Company profile · HARTING Technologiegruppe · 2014–2024
HARTING patents connectors, and its portfolio has narrowed further onto them.
704 patent families and 2,334 applications at 16 offices. 76.0% carry the connector subclass H01R. The scope needs 65 name variants, including the Chinese and Japanese office-side renderings.
- Data
- EPO PATSTAT Global, Spring 2026 (patstat_2026a)
- Unit
- DOCDB family, by earliest patent-of-invention filing
- Scope
- 65 HARTING name variants · patents of invention
- Queries
- 10, all published
DE 226 → 183 · CN 139 → 168 · EP 139 → 164 · RU 34 → 3 applications, 2014–2017 → 2018–2021
- 76.0%
of the 704 families carry a connector code in H01R; the next subclass has 51.
Technology - 84.3%
of the 2018–2021 cohort is in H01R, up from 69.8% in 2014–2017.
Connectors - 61.4%
of the families (432) have a PCT member.
Filing trend - 40
han_name groups split the company; summed naively they give 1,239 family entries where there are 704 families.
Scope - 1
external partner in eleven years: MIT, on two applications of one family.
Partners
01 · Scope
704 families sit behind 65 name variants and 40 han_name groups
PATSTAT performs no entity resolution: a company exists only as a set of spellings, one person_id per rendering, country and typo. A substring search on person_name across a wide discovery window returned 182 candidate name rows; 65 survive review inside the report window. han_name was checked in both directions. Contamination: none, every person_name sharing a han_name group with the scope is a HARTING entity. Fragmentation: severe, the group scatters across 40 han_name groups. Summed naively, the 40 groups give 1,239 family entries and the 65 variants 1,422; deduplicated, the portfolio is 704 families.
Families per han_name group
Data table: han_name groups
| han_name group | Families |
|---|---|
| HARTING ELECT GMBH & CO KG | 267 |
| HARTING ELECT STIFTUNG & CO KG | 218 |
| HARTING (ZHUHAI) MANUFACTURING CO., LTD. | 153 |
| HARTING ELECTS GMBH | 111 |
| HARTING SYSTEMS GMBH | 63 |
| HARTING ELECTRIC FOUNDATION GMBH & CO. KG | 63 |
| HARTING INT INNOVATION AG | 59 |
| HARTING ELECTRONICS GMBH & CO. KG | 36 |
| HARTING AUTOMOTIVE GMBH | 35 |
| HARTING AG&CO KG | 28 |
| HARTING KGAA | 28 |
| HARTING CUSTOMISED SOLUTIONS GMBH & CO KG | 22 |
| 28 further groups (combined) | 156 |
| Total across 40 groups (naive sum) | 1,239 |
Query 2Counts families with an application filed 2014–2024; the 704 count families whose earliest filing falls in that window. Not interchangeable.
