February 2, 2023: European battery patent purposes proceed to rise in 2022 whereas the quantity granted continues to say no – suggesting a extra saturated panorama or bigger battery corporations attempting to -outclass others, in response to a research revealed on January 30.
Evaluation by mental property specialists Mewburn Ellis exhibits practically 4,000 European patent (EP) purposes revealed in 2020 adopted by practically 6,000 in 2022.
Nonetheless, whereas greater than 2,000 EPs have been issued in 2020 that quantity will drop to over 1,000 in 2022, in response to ‘Battery Insights and IP Developments’ research.
The variety of European battery patents granted annually has been falling steadily since 2018 – and the autumn seems to be extra sustained and larger than the 2014-2016 fall in revealed purposes, the research mentioned.
In accordance with Mewburn Ellis associate and patent legal professional Callum McGuinn, rising saturation within the battery subject, which has made it more and more troublesome to get a patent utility to grant, could possibly be an element within the decline.
McGuinn mentioned it may be an indication of a change in technique for the massive battery corporations towards submitting extra purposes to fend off opponents, lots of that are unlikely to pursue a grant. , the research says.
Inner workload pressures on the European Patent Workplace may additionally play a component within the development.
With the event of applied sciences, the research states that “a extra complicated battery panorama is creating with inadequate consideration for sustainable battery disposal and good exploitation of their round potential”.
The patent information exhibits a low however gradual growth of issues in direction of battery end-of-life. In 2010, solely 0.26% of lithium ion battery patent publications have been labeled as involving recycling utilizing the cooperative patent classification (CPC), which allocates particular codes to every expertise space. However there can be a five-fold improve of 1.37% in 2020.
“The goal is obvious: the battery worth chain should turn out to be extra round,” the research says.
“Getting there’ll contain a mixture of efficient coverage, modern recycling processes, pragmatic reuse of previous batteries and considerate design.”
In the meantime, Mewburn Ellis associate and patent legal professional Sam Bailey says that “it’s possible that the battery ecosystem will proceed to be dominated by lithium ion and lead-based chemistries within the close to future.
“Regardless of their relative age, lead-based batteries are nonetheless utilized in many industries and supply some efficiency and utility advantages over Li ion methods, and environmental components, equivalent to their comparatively simple and good recycling, that means they are going to possible stay a part of the battery panorama for the foreseeable future.”
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