On April 22, 2021, Taiwan officially announced “Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050” to promote the transition to renewable energies. To encourage the development of related technologies, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has released a report analyzing recent patent cases related to wind turbine blades and casting manufacturing processes to assist the wind power industry to better understand current global technological trends.
In the report, the TIPO collected patent cases related to wind turbine blades worldwide from 2013 to 2022 (approximately 14,798 cases) and analyzed core technical fields such as “blade structures,” “methods for manufacturing blades” and “composites of blades.”
According to the statistics published by the TIPO, the top three countries or regions with the highest numbers of issued patents/published applications related to wind turbine blades were mainland China, the United States and Europe. The issued patents /published applications from these three countries or regions accounted for more than 50% of the total number of issued patents/published applications worldwide, while the number of issued patents/published applications filed by applicants from mainland China was considerably larger compared to other countries or regions. Among the top five countries, i.e., mainland China, Denmark, Germany, the United States and Japan, applicants from mainland China filed the smallest proportion of applications in other countries.
As for technologies related to blade structures, most issued patents/published applications in this field were filed for lightning protection and anti-icing technologies, and the most prolific applicant was General Electric Company. Among technologies related to methods for manufacturing blades, most issued patents/published applications in this field were filed for plate and lamination technologies, and the leading applicant was also General Electric Company. Among technologies related to composites of blades, most issued patents/published applications in this field were directed to polymer compound technologies, and the leading applicant was Toray.
Regarding technologies related to manufacturing processes of wind turbine castings, the TIPO published statistics on patent cases related to the manufacturing processes of wind turbine castings worldwide from 2013 to 2022 (approximately 1,547 cases) and analyzed core technical fields such as “sand molds,” “heat dissipation for casting” and “preventing spheroidization recession.” The country or region with the highest number of issued patents/published applications for manufacturing processes of wind turbine castings was mainland China, and applicants from mainland China also filed the highest number of issued patents/published applications for manufacturing processes of wind turbine castings in other countries.
The statistics published by the TIPO reveal that among technologies related to sand molds, the largest number of issued patents/published applications was filed for clamping structure technologies, among technologies related to heat dissipation for casting, the largest number of issued patents/published applications was filed for water cooling technologies, and among technologies related to preventing spheroidization recession, the largest number of issued patents/published applications was filed for spheroidizing agent placement technologies.
(Summarized and translated from the News published on the TIPO’s website)
*Section Chief of International Patent Division at Tai E International Patent & Law Office