What was kept, what was dropped
| Group | Decision | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Latin corporate variants (HARTING Electric, Electronics, Systems, Automotive, Customised Solutions, International Innovation, IT Software, Applied Technologies, Deutschland, Zhuhai, AG & Co. KG, KGaA, Stiftung, Corporation) | Kept | Name begins with HARTING and denotes a legal entity |
| Russian transliterations (KHARTING ELEKTRIK GMBKH UND KO. KG, KHARTING EHLEKTRIK…, KHARTING ELEKTRONIKS GMBKH, KHARTING APPLAJD TEKNOLODZHIZ GMBKH) | Kept | Cyrillic-to-Latin re-transliteration of the same entities; all filed at RU |
| Chinese renderings (浩亭…, 哈廷…) and Japanese renderings (ハルティング…) | Kept | Confirmed by DOCDB family overlap with the Latin variants, then verified independently |
| Machine transliterations (HARYNTE ELECTRONIC LIMITED COMPANY AND TWO-IN-ONE COMPANY, HARBIN ELECTRONIC FOUNDATION TWO-IN-ONE COMPANY) | Kept | Word-by-word renderings of the Chinese names; same families |
| HARTIN Electric Stiftung & Co. KG | Kept | Typo variant found only via family overlap; a %HARTING% search cannot reach it |
| HARTING CORPORATION (no country code) | Kept | 4 of its 5 families are shared with HARTING International Innovation and the holding |
| Chilean individuals (Harting Glade, Harting Eckman, Harting S.A.) and their Chinese renderings 托马斯·弗朗西斯·哈廷格莱德 / 史蒂文·李·哈廷埃克曼 | Excluded | Natural persons and an unrelated Chilean company; no family overlap with the group |
| HARTINGER, HARTINGH, HARTINGTON, HARTINGS, STANDHARTINGER, VAN HARTINGSVELDT, Karl Hartinger Kranbetrieb, VOLUME CHARTING METHOD COMPANY | Excluded | Different names that merely contain the search string |
Query 1182 candidate rows reviewed; substring search, wider than a prefix search
HARTING files at CNIPA and the JPO under names in the local script. No Latin search returns them, and the failure is silent. They were found through the other members of HARTING's own families, then verified by searching each string directly, without any family restriction. Up to seven families are reachable only through these renderings: six under 哈廷电子有限公司及两合公司 and one under its machine transliteration, which may be the same family, so six is the floor and seven the ceiling.
Office-side renderings and the families no Latin spelling reaches
| Office-side rendering | Office | Families | Not reachable by any Latin spelling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 哈廷电子有限公司及两合公司 | CN | 123 | 6 |
| 浩亭电子有限公司 | CN | 39 | 0 |
| 哈廷电子基金会两合公司 | CN | 21 | 0 |
| ハルティング エレクトリック … | JP | 19 | 0 |
| ハルティング エレクトロニクス … | JP | 13 | 0 |
| 浩亭汽车部件有限公司 | CN | 5 | 0 |
| HARYNTE ELECTRONIC LIMITED COMPANY AND TWO-IN-ONE COMPANY | CN | 4 | 1 |
| 浩亭股份有限公司 | CN | 3 | 0 |
| ハルティング オートモーティヴ … | JP | 3 | 0 |
| 浩亭（珠海）制造有限公司 | CN | 2 | 0 |
| 浩亭信息技术软件开发有限及两合公司 | CN | 2 | 0 |
| HARBIN ELECTRONIC FOUNDATION TWO-IN-ONE COMPANY | CN | 2 | 0 |
| ハルティング アクチエンゲゼルシャフト … | JP | 1 | 0 |
| 浩亭国际创新股份公司 | CN | 1 | 0 |
Query 48 Chinese, 4 Japanese and 2 machine-transliterated renderings, found by family overlap (Query 3)
02 · Filing trend
Output is steady; the higher counts after 2021 cannot yet be read
2014–2017
252 families, between 49 and 77 a year. 432 of all 704 families (61.4%) have a WO member: the PCT is the default route.
2018–2021
223 families: an output in a band of roughly 50 to 77 a year with no sustained direction.
2022–2024
Family counts reach 76 (2023) and 91 (2024), while applications per family drop from a 2014–2021 range of 3.4 to 4.7 to 2.94, 2.04 and 1.66. PCT and national-phase members appear one to three years after the first member and are not yet in the data.
Read with care
The PCT rate reads 37.4% for 2024 against a 2014–2021 range of 54.5% to 78.0%: a publication effect, not a change of route. No growth rate ends in these years.
