Drone Industry Patent Landscape: China Leads in Volume, but U.S. Catches Up in Quality

LexisNexis patent analysis finds China leads in patent volume, while U.S. patent strength has caught up and emerging drone IP spans six countries

For years, DJI has been the dominant manufacturer in the commercial drone market. Now, U.S. policy is pushing the domestic market toward a broader supply chain.

In December 2025, the Federal Communications Commission added foreign-produced drones and critical components to its Covered List. The action restricts FCC authorization for new models, while leaving previously authorized drones unaffected. Subsequent exemptions and conditional approvals have created pathways for some foreign-produced systems.

Against that backdrop, a new patent analysis from LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions offers another view of where drone innovation is happening.

The findings suggest that while China remains the clear leader in the number of drone patents, patent strength is much more evenly distributed. They also point toward a broader change as the industry matures: innovation may be shifting from one dominant drone platform toward a global ecosystem of specialized solutions.

China Leads in Patent Volume, but Not by Every Measure

A decade ago, the United States led the drone patent landscape in both the number and aggregate value of patents, according to LexisNexis. China moved ahead between 2015 and 2017.

By 2024, China accounted for 44% of worldwide drone-related patent families. The U.S. accounted for 17%.

Those numbers tell only part of the story.

LexisNexis also evaluates patents through its proprietary Patent Asset Index. The metric combines portfolio size with the technological value and geographic scope of patent-protected inventions. By that measure, the gap has narrowed substantially since 2018. LexisNexis now finds the U.S. and China roughly tied in total global Patent Asset Value for drone-related patents.

“While China is clearly winning on the volume of patents filed, it’s the quality battle that best predicts future leaders in emerging technologies, and that race is neck-and-neck,” said Marco Richter, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions. “Put simply, the space is wide open for the next generation of drone startups to drive patent innovation and market leadership. The companies – and countries – that win this innovation race will build new industries that control the skies over the coming decades.”

Drone Innovation Extends Beyond the U.S. and China

LexisNexis also examined the patent portfolios of private drone startups. To qualify, companies had to be founded within the last 15 years and remain privately held as of September 1, 2026. They also had to demonstrate a flying drone and hold at least five patent families in relevant technology categories. Passenger eVTOL companies were excluded.

The resulting top 10 spans six countries.

The United States has four companies on the list: Skydio at #2, Valqari at #3, Anduril at #6 and Zipline at #9. China has two, with Autel Robotics at #1 and Zero Zero Robotics at #5. Japan’s Aeronext, Israel’s Tevel, Switzerland’s Flyability and Sweden’s AirForestry complete the list.

The geographic spread is notable. So is the range of applications.

These companies are not simply competing to build another general-purpose camera drone. Their technologies address defense, logistics, agriculture, industrial inspection and forestry.

DJI’s Changing Patent Position

DJI did not qualify for the startup ranking because it falls outside LexisNexis’ 15-year cutoff. However, LexisNexis separately examined its patent history.

At the end of 2018, DJI alone accounted for roughly 24% of the drone industry‘s total Patent Asset Index. That was more than every other company in the top 10 combined.

Today, LexisNexis puts DJI’s share at 4%. Its annual drone-related patent filings fell to just three in 2024, the latest year with complete filing data. That represents a 99% decline from its peak.

LexisNexis does not identify a cause. It points to several possibilities, including U.S. government restrictions, pruning of the patent portfolio, or a shift toward protecting selected technologies as trade secrets.

Patent activity, of course, is not the same as market share, manufacturing capacity or product capability. The analysis does not demonstrate that U.S. manufacturers can replace DJI across the markets it serves.

It does suggest that the industry’s intellectual property landscape is becoming less concentrated.

From One Dominant Platform to Specialized Solutions

That shift has particular significance as U.S. policy seeks to reduce reliance on foreign-produced drones and components.

China still generates far more drone-related patent families than the United States. Yet the two countries are roughly even under LexisNexis’ measure of patent strength. Among qualifying startups, significant patent portfolios are emerging not only in the U.S. and China, but also in Japan, Israel, Switzerland and Sweden.

Perhaps more importantly, those companies are solving different problems.

As the drone industry matures, its center of innovation may be shifting from one dominant drone platform toward many specialized solutions. The patent data does not identify a single successor to today’s dominant manufacturer. Instead, it points toward a more global and specialized ecosystem of drone companies.

Read the full LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions analysis for the complete rankings, methodology and patent data.