LG Chem among top 5 foreign firms with most new patents in Japan

A screen capture of the Japan Patent Office's Status Report 2020

By Nam Hyun-woo

LG Chem's cylindrical battery / Courtesy of LG Chem

LG Chem was among the top five foreign firms registering the most patents in Japan last year, the country's patent office data showed Tuesday, demonstrating the company's efforts to strengthen its competitiveness in rechargeable batteries over global rivals.

According to the Japan Patent Office's Status Report 2020, LG Chem registered 661 patents in Japan last year, up from 437 in 2018. This made the company No.4 on the list of foreign firms with the most patent registrations there, following Qualcomm, Huawei and Royal Philips.

Another Korean firm, Samsung Electronics, filed 411 patents last year, down from 565 in 2018, and stayed at No.5 on the list. Samsung Electronics was No.4 in 2018, but yielded the place to LG Chem, which was No.5 in 2018.

Of the top 10 firms, only LG Chem, Huawei and Google showed an increase in the number of patent registrations last year. Among them, LG Chem had the largest number of registrations with 224 and the sharpest growth rate of 51.2 percent.

During the cited period, Huwei registered 729 patents, up 13.2 percent from 644, and Google had 276, up 35.3 percent from 204.

Though the patent office did not specifically reveal the nature of the patents, most of them are believed to be for rechargeable battery technologies. An LG Chem official said “they are related to promising businesses including rechargeable batteries.”

Currently, LG Chem is vying for global market dominance in rechargeable batteries, against rivals including Panasonic of Japan and CATL of China.

The fiercest competition is the electric vehicle (EV) battery market.

In a recent report by market tracker Adamas Intelligence, LG Chem supplied 1,800 MWh of EV batteries for newly sold passenger EVs in February and led the global market with a 34.6 percent market share, outpacing Panasonic and CATL. Over the same period, another market tracker SNE Research assumed LG Chem's global EV battery market share stood at 29.6 percent to follow Panasonic with 34.1 percent.

Though it remains unclear which company is currently standing as the top EV battery maker, market watchers said LG Chem is throwing a serious challenge to Panasonic's longtime leadership and will likely become the world's largest EV battery maker by the end of this year.

The sharp increase in the number of patent registrations also shows LG Chem's increased effort to protect its intellectual property.

Since April last year, LG Chem has been in a legal battle in the U.S. against its domestic rival SK Innovation over the latter's alleged intellectual property infringement. With the case poised to ban SK Innovation's EV battery business in the U.S., industry officials said not only LG Chem but also the entire LG Group has been taking an “aggressive stance” in dealing with its rivals in recent years, a stark contrast to its previous strategy of steering clear of controversies and avoiding problems.

Panasonic registered 2,564 patents in Japan last year, down from 2,630 in 2018. It was No.5 among domestic firms following Canon, Mitsubishi Electric, Toyota and Denso.