Global IP Matrix - Issue 5

The most startling growth in a sub-category (calculated by most common classification codes) has been in CPC
code ‘G05D1’ – the control of position course or altitude of land, water, air, or space vehicles, e.g., automatic
pilot – which has grown from 99 families in 2010 to 2639 families in 2018. Already, this classification code
has 2480 families from 2019, and we are only 8 months into the year (at time of writing) which shows it is a
technology area that is continuing to grow year on year.
Also, worth a mention is the CPC code ‘B60W30’ – purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related
to the control of a particular sub-unit – which increased from 510 families in 2010 to 2618 families in 2018.
The other remaining CPC codes in the top 5 for this result set are Y02T10 (road transport of goods or
passengers), B60W10 (conjoint control of vehicle sub-units of different type or function) and F16H61 (control
for changing speeds or reversing gearings for conveying rotary motion, control of exclusively fluid gearing,
friction gearing, gearings with endless flexible members or other particular types of gearing).
Who are the key players?
Considering that Japan has a thriving automotive
industry and that 9 of the top 20 assignees are
Japanese companies to compared to only 3 US
companies, you might expect to find Japan at the
top of the list. However, much work in this area is
being done in the US, from Silicon Valley companies
like Waymo and Uber to traditional automotive
companies like Ford Motor.
Studying the jurisdictions that the top assignees are
filing in most also supports this picture; 9 of the top
10 companies in this technology area are prioritising
Germany and the US, with both countries featuring
in the top 3 locations that all 9 companies are filing
in.
Who are the main opinion
leaders in this field?
Top 20 assignees by families
Unsurprisingly in this technology area, the top 20 assignees are dominated by large automotive companies –
the majority of which would be considered household names. The top 20 assignees are made up of 9 Japanese
companies, 6 German companies, 3 US companies, and 2 French companies.
Companies like Bosch and Hitachi might not be considered part of the automotive industry, but as multinational
conglomerate companies, their involvement in this area is to be expected. At the end of 2018, Bosch
announced their intention to develop “pods,” similar to the small driverless vehicles that Google has tested
in California. The idea being that one-day people will be able to hail these pods in the same way they do a
taxi. They have also started work on including automated freeway driving and parking in premium vehicles.
Hitachi’s experience in IT and operational technology (OT) has helped in launching their “Lumada” Internet
of Things platform, utilising AI, security, analytics and more, to support a range of businesses in connected
services and autonomous driving from the cloud.
Where are the key players filing their inventions?
Top 20 jurisdictions by families, applications & grants
The top 5 jurisdictions for filing in this area are the US (26,000+ families), Germany (21,000+ families), China
(15,000+ families), Japan (14,000+ families) and the European Patent Office (10,000+ families).
www.gipmatrix.com
Citation network for forward citations
Studying the citations for the data set provides a
novel way of interrogating the data. For instance,
in the citation network above (showing the forward
citations by assignee in the driverless cars technology
area) the most cited companies by a significant
amount – and therefore the most influential – are
Nissan (8524 forward citations) and Toyota (5531
forward citations).
It makes sense that Toyota is receiving a lot of
forward citations as they are one of the biggest filers
in this area; however, Nissan Motor is the 5th biggest
filer and yet is outperforming Hyundai, Toyota, ZF
Friedrichshafen and Bosch in number of forward
citations.
The number of forward citations is also a useful
predictor of patent values as a large number of
forward citations suggests industry-wide investment;
indicating in this instance that mainly multi-national
automotive corporations own valuable patents in
this area.
Conclusion
Having access to a powerful patent
searching and analysis tool can
aid companies in discovering new
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technology area.
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information.
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