Patent families by earliest filing year
Data table: filing trend 2014–2024
| Year | Patent families | Applications | Applications per family | Families with a WO member | PCT rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 49 | 214 | 4.37 | 33 | 67.3% |
| 2015 | 74 | 271 | 3.66 | 55 | 74.3% |
| 2016 | 52 | 197 | 3.79 | 33 | 63.5% |
| 2017 | 77 | 265 | 3.44 | 42 | 54.5% |
| 2018 | 54 | 201 | 3.72 | 30 | 55.6% |
| 2019 | 50 | 195 | 3.90 | 33 | 66.0% |
| 2020 | 50 | 237 | 4.74 | 39 | 78.0% |
| 2021 | 69 | 266 | 3.86 | 52 | 75.4% |
| 2022* | 62 | 182 | 2.94 | 40 | 64.5% |
| 2023* | 76 | 155 | 2.04 | 41 | 53.9% |
| 2024* | 91 | 151 | 1.66 | 34 | 37.4% |
| Total | 704 | 2,334 | 3.32 | 432 | 61.4% |
Query 5Hatched: incomplete years. 2,334 applications, 3.32 per family.
03 · Offices
Germany's share of applications fell as China's rose
538 of 704 families (76.4%) have a DE filing, and the PCT is the second step for 431 of them. The pattern is a German priority filing, a PCT application and a broad national phase. Between the 2014–2017 and 2018–2021 cohorts China's share of applications rises from 14.7% to 18.7%, the EPO's from 14.7% to 18.2% and the US share from 13.6% to 16.5%, while Germany's falls from 23.9% to 20.4%. Russia goes from 34 applications to 3, Canada and Japan from 18 each to none. The German count falls too (226 to 183): the same home base, with filings pushed further out.
Families filing at each office, 2014–2024
Data table: filing offices
| Office | Families | Share of 704 families | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| DE — Germany (DPMA) | 538 | 76.4% | 538 |
| WO — PCT (WIPO) | 431 | 61.2% | 433 |
| EP — European Patent Office | 374 | 53.1% | 389 |
| CN — China (CNIPA) | 365 | 51.8% | 376 |
| US — United States (USPTO) | 308 | 43.8% | 317 |
| KR — Korea (KIPO) | 135 | 19.2% | 136 |
| RU — Russia | 37 | 5.3% | 37 |
| GB — United Kingdom | 35 | 5.0% | 35 |
| PL — Poland | 23 | 3.3% | 23 |
| CA — Canada | 19 | 2.7% | 19 |
| JP — Japan (JPO) | 18 | 2.6% | 18 |
| CH — Switzerland | 6 | 0.9% | 6 |
| DK — Denmark | 2 | 0.3% | 2 |
| ES — Spain | 2 | 0.3% | 2 |
| MX — Mexico | 2 | 0.3% | 2 |
| BR — Brazil | 1 | 0.1% | 1 |
| Total (applications) | — | — | 2,334 |
Query 5Family counts per office sum above 704; the application column sums to the total
Share of the cohort's applications filed at each office (%)
Data table: geographic shift between cohorts
| Office | Applications 2014–2017 | Share | Applications 2018–2021 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | 226 | 23.9% | 183 | 20.4% |
| WO | 164 | 17.3% | 154 | 17.1% |
| CN | 139 | 14.7% | 168 | 18.7% |
| EP | 139 | 14.7% | 164 | 18.2% |
| US | 129 | 13.6% | 148 | 16.5% |
| KR | 62 | 6.5% | 64 | 7.1% |
| RU | 34 | 3.6% | 3 | 0.3% |
| CA | 18 | 1.9% | 0 | 0.0% |
| JP | 18 | 1.9% | 0 | 0.0% |
| PL | 14 | 1.5% | 9 | 1.0% |
| Other (DK, ES, CH, BR) | 4 | 0.4% | 6 | 0.7% |
| Total | 947 | 100.0% | 899 | 100.0% |
Query 6Cohorts of 252 and 223 families by earliest filing year
Both cohorts end before the incomplete years. A boundary at 2023 would put missing national-phase entries inside the later period and show the same data as a broad geographic retreat: a lag artefact, not a company decision.
