Chinese and U.S. firms are “neck-and-neck” in the quality battle for the next generation of drone patents, despite China having a lead in volume. Chinese companies accounted for 44% of the world’s drone patent filings in 2024, against 17% for American firms, according to a report published by LexisNexis. Measured by value, however, U.S. drone patents were on a par with China’s, leaving the two countries roughly even in total global patent asset value. DJI, the Shenzhen-based global industry leader, has also been losing its dominance in patent filings, holding only 4% of the industry’s total patent assets, barely ahead of U.S. firms such as Boeing and Amazon, according to the report. This compares with roughly 24% of the industry’s total patents held by DJI at the end of 2018, which was more than all the other companies in the top 10 combined.
“The company seems to have allowed the bulk of its patents to lapse since that peak,” the report said, adding that this could be caused by factors including tighter U.S. restrictions on drone imports, DJI’s own patent pruning to focus on its strongest defensive patents, or the company’s strategic shift towards protecting selected technologies as trade secrets instead of via patents. “As DJI retreats from the patent field, the space is wide open for the next generation of drone start-ups to drive patent innovation and market leadership,” said Marco Richter, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions. “While China is clearly winning in the volume of patents filed, it’s the quality battle that best predicts future leaders in emerging technologies, and that race is neck-and-neck,” Richter said. “The companies – and countries – that win this innovation race will build new industries that control the skies over the coming decades.”
The stakes were high as the market for civil unmanned aerial systems was expected to add up to a total of USD150 billion in the period from 2023 to 2032, while the military market could be worth USD187 billion during the same time frame, the report said, citing market data from Teal Group. The contest for technology supremacy between China and the U.S. has shown little sign of slowing down. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr said earlier last month that the FCC was considering whether to prohibit the continued marketing and import of certain previously authorized drone models, extending a previously announced import ban on new models.
Among the world’s top 10 innovative drone start-ups ranked by LexisNexis, China has two – Shenzhen-based Autel Robotics at No 1 and Beijing-based Zero Zero Robotics in fifth spot – while the U.S. has four, with Skydio, Valqari, Anduril and Zipline taking the second, third, sixth and ninth spots, respectively. Japan, Israel, Switzerland and Sweden completed the top 10 with one firm each, the South China Morning Post reports.
