Consumer recognition of automakers comes largely from the technical strength of automakers. Whether it is safety, performance, intelligence, suspension or bad, almost all aspects of the car, behind it is the embodiment of technical strength.
The level of technical strength is reflected in the number of patents, who has more patents, which means that many new technologies have been developed, and the commercialization of these technologies can bring benefits to users. It has also led to the advancement of automotive technology.
According to the patent records registered in the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) in 2021, Toyota received the most patents with 2753. This is the eighth consecutive year since 2013 that Toyota has maintained its first position in patent registration.
Toyota has received multiple patents, including vehicle electrification, autonomous driving, hardware, software, artificial intelligence, materials, and other mobility-related fields.
According to Toyota, Toyota has invested enough in research and development to reach the level of $1 million per hour. Since 2017 in particular, it has focused on securing autonomous driving and robotics-related technologies and announced that it has invested at least $1 billion to date.
After Toyota, Ford has the most patents. Although the number of patent registrations has dropped by 20% compared to 2020, Ford is focusing on ensuring that the technical strength ranks second.
In third place is South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor, and in fifth place is Kia Motors. Although the number of patents registered fell by -13% and -8.9% year-on-year. But there are still many more than many businesses.
On the other hand, there are also voices saying that obtaining a patent should not be an unconditional measure of the value of a business. That's because if you invest a lot of time and effort in developing a new technology and registering it as a patent, it's like telling a competitor how to easily imitate it. As a result, some top-secret technologies tend to reject patent applications.
With the advent of the new energy era, in order to make new energy vehicles rapidly popular, there are even many companies that open patents, such as Tesla and Toyota. Opening up patents is not about charity, but about better promoting the use of a certain technology and making the market bigger. At the same time, the patent-related support is still controlled by some large enterprises, so opening up patents is beneficial to themselves.
However, just as Apple does not have a patent for Corning Glass, nor a patent for a camera, nor a 4G, 5G patent, but it has made the world's best smartphone, the patent thing still has to make good use of it to maximize its value, otherwise it will always be a patent certificate.