Top automotive patent assignees from publication year 2009 to 2013 based on number of individual inventions. Source: Thomson Innovation & Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index. Click to enlarge.

The report found that Toyota is the auto world’s top innovator from a patent perspective, with more than 7,000 patent assignments to the company during the period covered, The company is one of five Japanese carmakers (the others being Honda, Denso, Seiko Epson, Mitsubishi) in the top ten, the most of any country. In contrast, the United States’ one representative in the top 10 assignees, General Motors, is seventh on the list, with short of 3,000 patents.

Toyota also was the top propulsion patent assignee, closely followed by Bosch. Both of these have a substantial lead over the other top propulsion assignees: Denso, GM, Honda, Daimler, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Continental and Peugeot.

Although alternate power systems received much focus in the propulsion category, innovations to increase the fuel economy of internal combustion engines were also an area of intense interest and innovation.

For patent publications associated with inovations in the fuel economy of internal combustion engines, Hyundai was the leader, followed by GM and Ford.

The clock is quickly ticking towards Model Year 2025, where US automakers’ fleets will be required by law to boast an average fuel efficiency of 54.5 miles per gallon – and the industry is working diligently to comply. The 2012 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandate seems to have set the agenda for the next decade of car manufacturing, and the huge spike in propulsion patents reflect this prevailing trend.

—Bob Stembridge, an intellectual property analyst at Thomson Reuters

The one Korean automaker in the top ten, Hyundai, earned the distinction as the fastest growing patentee, climbing from a low point of under 500 in 2010. Since then it is on a remarkable sprint toward the top, resulting in nearly 1,200 patent filings in 2013, enough to rank them third on the most-assigned list.

The report also found that Connected Vehicle Technology is gaining momentum. Companies as diverse as General Motors, LG and United Parcel Service are actively patenting in the field.

Patent activity in the four remaining auto categories (navigation, handling, safety and security, and entertainment) stayed flat or dipped, with safety and security being the lone exception. Less than 1,000 patents were filed in 2009 in the safety and security classification, a number that grew to roughly 2,500 in 2013.

Data for this report were aggregated using Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) to identify global patent activity in the automobile industry. Within each category, researchers analyzed the total number of unique inventions (each invention was counted only once) issued in published patent applications and granted patents between January 2009 and July 2014.