (2021.4)
http://www.thelec.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=11805
Qualcomm sells electric vehicle wireless charging
technology to Witricity (2019.2)
https://www.etnews.com/20190215000378
Chemtronics acquires Samsung Electro-Mechanics’
wireless charging business for 21 billion Won (April 2019)
https://m.etnews.com/20190419000217
Chemtronics formalizes acquisition of Samsung
Electro-Mechanics’ wireless communication module business (2021.1)
http://www.thelec.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=10659
Introduction
of Wireless Charging Company
http://www.businesspost.co.kr/BP?command=article_view&num=12440
Global patent monster who bought LG phone patents, sued Samsung Electronics for patent infringement (2021.5)
https://biz.chosun.com/it-science/ict/2021/05/05/W6SJNGD6ERBM7AUROHHVMIGSXA/
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