A recent report by Cintelliq on the perovskite solar cell patent landscape shows massive growth in perovskite photovoltaic patent publications over the past two years. In 2016 and 2017 more than 1500 patents have been published representing 75% of all perovskite photovoltaic patents published since 2008.
The total number of patents published to the end of December 2017 is 2030 and filed by 396 distinct assignees. These published patents arise from innovations that occurred in previous years, as can be seen in the chart of yearly patent filed and published. As can also be seen there are fewer patent filings in 2016 and even less in 2017. However, this is not a rapid fall in filings, but a probable side effect of the length of time it takes to go from initial filing through to initial publications.
The common consensus is that patent filing of perovskite photovoltaic technologies will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
Another interesting finding from the patent landscape report is that a single UK-based company, Oxford Photovoltaics, holds 119 published patents - 33 patents more than second place Sekisui Chemical.
Furthermore, Cintelliq's analysis reveals significant regional differences in the patenting activities between commercial and academic assignees. At the moment academic assignees account for 1111 (55%) of these published patents, and commercial assignees for 805 (40%) with the remaining 6% published patents by jointly owned patents (84) and those from independent assignees (30). This is expected to change over the long term, mainly due to commercialization efforts.
The lead author of this report stated: "Given the number of organizations involved, the pace of development and the rapid improvement in power conversion efficiency perovskite technology raises it commercial potential to challenge silicon as the dominant solar cell technology of the future. Keeping track of patenting activities will be vital for any organization who wishes to be a major player in this field of development."
