CATL has overtaken LG Energy Solution to become the largest holder of battery patent families worldwide, according to data released on October 6 by IP consultancy PatSnap. The figures cover October 2016 through September 2026 and count simple patent families, which group filings for the same core invention across different jurisdictions. CATL had 26,574 such families, compared with 22,597 for LG Energy Solution.
A separate tally in the database lists 27,402 CATL battery patents. Of those, 16,722 were filed in the past three years, or 61% of its total. CATL also reported cumulative research and development spending of more than 100 billion yuan (about US$14.9 billion). The ranking reflects a change from decades in which Japanese and South Korean companies were prominent in battery innovation: Panasonic is outside the top ten with 4,994 patents, while Toyota is the sole Japanese company remaining in the top ten.
CATL’s power-battery portfolio totals 19,539 patents, 2.2 times the number held by the next-ranked domestic competitor. Its 12,084 filings in that field over the last three years compare with 4,384 for the runner-up. In solid-state batteries, CATL has 3,538 patents, more than twice the total of the second-ranked domestic company. It filed 2,763 solid-state battery patents in the latest three-year period, nearly matching the combined 2,891 held by domestic companies ranked second through tenth.