China dominates humanoid robot patents while U.S. leads in quality

LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions reviewed more than 26,000 patent families linked to three core humanoid robot technologies: interaction, morphology, and control planning. China leads the raw count with 73% of morphology patents, far ahead of South Korea (11%), Japan (7%) and the United States (5%). When patents are weighted by the Patent Asset Index, which measures citation frequency and market breadth, China’s share falls to 63% while the United States rises to 11%, surpassing Japan (10%) and South Korea (7%).

U.S. patents also show the highest average quality across all categories. Most of the strongest patent holders are large, diversified companies such as Fanuc, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Alphabet, Nvidia, Intuitive Surgical, Samsung and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with humanoid-specific claims making up less than 10% of their portfolios. Among dedicated humanoid startups, six of the top ten are Chinese firms, while UBTech is the sole pure-play humanoid company in the overall top tier. The findings come as China’s five-year plans prioritize embodied AI and robotics, and as the United States moves to restrict foreign robot imports, a scenario that could reshape commercialization but not the underlying patent landscape.