GE leads in U.S. Cleantech patents in 2011 with 184 patents

GE leads in U.S. Cleantech patents in 2011 with 184 patents

Greentech Lead America: GE is ranked No.1 in the number
of U.S. Cleantech patents secured in 2011, according to the cleantech group of
Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

GE has won a total of 184 cleantech patents in the
country, pushing last year’s leader GM down to the second position. GM has got
127 patents.

Honda maintained its top rank in the number of clean
energy patents granted since 2002, despite its rank as five in 2011.

Overall the country received 2,331 cleantech patents in
2011, which is the highest in a year so far, an increase of 450 patents over
2011.

The top ten companies in terms of the number of cleantech
patents for the period 2002-2011 were Honda, GM, GE, Toyota, Samsung, Nissan,
UTC Power, Ford, Ballard Power Systems and Canon.

Among the clean technologies, fuel cell sector got the
maximum number (952 patents) surpassing the number of patents in several
renewable energy technologies. Solar got 541 patents, 86 more than wind in
2011.

Samsung led the full cell league with 115 fuel cell
patents, ahead of GM (104 patents) and Toyota (78 patents) in 2011.

Majority of GE’s patents were from wind sector,
with contributions from solar and hybrid/electric vehicles. In wind, GE has won
152 patents as of now, higher by more than two-and-a-half times than the next
competitor Vestas (59 patents). Siemens ranked third in overall number of wind
patents with 20 patents, with Mitsubishi closely following with 19 patents.

Toyota scored the highest in hybrid/EV patents with GM
and Ford in the successive positions with 21 and 16 patents respectively. With
13 patents, Nissan is ranked fourth, while Hyundai moved up to fifth in the
ranking with 11 patents, followed by Honda, Tesla, GE, Asin, Denso, Kia and
Coulomb.

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