Graphene Tech & IP. Can patent analysis shed light on investment opportunities for graphene battery technology?

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1 Graphene Tech & IP Can patent analysis shed light on investment opportunities for graphene battery technology?

2 Breakthrough Energy Ventures The dearth of venture funding for clean energy technologies threatens to create a valley of death for the industry, with emerging ideas unable to find the necessary capital to reach commercialisation. As an investor-led effort, Breakthrough Energy Ventures is designed as a source of patient capital to spur innovation to meet the growing demand for low-cost, clean energy solutions. Bill Gates,

3 Graphene supercapacitors - a Breakthrough Energy investment opportunity? Can patent analysis illustrate the potential for graphene batteries? Opportunity Anthropogenic climate change presents a huge challenge to humanity. Recognising the seriousness of the situation and the need for global action, a legally binding global climate deal was struck in Paris in At the time of writing, 175 countries have so far ratified the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. Article 2 describes how governments will aim to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. To achieve this, we have to curtail our emissions. The situation we are in represents a huge opportunity for green technology which in turn requires sizable investment. In December 2016, Bill Gates announced his Breakthrough Energy Coalition will invest $1 billion to back radical, clean energy ideas. The aim of this coalition is to provide venture capital to jump start innovation in more environmentally-friendly technologies to tackle climate change. Not having access to capital can often be a barrier to people who wish to develop clean technology, particularly if the idea is radical and potentially disruptive. But it is precisely these types of breakthrough technologies which could help us meet our emission reduction targets. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition is committed to investing in companies that will bring innovation from start-up to bankability, guiding very early stage innovations across the valley of death to market. There is a four-part investment criteria that the Breakthrough Energy Coalition have set out to ensure that only meaningful projects with the potential to make a big impact will access funds from the Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The criteria are: 1. Environmental Impact: Could substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions 2. Attractive Investment: Attractive to investors other than the Breakthrough Energy Coalition 3. Proof-of-Concept: Proof that it works 4. Need: Needs capital from the Breakthrough Energy Venture. Hypothesis A year ago, shortly after the Breakthrough Energy Ventures was announced, we investigated likely areas of interest. We posited that graphene batteries would be a strong contender for Breakthrough Energy Ventures funding. As Bill Gates notes in his article Beating Nature at Its Own Game, the energy density of current batteries does not fare well when compared with conventional fuels. An energy miracle in the form of a breakthrough in the battery technology is needed. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition are keen to find alternatives which use abundant material as opposed to rare-earth materials which have come under fire for their environmental credentials and face scarcity and production issues. One of the oft-touted leading candidate in the battery technology space is the supercapacitor. These may one day substitute or work alongside the all-pervasive lithiumion batteries in industries spanning transport, consumer electronics, healthcare and grid storage. Graphene batteries satisfy both Bill Gates desire for a battery made from more environmentally friendly materials and one that has a higher energy density. It is also a technology that fits the investment criteria for the Breakthrough Energy Ventures: 1. Environmental Impact: The batteries could have an impact on a wide range of fields, expediting the global transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy production by providing a viable energy storage system and enabling the development of compelling, greener, electric products 2. Attractive Investment: Graphene batteries are already piquing investors interest 3. Proof-of-Concept: There are encouraging signs from promising R&D and proof-of-concept work such as: Samsung s graphene ball battery, Huawei s grapheneassisted battery and Dongxu Optoelectronics G-King battery 4. Need: Time and money will be needed to scale this work into fully fledged marketable products. 2

4 Patent filing timeline for graphene batteries Technology Conventional lithium-ion batteries use chemical reactions to store and release energy. In contrast, capacitors, and their high-capacity form supercapacitors store energy in an electric field. The amount of energy that can be stored in a supercapacitor is dependent on the surface area of its conductive plates. Therefore, if the material the plates are made of has a very high surface area, a large amount of energy can be stored. This is where the wonder-material graphene comes in. Due to its single-layer hexagonal lattice structure, graphene has an incredibly high surface area, is highly conductive and lightweight. Thus, graphene s properties make it ideally suited to integration in a supercapacitor battery. Graphene batteries promise to be lighter, store more energy, have much quicker charging times and longer lifespans. IP Analysis The analyst team at ClearViewIP specialise in extracting meaningful insights from patent data. Delving into the graphene battery IP landscape, we have found 10,000+ patented inventions in the graphene energy storage space. It is important to note that the chemical structure of graphene itself cannot be patented, as it exists in nature, and therefore does not qualify as patentable subject matter. Further, a scientific discovery is also deemed excluded subject matter so the scientists at Manchester s discovery of the single layer atomic structure is also not patentable. However, it is possible to patent applications, devices and processes which exploit the advantageous properties of the material such as supercapacitor graphene batteries. This is exactly what many players in this field have already done. Figure 1 shows that there has been a rapid increase in patent filings related to batteries with graphene technology over the last decade. This confirms our initial view that this is a subject area worthy of investigation from the perspective of the Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Rapid increase in patent filing Number of Patents Single layer of graphene is isolated Application Year Figure 1: Increase in patent filings related to batteries with graphene technology over the last decade 3

