By sharing its FCV patent portfolio, equivalent to 20 years of research and development, Toyota hopes to spur innovation and development of a hydrogen-based automobile economy. Hydrogen fueling infrastructure is a necessary component for FCVs. With slow FCV adoption and high infrastructure costs, FCVs face many challenges ahead, hurdles similar to those that electric vehicles (EV) are dealing with. When EVs initially launched, manufacturers first created demand, then slowly rolled out charging stations. With most, if not all of the major automobile manufacturers currently offering or soon to be offering EV models, adoption of electric vehicles has been increasing. There are now more charging stations than ever before, yet it appears that EVs have a long way to go before electric charging infrastructure is comparable to that of traditional gas stations.

Similar to Tesla, Toyota is opening up its patents to the competition in order to promote mass adoption for FCV technology, which certainly generated positive feedback from a PR standpoint. If electric vehicle adoption is a guide, it will likely be a few years before there is significant demand to justify the cost of building expensive hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

According to IP Checkups’ CleanTech PatentEdge™, there are more than 31,000 worldwide* fuel cell-related patent documents within the past five years. In that same period, General Motors has led the fuel cell category in published patent applications (EPA & USA) over Toyota, with Honda following closely behind.

5 Year Fuel Cell Vehicle Published Patent Application Activity by Major Automotive Companies

Fuel Cell Vehicle Patent Document Leaders: 20 Years

For Toyota and its FCV patent offering, it is too early to tell whether or not it will actually kick-start additional FCV innovation, which would ultimately benefit Toyota. Without a competitive market and robust product sales, these technologies would be doomed. Considering the time and costs associated with establishing a hydrogen distribution infrastructure as well as the lack of serious competition from other auto manufacturers, opening up its patents appears to be a relatively low risk move. It could be a long time before Toyota realizes a return on its investment and in the meantime it lowers the barrier to entry for competitors. However skeptical one may be about this new seemingly expensive technology, Toyota does have a track record of bringing change to a traditional market and attracting early adopters. In any case, IP Checkups will be tracking activity of fuel cell vehicle innovation. Stay tuned!

Want access to Toyota and its competitors’ fuel cell vehicle technology patents?  Subscribe to the CleanTech PatentEdge database to view fuel cell patents or the Advanced Battery PatentEdge for energy storage technology patents.

*Worldwide = U.S. published applications, granted US patents, European (EP) published applications, European (EP) granted patents, World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) published applications

The post Following Tesla, Toyota Releases Patents: Fuel Cell Technology appeared first on IP Checkups | Patent Categorization Software.