Patent Portfolios of the Top 25 Well-Funded AV Companies

The following table lists the top 25 well-funded autonomous vehicle companies according to CrunchBase. Based on a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s publicly available information, the top 25 autonomous vehicle companies have the following patent assets. It should be noted that patent applications typically do not publish for 18 months after their filing date, so the number of patent assets listed here represents a snapshot of the number of patent assets owned by the company as of 18 months ago.

Tesla, the top ranked AV company per CrunchBase, also has the most patent assets, amounting to about 40% of the total patent assets held by the top 25 companies. About half (13) of the top 25 companies were founded in California, and 5 of the top 25 companies were founded in Israel. Of the 2,072 patent assets held by the top 25 companies, California-based companies own approximately 70% (1,434) of the patent assets, and Israel-based companies own the remaining 30% (637), with the exception of 1 patent asset owned by an England-based company. Of the 15 companies founded since 2015, only three companies have a sizeable patent portfolio:  TuSimple (161), Nauto (34), and Innoviz Technologies (37).

California and Israel-based AV companies appear to be leading the way with regard to pursuing patent protection for AV innovation. However, most entrants since 2015 ranked in the top 25 have not yet developed sizeable patent portfolios. In an effort to catchup to the top patent holders or maintain their position on this list as Tesla has, new entrants may want to consider further building out their patent portfolios.