Analysis and cost estimation of their patent portfolio suggests a bubble… but will it break?

General Electric Company (GE) has vastly outpaced all of their competitors in intellectual property (IP) protection in many industries, but particularly wind turbines. Data from our efforts in analyzing the landscape of issued patents and pending applications from the horizontal axis, utility-scale wind sector indicates just how far ahead they are. The chart below shows the totals of the published portfolios of patents and applications from the top companies in the US. The breadth of GE’s portfolio has been a direct result of focusing of resources as well as past success in licensing and litigation.