Step by step, the use of drone technology in various settings seems to be gathering pace, if the number of patents granted in the last year is anything to go by.

UK-based Intellectual property law firm Mathy & Squire has produced a report which shows that patents granted for drones worldwide have increased by 39 percent to 4,876 for the year ending December 2021.

As reported in The Manufacturer, the figure is up from 3,511 in the previous year and up three-fold from just 446 patents five years ago.

Perhaps not surprisingly, China – which boats of world-renowned drone companies like DJI, XAG, Yuneec, EHang, among others – dominates the global drone market as testified in the report.

Chinese companies are leaders in the global civilian drone industry and China is the second largest drone market in the world, after the United States. Chinese drone manufacturer DJI alone accounted for 74 percent of civilian market share in 2018, with no other company accounting for more than five percent

DJI also had a forecast of $11billion global sales in 2020.

It is followed by Chinese company Yuneec, US company 3D Robotics and French company Parrot with a significant gap in market share.

As of 2020, more than 80 percent of civilian drones are made by Chinese companies. Which is why it should surprise nobody in the industry to learn that, of the patents granted in 2021, 3,262 (67 percent) belong to Chinese companies and research institutions.

The US trails in second place, with 751 drone-related patents granted in 2021 – 15 percent of the global total.

Patents related to drone technology granted last year include:

• A fire extinguishing drone for communication wires and other hard to reach infrastructure
• An unmanned aerial vehicle-based virtual reality touring and sightseeing system
• A drone-based system for measuring atmospheric pollution
• A drone-based system for monitoring buildings for cracks and structural weaknesses
• A drone-based system for pollinating strawberries
• An amphibious unmanned aerial vehicle for measuring water quality
• An aerial mask-dispensing machine for use during pandemics
• A drone-based system to detect oil pollution in water
• A drone-based system for monitoring the safety of oil and gas pipelines
• A real-time landslide prediction and early warning system using drones
• An early warning system for forest fires
• A drone-based system for filtering factory exhaust gases
• An unmanned aerial vehicle capable of drilling blasting holes in rock walls

Drone technology continues to find new homes across a growing list of sectors that include healthcare delivery, agriculture, construction, energy, media production; as well as last mile and middle-distance delivery.

The commercial drone market is predicted to be worth $47bn by 2029, while estimates suggest the military market could be worth $98bn by the end of the current decade.

While some of the expected applications in the commercial drone market (such as home delivery services, including fast-food) have yet to fully materialise, new commercial uses for drones are constantly being developed.

Manufacturers are competing to corner as much of this rapidly growing market as they can by registering patents to protect their often-considerable research and development investments.

“Drones are increasingly becoming part of everyday life, yet the strong growth in new patents suggests their full potential is still to be realised,” Andrew White, Partner at Mathys & Squire says.

“Drones are set to play a major role in the global economy in the 21^stcentury. Intellectual property in this area is extremely valuable and therefore likely to be hotly contested in the coming years. Companies are spending considerable sums on drone research and will want that investment to be protected with patents.”