5 Geographical spread of patent filings Graphene has been studied since 1946 but it wasn t until a few years after the successful isolation of a single layer of graphene that there was a sudden surge in interest in this field. This emerging, potentially disruptive, technology is gathering interest from around the world, as we can see from the map below. Patent filing by geography Number of patent filings Figure 2: Geographical spread of patent filings Figure 2 shows that the vast majority of the patents relating to graphene supercapacitors are filed in China. Such is the dominance of Chinese filings, they have more granted patents and applications filed than the other top nine jurisdictions combined, as is evident from Figure 3. This finding is true for graphene-related patents in general and is confirmed by Sir Kostya Novoselov, one of the scientists who isolated graphene, in his interview with the BBC. He spoke of the rising competition to commercialise graphene from southeast Asia and China. Filing by jurisdiction China United States South Korea Applications Filed Patents Granted Japan Europe Taiwan India Canada UK Australia Figure 3: Filings by jurisdiction 4

6 Who is active in this space? We used our proprietary patent scoring technique to produce an average score of each of the top 15 assignee s patent families in our dataset. The score quantifies the quality of the assignee s IP assets based on a number of factors and indicators. These scores help establish a starting point for ClearViewIP s patent review process by identifying the assets which are likely to be of greatest interest. Figure 4 illustrates the score attributed to each of the largest portfolios in our dataset against their average age. There is a stark contrast in the figure above between academic institutions and private companies. The latter appear to have older, higher scoring patents indicating that they seized the opportunity to capture foundational patents in this area before their competitors and the universities were able to. The academic institutions have filed patents more recently and have similarly sized portfolios relating to graphene supercapacitors, but those patents appear to be on average of lower value. Perhaps it is the enormous commercial potential that prompted increased R&D spending within companies like Samsung and LG which resulted in those early technological gains and resultant patent filings. Of the assignees with the largest portfolios in this space, a dominance of Asian companies and universities is evident. China is the major exporter of rare earth materials integral to the manufacture of batteries and therefore has a vested interest in any replacement or disruptive technology in this field. However, it should be noted that many non- Asian companies such as GM, Nokia, Bosch, Merck, IBM, Intel, Philips and 3M as well as numerous US universities are also placing bets on this technology and feature on our list of assignees, albeit with fewer graphene supercapacitor-related patents than some of their Asian competitors. Well-known academic institutions and large corporations also feature in the list of the top cited patent families (Table 1). Citations can be a rough indicator of patent quality. A foundational patent will attract a lot of interest from other patent assignees who will build upon their ideas, citing the original patent in the process. Studying citing assignees can give an indication as to which industries the patented invention is having an impact. In addition, it can give clues as to which companies are active in the same, or very closely related, field. Assignee portfolio scoring Older, stronger portfolios Company 0.7 Academic Institution 0.6 Samsung Nanotek Instruments LG 50 Inventions Average Score Oceans King Lighting Science & Technology Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Tsinghua Zhejiang Shanghai South China of Technology Central South Shanghai Jiao Tong Tianjin Fudan Harbin Institute of Technology Shaanxi of Science andof Technology Younger weaker portfolios Average Age Figure 4: Top 15 assignee s portfolio algorithmic scoring 5

7 Top Cited Patents Representative Patent Number Assignee Invention Summary Number of Citations Selection of Citing Assignees US B2 Princeton A method for making graphene. Specifically, for making exfoliated graphite separated down to individual graphene sheets. US B2 Samsung A graphene-based composition for use in the anode of a lithium-ion battery US B2 OneD Material Graphene nanowire structures for use as membranes and diffusion layers in fuel cells US B2 ULVAC A battery with cone-shaped graphene sheets embedded within it as the active material in the negative electrodes 838 Lockheed Martin, Vorbeck Materials, Georgia Tech, Semiconductor Energy Lab 660 LG, Sharp, Airbus, Semiconductor Energy Lab, Harvard 554 Hitachi, Merck, GM, Semiconductor Energy Lab, LG, Honeywell, Fujitsu, Audi 342 LG, Canon, MIT, HP, of California, Georgia Tech, Du Pont US B2 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology A battery electrode made with a carbon nanotube structure comprising a grid of nanotubes in parallel with each other and attached at one end 320 Fujifilm, MIT, Honda, Caltech, GE, Los Alamos National Security US B2 Samsung Lithium-ion battery electrodes composed of graphene re-enforced nanocomposite material US B2 Samsung A process for producing graphene re-enforced nanocomposite material for lithium-ion battery electrodes US B2 Nanotek Instruments A porous layer of graphenebased nano-filaments connected to a lithium battery electrode 296 Ocean S King Lighting Science & Technology, Bosch, LG, NEC, Semiconductor Energy Lab, GM, PPG Industries, Princeton 282 Semiconductor Energy Lab, Donghua, Belenos Clean Power, Princeton, of California, Swatch 280 Hong Kong Applied Science & Technology, Amprius, LG, IBM, Samsung US B2 Battelle Memorial Institute, Princeton An energy storage device having within it a nanocomposite material comprising a graphene later bonded to a metal oxide 278 Hyundai, Semiconductor Energy Lab, Changan, Samsung, Nokia, Belenos Clean Power US B2 Belenos Clean Power Method of producing a stable dispersion of single and multiple layers of graphene in solution 258 Semiconductor Energy Lab, Toyota, Samsung, Nanotek Instruments, Nanyang Technological Table 1: Patent families with the highest number of citations 6

