SEOUL (May 23, 2012) – Patent applications for wireless charging technology that can send power to mobile devices or charge without using wires has risen sharply. According to the report, Key Patent Analysis of Mobile Wireless Charging Technology, issued by Displaybank (www.displaybank.com) which was recently acquired by IHS (NYSE:IHS), the number of the patent applications of mobile wireless charging technology appeared to increase sharply to 206 patents in 2010 from 36 patents in 2005.

With the continued development and utilization of mobile devices, the commercialization of wireless charging products to maximize customer’s convenience has rapidly progressed. As the range of wireless charging has expanded from smartphones to TVs and electric vehicles, companies' active research and development to preoccupy the market appear to be a high patent application.

As a result of examining the distribution of patent applications of the mobile wireless charging technology of Korea, the United States, Japan and Europe, the United States has the largest applications with a 40 percent market share, followed by Korea with a 29 percent market share. In addition, while Qualcomm shows the largest applications among major applicants, Seiko Epson, Samsung Electronics and Hanrim Postech show active applications.

Looking at patent application share by wireless charging type: induction charging, which requires devices to be placed on a charging pad, showed more applications (47 percent market share) than resonance type (37 percent market share) that can charge from several meters away using resonant frequency. However, as Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm have proceeded with the research and development regarding the resonance wireless charging since 2008, the technology has shown a higher frequency of application in recent years.

Displaybank believes that as wireless charging is introduced as a key technology of the next-generation smartphones including Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3 and LG  Electronics' Optimus LTE2, the wireless charging market began to open fully, and the wireless charging method will become more mainstream in the future.  Displaybank also anticipates that even though the induction type is currently higher in technical completeness including standardization, charging efficiency, safety, etc., since the technology has a limit of short transmission distance, current wireless charging technology could be replaced by the resonance type, particularly as that as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics employ the technology in different method, resonance type and induction type, respectively, the interest in it is becoming more concentrated.

Key Patent Analysis of Mobile Wireless Charging Technology deals with the technical trends of mobile wireless charging, screening 975 patents related to the Korean, U.S and Japanese mobile wireless charging technologies. In addition, this report provides the technical trends by company and the solutions utilized by selecting the key patents regarding the wireless charging-related major companies such as Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, Hanrim Postech, Qualcomm, LS Cable, ETRI, Powermat, Witricity, MIT, Sony, Intel, LG Electronics and others.

Major applicant status of mobile wireless charging technology

(Source: Displaybank, Key Patent Analysis of Mobile Wireless Charging Technology)

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