Recent coverage in the trade press, including a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Humanoid robots are the next threat from China” by Senator Katie Britt and Jacob Helberg argue that the US must act against China's growing influence in humanoid robotics.
The strategic importance of North American leadership in this sector, spanning both military and civilian applications, is underscored by 2024 reports from Goldman Sachs projections on recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other factors that may propel the global humanoid market to 70% annual growth through 2035, potentially reaching $154B by the end of that year in an optimistic scenario (approximately one-third of the 2021 global smartphone market).
Given the deep tech involved in humanoid robotics R&D and the patent wars that defined the smartphone era, it is timely and prudent to examine the patent situation in humanoid technology. We note that there have been reports from numerous sources about China’s “lead” in robotics patents, though others indicate a rapidly closing race.
In this article, we provide data and insights into the evolving patent landscape of humanoid robots, with an emphasis on granted patents and applications in North America and Europe. Both Tech+IP and Own Innovation have been actively working with leading innovators in the humanoid robotics market. This review reflects that firsthand perspective: examining both the current state of innovation and its competitive implications going forward.
Taking Senator Britt's argument seriously, this kind of patent landscape analysis becomes more important given what patents represent: a limited right to exclude competitors, one that matters enormously to the innovative companies that own them, and even in some instances to government agencies such as NASA and others.
Two Technologies Differentiating Humanoids
While publication of patent applications and patent issuances is only a partial proxy for actual innovation and potential market leadership, we believe that with proper search techniques and appropriate caveats, it can still serve as a meaningful indicator of directional trends. We anticipate various improvements in future versions of this study.
For this preliminary analysis, we focused on issued US, Canadian and European patents and published patent applications as of April 2024. We excluded patents issued or pending in China and other jurisdictions for several reasons, including that assessing quality of such patents is difficult and as shown with smartphones and other technologies, the patent wars may involve Chinese companies, but the main battlegrounds are typically in Western jurisdictions rather than within China itself. Future, more refined analyses should consider additional jurisdictions, as has similarly occurred in smartphone and other standard essential patent licensing.
It is also worth noting that humanoid robots share numerous technologies and structures with non-humanoid robots that have been the subject of R&D for at least 20 years, represented by well over 100,000 patents (72,618 robotic patents were granted between 2005 and 2019 alone). Medical robotics represents a substantial area of patenting activity that can surface in searches related to humanoid robots; we excluded it from this study.
To focus our analysis efficiently, we concentrated on two main groups of technologies: those that differentiate humanoids from other types of robots, and those that have been substantially propelled by recent advances in AI and ML, including large language model (LLM) technologies and the various techniques driving model training, adaptation, and execution.
General-purpose
robots
The first group encompasses general-purpose robots (GPRs), particularly their training features and execution capabilities (Figure 1).
Dexterous
manipulation
The second group encompasses dexterous manipulation technologies (including hardware and software) due to their importance in emulating human elements such as the human hand, thumb and fingers that work together to grasp, hold and manipulate objects of all kinds (Figure 2). The ability of the human thumb to oppose other fingers, for example, is considered a crucial evolutionary adaptation allowing development of human dexterity and complex tool use.
These developments have significantly influenced innovations in the field and, with it, the patent landscape, shaping what the future landscape of robotics may look like. While we acknowledge there are other areas of substantial importance (and welcome community feedback), this narrowing allowed us to focus on technologies that genuinely differentiate humanoids while isolating humanoid robotics patents from those associated with broader applications across industries such as automotive, manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing.
We recognize, of course, that limiting the analysis to these two main groups necessarily excludes some highly innovative robotics companies that hold patents reflecting meaningful investment in the field. This includes large numbers of patents from companies such as Hyundai (now with Boston Dynamics), Microsoft, Mujin, Samsung, and Tesla.
Insights and Trends
Using patent classification methods and semantic techniques in a recursive process to run, test, identify, and refine search results, the Tech+IP and Own Innovation teams identified over 3,000 assets relating specifically to general purpose robot (GPR) training features and execution capabilities, and nearly 1,000 assets in dexterous manipulation technologies (including hardware and software).
Results were then ranked by owning company in each area. The top-15 in each category are presented in Figures 1 and 2 below, respectively.
Twenty companies in total are represented across the two top-15 rankings, with 10 companies appearing in each segment. North American firms account for 11 of the 20 firms (the US with 10, Canada with one), while Japanese companies represent five. Korea, Germany, and China account for two, one and one of the 20 companies, respectively.
General-Purpose Robot
Figure 1: Patent holders in general-purpose robotics technology
Dexterous Manipulation
Figure 2: Patent holders in dexterous manipulation technology
A comparative analysis of the two groups reveals that the growing number of patents in the first group highlights a stronger focus on innovations related to execution and training capabilities.
Hyundai, both independently and through its control of Boston Dynamics, holds a top-three position in GPRs and dexterous manipulation. Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI, while perhaps a new name to some readers, it is well known within the industry for its innovation and patenting activity, holds a position in these two sectors that ranks among the most important globally, positioning it competitively for a projected $100B+ global market by the 2030s.
While China appears to lead in the deployment of robotic technology in industry, the patent data presents a markedly different picture outside of China. Shenzhen-based Ubtech Robotics is the 10th-ranked company in GPR patents, yet no other Chinese company appears in the top 15 in that category.
The next highest-ranked Chinese company is Midea Group, ranked 54th in GPR and 24th in dexterous manipulation technologies. Of the top 100 companies overall, only three are Chinese, while others are spread across geographies, led by North America.
Among recognized startups and emerging growth companies focused on humanoid robotics are concerned, only Sanctuary AI (Canada) and Brain Corp (San Diego), make the list. Companies such as Agility Robotics, Figure, Apptronik, and 1X are widely recognized in the industry as highly innovative; however, their patent portfolios do not yet appear to match their reputation. Note that Boston Dynamics was not calculated on a standalone basis, given Hyundai's 80% ownership and SoftBank's 20% stake.
Conclusion
Although there has been significant publicity surrounding the emergence and potential dominance of Chinese companies in humanoid robotics, an examination of the patent landscape, both as a proxy for innovation and as a future marker for competitive issues, reveals that Chinese firms do not currently hold a significant position. As the humanoid robotics market matures, however, that is likely to change.
The smartphone industry offers an instructive parallel. Chinese companies were initially not a factor outside of China, held few patents, and were often playing defense against patent-rich companies from the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea. Unable to “invent backwards”, they turned first to acquiring patents from non-Chinese third parties with early-stage R&D, then they invested heavily in R&D and patenting of future generations of the technology. That strategy transformed Huawei, for example, from a net payor of patent royalties into a business generating $500M+ in patent licensing royalties annually.
The lessons of the smartphone era may be repeated in humanoid robotics, and it behooves companies and investors in this industry to treat patenting seriously—as a C-suite and board-level priority—and not subject to quarterly revenue pressure.
To do otherwise is to accept unnecessary—and potentially existential—business risk at precisely the moment as the market approaches significant scale. For policymakers, the implication is equally urgent: rather than addressing industry-by-industry, concerted action is needed to reverse the broader erosion of patent rights on a global scale. If this trend continues unchecked across strategic industries, the patent rights meant to protect innovation may amount to little more than an empty shell.
We invite patent owners with comments or questions to contact us to discuss the methodology and results in further detail at info@techip.ai.