Innovation Trends in the Field of Internal Combustion Engines

This paper offers a thorough statistical analysis of the innovation trends in Europe, USA and Japan in the field of internal combustion engines during the last 10 years, as seen by the European Patent Office (EPO) through the patent applications in the major Patent Offices. It demonstrates which technical fields (e.g. electronic management, emissions control etc) are the most active, who are the most important patent applicants and which country attracts the highest number of patent applications. Subfields of certain technical fields are also analyzed.

The technical fields discussed are chosen according to the International Patent Classification (IPC) scheme, which is used to classify patent documents in Patent Offices all around the world. These technical fields include exhaust apparatus, turbochargers, electronic management of engines, valve control, fuel injection systems, EGR, engine construction etc.