Clean technology is rewriting the rules of competition, and the patent record may be the clearest map of where it is heading. Profs. Amit Kumar, Warwick Business School, and Elisa Operti, LUISS University, share their research insights.

Can Patents Show the way in the Green Innovation Race? by CoBS Editor Mallika Rahane.

Related research: Kumar, A. and Operti, E. Navigating Cleantech Transition: Patent Analytics for Strategic Decision-Making.

Which clean technologies will shape the industries of tomorrow? And could patents, traditionally viewed as instruments of intellectual property protection, also predict where the next breakthrough is happening? Prof. Amit Kumar of Warwick Business School and Prof. Elisa Operti of LUISS University argue that part of the answer lies in the data that patents quietly hold. Drawing on examples from electric vehicles to carbon capture, the author links firms’ strategic blind spots to a practical remedy – patent analytics, the systematic study of patent records – and organises it into a three-part framework: Positioning, Portfolio and Partnerships.

When Experience Becomes a Blind Spot

Clean technology – often shortened to cleantech – is no longer a niche concern. From electric vehicles to green hydrogen and carbon capture, it is redrawing the boundaries of established industries while handing newcomers a chance to leapfrog the giants. Yet knowing which technologies deserve a firm’s money is far from simple.

Part of the trouble lies in how experienced firms look at the world. Habits formed in a core industry act like a lens: sharp in familiar territory, but blurred at the edges. The German car industry offers a vivid case. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen were slow to embrace zero-emission technologies, and that hesitation left the early lead to Tesla, BYD and Toyota.

Spreading bets is no cure either. Toyota backed hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and battery-electric cars at once, whereas Tesla and BYD put their weight behind battery-electric vehicles alone and disrupted the market more decisively. Moreover, cleantech often needs long development cycles, supportive infrastructure and favourable regulation before it turns a profit, so incumbents – firms already established in a market – tend to overestimate the hurdles and move cautiously. As such, the real question is not whether to invest in clean technology, but how to tell a promising path from a dead end.

Reading the Trail Before the Market Does: Patents

Here, Profs. Kumar and Operti’s research turns the spotlight on patents. Beyond protecting inventions, patents form a vast, searchable record of who is innovating, where and in what direction. With tens of thousands of cleantech patents filed worldwide each year, patterns can surface years before a product reaches the shelves.

This matters because cleantech innovation rarely stays inside familiar boundaries. Start-ups, universities, research institutes and firms from unrelated sectors often lead the way.

This is especially valuable in cleantech, where innovation is globally dispersed and rapidly evolving. For example, between 2019 and 2024, the two largest licensees of cleantech patents in the automotive sector were U.S. government agencies – the Department of Energy (1,684 patents) and the National Science Foundation (305 patents) – highlighting the public sector’s active role in advancing green mobility technologies

Carbon capture shows the point: across roughly 50,000 patent families, no single owner holds more than 1,000, and the leading names range from Sinopec and Mitsubishi to Zhejiang University. In this way, analytics brings players into view. The research is careful, however, not to cast data as a replacement for judgement. Rather, it works as a thinking partner that tests managerial instinct against evidence.

Positioning: Finding where the light falls

Positioning decisions involve determining which technologies are worth pursuing. Patent and scientific publication analytics offer firms a powerful lens to map the technological landscape and anticipate where to play and how to win. Mapping patent activity reveals crowded areas and white spaces – pockets where few patents exist and room to move remains. Conventional solar panels, for instance, are dominated by incumbents, while perovskite solar cells and floating offshore wind platforms remain thinly patented, hinting at openings for early movers.

Trends add a sense of timing. Rising applications, renewals and licensing point to a technology moving from laboratory to market, and forward citations – later patents that refer back to an earlier one – help separate landmark inventions from routine filings. Solid-state batteries show what this could have meant: citation trends and the movement of inventors between firms were early flickers of interest, well before major investors took notice. The same lens also reveals who holds the relevant skills and which capabilities might be bought, as Honeywell did in 2025 when it acquired Johnson Matthey’s catalyst technologies business for its patents in sustainable aviation fuel, renewable methanol, blue hydrogen, and carbon-efficient fertilizer processes.

Patent Portfolio: To Guard or to share

Next comes the question of what to do with patents already owned. Cleantech patents can earn their keep in less obvious ways, from easing regulatory compliance to strengthening a green reputation. Tesla’s 2014 decision to open its electric vehicle patents illustrates the point: the move spread its charging and battery standards, and it cemented the firm’s image as a sector leader. Toyota later released fuel cell and hybrid patents royalty-free.

Yet the opposite path is just as alive. First Solar sued Jinko Solar in 2025 over solar cell technology, and CATL and CALB have traded battery patent claims since 2021. With choices pulling in opposite directions, analytics helps firms decide which patents to renew, license or let lapse, weighing technical merit, commercial potential and legal exposure across countries. Geography matters too: Europe leans towards hydrogen, China towards electric mobility and the United States towards carbon capture.

Partnerships: Widening the green lens

The complexity of the climate economy demands collaborative innovation. No single firm holds every piece of the climate puzzle. Patent data can bring unlikely partners into focus – an oil and gas company paired with a software firm for carbon management, or a utility with a battery maker for grid storage. Joint filings show who has worked together before, while citation patterns trace how knowledge flows between organisations.

In-licensing, out-licensing and cross-licensing opportunities are particularly valuable in cleantech, where innovation frequently builds on multiple foundational patents.

Cross-licensing – swapping access to one another’s patents – matters here. In electric vehicle charging, different players own the connectors, the communication protocols and the power management systems, so mapping them reveals where shared standards and licensing deals could lift a whole ecosystem. The authors add that large language models can scan patent wording to spot technologies drifting towards one another.

Turning Patent Trails into Green Profits

Profs. Kumar and Operti’s research offers a practical perspective for businesses confronting the uncertainty of the cleantech transition. For managers making investment decisions, patent analytics can provide a more systematic basis for comparing technologies, innovation, assessing their maturity and identifying emerging competitors. This may be especially valuable when technological opportunities fall outside a firm’s established expertise.

For those managing innovation portfolios, the framework encourages attention to both immediate and long-term value. Patent renewal, licensing and protection decisions can be informed by technological prospects, strategic fit and exposure to legal risks, rather than relying predominantly on existing practices.

Equally, businesses exploring collaborations can use patent information to identify complementary capabilities, examine previous partnerships and evaluate opportunities for shared technological development.

The broader contribution of the 3P framework – Positioning, Portfolio, and Partnerships – lies in connecting these decisions. Choosing technologies, managing patents and selecting partners are not isolated activities; together, they shape how businesses participate in the cleantech transition.

Ultimately, Profs. Amit Kumar and Elisa Operti suggest that pairing patent intelligence with strategic foresight allows firms to turn green patents into green profits.

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Useful links:

• Link up with Amit Kumar and Elisa Operti on LinkedIn
• Read a related article: Driving innovation during recession
• Browse Elisa Operti’s website: https://elisaoperti.com/
• Discover Warwick Business School
• Apply for a Warwick MBA.

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