Companies following in Tesla's footsteps (similar inventions by examiner citations)

Tesla (Tesla Inc. or Tesla Motors), led by Elon Musk, is at the forefront of innovation in sustainable energy consumption for transport (Electric vehicles - EVs) as well as sustainable energy generation and storage. As a move to encourage cooperation amongst EV players, Elon Musk has also publically mentioned that all Tesla patents are 'open source' - Tesla will not litigate if someone infringes their patents. Some believe this is too good to be true, and some call this as genius marketing.

The focus of this post is to analyse the forward citations of Tesla Motors' patents to see who is citing the innovative pure-electric car manufacturer's patents and other interesting insights that can be generated by analysing these citations. A thing to note here is that these citations are examiner citations: that is, the examiner while examining a certain patent felt the need to cite a Tesla motor's patent.
Essentially, these companies are doing things very similar to Tesla - some might say even copying Tesla and its electric vehicle strategy.

Companies whose patents cite Tesla Motor's patents

Looking at the data from January 2017 until now, we can see the top 10 companies receiving examiner citations of Tesla's patents on their patent filings. These are all types of citations
Theory (T), Technology Background (A, E), Cited in Application (D, L), Relevant if Combined (Y w O, P, R), and, the most exciting, Highly Relevant (X)

Although all citations show connection, knowledge flow, and the relationship between two patents, the most important analysis insights can be extracted through 'Highly Relevant' citations.

Looking at data from last 5 years, and only restricting the citation search on citationeagle.com to 'Highly relevant' citations, we can further narrow down companies trying to patent something that Tesla has already invented and patented.

Here are the top 10 companies with the highest number of Tesla Motor's patent citations.

Companies who are trying to patent what Tesla Motors has already patented

Although this is a grey area - examiner citations of highly relevant (x) category can be further contested by the inventor to prove how their invention is different - we can still call these as 'similar' (and maybe not the same) inventions.

This list includes major automotive OEMs and Tier1 players. So, what are they patenting that's similar to Tesla Motors? Here's a list I made using few patent examples:

Bosch's inventions similar to Tesla Motors' inventions (citations)

1. Battery system with potting compound (WO2017060038)
2. Charging Device for electric vehicles with two charging circuits (WO2016030135)
3. Regenerating a rechargeable metal-air battery (WO2015197347)

Audi's inventions similar to Tesla Motors' inventions (citations)

1. Determining range of electric or hybrid vehicles in context of various parameters (CN103168211)
2. Vehicle control system for fully or partially electric vehicle (WO2015024623)
3. Electric vehicle charging system with charge indicator (WO2014026725)

Volkswagen's inventions similar to Tesla Motors' inventions (citations)

1. Battery housing with integrated cooling (WO2017045877)
2. Removing heat from a traction battery (WO2017021016)
3. Climate control in an electric vehicle (EP3035180)

Renault's inventions similar to Tesla Motors' inventions (citations)

1. Flat frame module for electric vehicle chassis (FR3000920)
2. Regulating charge level of a traction battery in an electric vehicle (FR2992779)

Continental's inventions similar to Tesla Motors' inventions (citations)

1. Capacitive touch panel for operating unit (WO2015067803)
2. Speed-window based control strategy for electric vehicles (WO2013087479)

There are many others, and very interesting insights can be generated by detailed analysis of what elements of a company's inventions bear some similarity to Tesla Motors' inventions.


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For more information on the tool used to do this analysis, check out my post about citationeagle.com and its features

Did you know that Elon Musk patented an earlier version of google maps and internet calling long back? 

Simplifying Identification & Tracking of Patent Citations > Licencing, Infringement, & Opposition - Citation Eagle by Practice Insight

Importance and uses of analysing patent citations

Over the years, many patent researchers have stressed the importance of analysing patent citations in  any technology or market research analysis where the focus is on assessing the following aspects:

1. Is the technology area profitable?
2. Is there market interest in the technology area?
3. Is the technology area capable of influencing knowledge spillovers and further innovation

That being said, citations are also great indicators for a portfolio of patents to see which patents have a possibility of being licensed. This is a known fact and almost all patent owners as well as attorneys with an aim of finding potential licensees for a patent generally conduct forward citation analysis.

Identifying potential patent licensing opportunities using citation analysis - the usual way

The usual steps followed in this analysis are:

1. List out all family members of key families in the portfolio (It is always important to use all family members for citation analysis because citations are specific to the jurisdiction and individual members)
2. Search for citing patents for each member (in most cases excluding the lapsed/withdrawn/expired members)
3. Segregate the citing patents by examiner citations vs. other citations and further into X, Y, A categories
4. For each member list out the assignee/applicant (s) for each category of citations - These assignee / applicant (s) can be the leads for further due diligence to ascertain if they would be interested in taking a license of the key patent families, which they are citing.

An important aspect to mention here is that in most cases all these steps need to be repeated after a certain time period to make sure new citations are being accounted for.

There are many tools using which this analysis can be conducted - both commercial as well as Free. Google Patents, for example, offers a free alternative for citation analysis. (simple steps - watch video below). However, Google Patents does lack the details of citation (category), and there isn't a easy way of filtering and segregating the results, as of now.

Citation Eagle helps in making patent citation analysis easier

One other tool, Citation Eagle, was recently launched by Practice Insight which focuses on this aspect of finding citing patents.

Citation Eagle makes identification and tracking of patent citations very easy for patent owners and attorneys.

Search filters - Citation Eagle

It offers search filters using which you can set intelligent rules for identification of citations (using law firms and company names / setting exclusions / setting legal status rule)

• You don't have to manually list the patent families or members for searching
• You don't have to filter out expired / withdrawn / lapsed members to avoid searching for their citations (because you cannot actually license them)
• You don't have to manually filter out some law firms or companies you may wish to exclude from the searches

The best thing is you can set alerts for your filtered searches - the whole 'repeat the searches' business is not needed, and the alerts you get can be customized for reporting using even the citation category.

Setting Search Alerts - Citation Eagle

Alerts - Citation Eagle

To signup for Citation Eagle - click here.

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For further information on Citation Eagle and Practice Insight, please contact 
Erika Dauner, Marketing Officer, Global Business Development & Customer Care, Practice Insight GmbH.