8 Potential Breakthrough Energy Ventures investment opportunities As we see from some of the assignees in Table 1, it is not always the large multinational corporations that make major technology advancements. Sometimes, it is a lone inventor or employee at an SME who has the eureka moment. Algorithmic scoring and other automated analysis, like we have seen so far, can aid in the exploration and identification of viable investment candidates, but these methods cannot substitute for human review. Only with the help of an expert eye, the utilisation of extensive IP knowledge and data interpretation skills, is it possible to find the needles in the haystack ; in this case, that means finding the lesser-known, innovative companies which are developing graphene battery technology. We have shown in Table 2, a selection of particularly relevant smaller innovative companies extracted from our dataset. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition would do well to consider using their venture to invest in these types of companies; these are the ones where their funding would perhaps make the biggest impact. Company Size Description Graphene Battery-Related Patent Families Known Investments Fastcap Systems Boston, USA Medium (51-200) Offers an array of supercapacitors and specialises in nanotubes. Has patented a supercapacitor battery which can be made with graphene 7 Multimillion dollar grant from DOE ARPA-E in 2010 to develop ultracapacitor technology for electric vehicles Grant from DOE Geothermal Technologies Program in 2011 for geothermal energy power systems A series of grants totalling more than $1 million for five aerospace ultracapacitor projects Printed Energy Brisbane, Australia with R&D facilities in Arizona, USA Small (2-10) Design and develop printed energy storage devices which can incorporate graphene 3 In 2017, an $11 million project by the company was set up $2 million was awarded to the company from the Commonwealth Government s Cooperative Research Centre Projects initiative $500K provided by the of Queensland, the of NSW and Sonovia Holdings Printed Energy is part owned by the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund OneD Material California, USA Small (2-10) Patents manufacturing processes for making silicon-graphite active materials for high energy lithium-ion batteries 2 In 2014, the company acquired Nanosys nanowire technologies and Palo Alto R&D activities In 2011, the company was awarded $4.8 million from the DOE to refine and bring to scale its SiNANOde materials for the automotive market, in particular to allow electric vehicles to travel 300 miles on a single charge Zenlabs Energy California, USA Small (2-10) Creates hybrid lithiumion batteries made from composite materials made with graphene 2 Table 2: Potential investment targets in the graphene battery space 7

9 Takeaways Studying the graphene supercapacitor patent landscape enabled us to verify that it is a rapidly expanding field. Mining the data revealed that large corporate technology companies such as LG and Samsung have been actively filing high-quality patents in this space for several years, while academic institutions have entered the game later but with increased volume particularly in China. Automated analysis, coupled with in-depth manual review from our IP and technical experts, identified four particularly relevant companies in this space. They stood out as they are developing batteries with a focus or composition involving graphene. For investors, incubators and accelerators alike, intellectual property should be viewed as a useful tool for their decision making. Patent databases represent a wealth of valuable data on the latest technological developments. Exploiting this repository of information can help guide business and investment decisions. Mining IP databases and IP analysis can influence decisions by providing decision makers with a more complete picture of the technology and players in the space. 8

10 About the author Jacob Blamey Jacob is a Consulting Analyst with ClearViewIP. He works with clients to provide a wide range of services from patent portfolio analysis to IP strategy development, innovation capture and novelty assessments, and market research to marketing. He uses his software skills to build financial models and develop in-house patent analysis tools. His IP experience includes working with companies and academic institutions across a range of technology areas such as medical devices, consumer electronics, and automotive. Prior to joining ClearViewIP, Jacob worked for various science-related institutions including Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Met Office. He graduated with a Master of Physics degree from the of Southampton with First-Class Honours. He co-authored a paper on the interference of particle decays which was published in the Journal of High Energy Physics. About ClearViewIP ClearViewIP delivers outstanding commercial results by applying our unique blend of strategic IP advice, powerful market & IP analytics capability, and transaction experience. What we do ClearViewIP is the leading European Intellectual Property Consulting and Brokerage firm providing IP strategy, management and transactional services across a wide range of market and technology sectors. We help clients globally to implement effective IP processes, build and strengthen their patent portfolios, assess, value and monetize intellectual property. We assist companies to understand their competitive position, build value, manage risks, and unlock additional income streams. Experience Founded in 2007, the internationally-recognised expertise of our directors, consultants and analysts provides a unique blend of real commercial and IP experience that carries with it a highly competitive track record of delivering value to businesses. ClearViewIP s team includes CIPOs, business builders, licensing executives & technologists with decades of experience, working with multinational FTSE and Fortune 100 companies, as well as SMEs and academic institutions. CONTACT (0) info@clearviewip.com Copyright ClearViewIP All rights reserved.