BMW has a total of 61964 patents globally, out of which 23165 have been granted. Of these 61964 patents, more than 64% patents are active. Germany is where BMW has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by United States of America and Europe, it has generated an annual revenue of $113.076 Billion. Parallelly, Germany seems to be the main focused R&D center and is also the origin country of BMW.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly known as BMW was founded in the year 1916 by Franz Josef Popp, Camillo Castiglioni, Karl Rapp, and Gustav Otto. Company is doing business in manufacturing of luxury vehicles and motorcycles. As of December 2021, BMW has a market cap of $58.59 Billion.
Want to know which automotive companies are leading in innovation? Check out our list of the top automotive companies ranked by their patent count here
Do read about some of the most popular patents of BMW which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find BMW’s patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over BMW’s patent portfolio.
How many patents does BMW have?
BMW has a total of 61964 patents globally. These patents belong to 29794 unique patent families. Out of 61964 patents, 39973 patents are active.
How many BMW patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents
How Many Patents did BMW File Every Year?
Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
| Year of Patents Filing or Grant | BMW Applications Filed | BMW Patents Granted |
| 2011 | 2482 | 837 |
| 2012 | 2720 | 972 |
| 2013 | 3351 | 1025 |
| 2014 | 3932 | 1094 |
| 2015 | 4318 | 1137 |
| 2016 | 4828 | 1375 |
| 2017 | 4775 | 1775 |
| 2018 | 5022 | 2042 |
| 2019 | 5653 | 2669 |
| 2020 | 3201 | 2351 |
| 2021 | 584 | 2176 |
How Many Patents did BMW File in Different Countries?
Countries in which BMW Filed Patents
| Country | Patents |
| Germany | 22792 |
| United States Of America | 12067 |
| Europe | 8671 |
| United Kingdom | 5151 |
| China | 3774 |
| Japan | 1007 |
| Canada | 690 |
| Spain | 429 |
| Austria | 280 |
| Singapore | 262 |
| Korea (South) | 251 |
| India | 180 |
| Australia | 122 |
| Norway | 92 |
| Brazil | 87 |
| France | 80 |
| Russia | 59 |
| Denmark | 51 |
| South Africa | 45 |
| Poland | 40 |
| Hong Kong (S.A.R.) | 33 |
| Finland | 28 |
| Turkey | 18 |
| Sweden | 17 |
| Portugal | 16 |
| Hungary | 15 |
| Slovenia | 15 |
| Croatia | 12 |
| Mexico | 10 |
| New Zealand | 9 |
| Israel | 7 |
| Vietnam | 7 |
| Taiwan | 7 |
| Cyprus | 7 |
| Argentina | 5 |
| Ukraine | 4 |
| Thailand | 3 |
| Italy | 3 |
| Eurasia | 2 |
| Lithuania | 2 |
| Africa | 2 |
| Serbia | 1 |
| Philippines | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| Malaysia | 1 |
| Bulgaria | 1 |
| Iceland | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 |
Where are Research Centers of BMW Patents Located?
10 Best BMW Patents
US6370454B1 is the most popular patent in the BMW portfolio. It has received 430 citations so far from companies like Nikon, International Business Machines, and Renault.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of BMW:
| Publication Number | Citation Count |
| US6370454B1 | 430 |
| USD552769S1 | 384 |
| USD544614S1 | 341 |
| US20060171200A1 | 280 |
| USD561357S1 | 258 |
| USD605793S1 | 231 |
| WO2013052950A1 | 210 |
| US6928370B2 | 187 |
| US6794781B2 | 169 |
| US6272840B1 | 158 |
Which Companies are using BMW Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the BMW patent portfolio are General Electric, Raytheon Technologies and United Technologies.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
| Company | Number of Patents |
| General Electric | 890 |
| Raytheon Technologies | 649 |
| United Technologies | 526 |
| Siemens | 183 |
| Ford Motor | 165 |
| Pratt & Whitney | 164 |
| Boeing | 101 |
| Utc Aerospace Systems | 92 |
| Gm Global Technology Operations | 89 |
| Honeywell | 86 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on BMW Patents
Top BMW Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
| Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
| US7317261B2 | 23 |
| US8246299B2 | 22 |
| US20120130891A1 | 21 |
| US6794781B2 | 20 |
| US8852720B2 | 19 |
| US7938624B2 | 19 |
| US20070176312A1 | 18 |
| US8754760B2 | 17 |
| US7451592B2 | 17 |
| US8470460B2 | 16 |
What Percentage of BMW US Patent Applications were Granted?
BMW (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 5443 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 3873 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 89.28%.
Below are the key stats of BMW patent prosecution at the USPTO.
Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for BMW?
| Law Firm | Total Application | Success Rate |
| Crowell & Moring Llp | 4687 | 97.55% |
| Maginot Moore & Beck Llp | 86 | 100.00% |
| Evenson Mckeown Edwards & Lenahan | 64 | 80.00% |
| 2Spl Patent Attorneys | 56 | 84.09% |
| Finch & Maloney Pllc | 48 | 100.00% |
| Barnes & Thornburg | 34 | 97.98% |
| Evenson Wands Edwards Lenahan | 24 | 100.00% |
| Craig & Burns | 23 | 84.26% |
| Barley Snyder | 22 | 86.36% |
| Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery Llp | 9 | 83.33% |
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!
What are BMW key innovation segments?
What Technologies are Covered by BMW?
The chart below distributes patents filed by BMW in different countries on the basis of the technology protected in patents. It also represents the markets where BMW thinks it’s important to protect particular technology inventions.
R&D Focus: How BMW search focus changed over the years?
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!
Interested in knowing about the areas of innovation that are being protected by BMW?