04 · Technology
Three quarters of the families carry the connector subclass H01R
535 of 704 families (76.0%) carry a code in H01R, electrically conductive connections and coupling devices; the next subclass, H05K, reaches 51. In the WIPO view 562 families (79.8%) fall in the single field Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy. Outside the core sit cable installation (H02G), electric vehicle supply (B60L), printed circuits (H05K), shop fittings and coin-freed apparatus (A47F, G07F) and electrolytic coating (C25D). For a connector maker these read as adjacent fields; the classification alone cannot establish that.
Families by IPC subclass (non-exclusive)
Data table: IPC subclasses
| IPC subclass | Title | Families | Share of 704 |
|---|---|---|---|
| H01R | Electrically-conductive connections; structural associations of mutually-insulated electrical connecting elements; coupling devices; current collectors | 535 | 76.0% |
| H05K | Printed circuits; casings or constructional details of electric apparatus | 51 | 7.2% |
| H02G | Installation of electric cables or lines, or of combined optical and electric cables or lines | 35 | 5.0% |
| B60L | Propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles; supplying electric power for auxiliary equipment | 33 | 4.7% |
| G06F | Electric digital data processing | 28 | 4.0% |
| G01R | Measuring electric variables; measuring magnetic variables | 23 | 3.3% |
| A47F | Special furniture, fittings or accessories for shops, storehouses, bars, restaurants; paying counters | 22 | 3.1% |
| G07F | Coin-freed or like apparatus | 20 | 2.8% |
| H01B | Cables; conductors; insulators; selection of materials for conductive, insulating or dielectric properties | 18 | 2.6% |
| H04L | Transmission of digital information | 17 | 2.4% |
| G02B | Optical elements, systems or apparatus | 16 | 2.3% |
| F16B | Devices for fastening or securing constructional elements or machine parts together | 15 | 2.1% |
| C25D | Processes for the electrolytic or electrophoretic production of coatings; electroforming | 15 | 2.1% |
| G06Q | ICT specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial or managerial purposes | 15 | 2.1% |
| B61G | Couplings specially adapted for railway vehicles; draught or buffing appliances | 12 | 1.7% |
Query 6692 of 704 families carry an IPC code. The fifteen subclasses account for 855 family-subclass pairs.
Families by WIPO technology field (non-exclusive)
Data table: WIPO fields
| Technology field | WIPO sector | Families | Share of 704 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy | Electrical engineering | 562 | 79.8% |
| Audio-visual technology | Electrical engineering | 61 | 8.7% |
| Transport | Mechanical engineering | 56 | 8.0% |
| Measurement | Instruments | 44 | 6.3% |
| Computer technology | Electrical engineering | 38 | 5.4% |
| Control | Instruments | 37 | 5.3% |
| Mechanical elements | Mechanical engineering | 24 | 3.4% |
| Furniture, games | Other fields | 22 | 3.1% |
| Telecommunications | Electrical engineering | 20 | 2.8% |
| Surface technology, coating | Chemistry | 18 | 2.6% |
| Optics | Instruments | 17 | 2.4% |
| Digital communication | Electrical engineering | 17 | 2.4% |
| IT methods for management | Electrical engineering | 15 | 2.1% |
| Handling | Mechanical engineering | 12 | 1.7% |
| Other special machines | Mechanical engineering | 12 | 1.7% |
| Machine tools | Mechanical engineering | 10 | 1.4% |
Query 7Fields below 10 families omitted
Run through CPC instead of IPC, the same families give 526 in H01R against 535. Both schemes reach 692 of 704 families, so neither is blind here. CPC adds the Y tagging codes, which have no IPC equivalent.
CPC Y tagging codes in the portfolio
| CPC tagging code | Meaning | Families |
|---|---|---|
| Y02T | Climate change mitigation technologies related to transportation | 24 |
| Y02E | Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to energy generation, transmission or distribution | 8 |
| Y10T | Technical subjects covered by former US classification | 4 |
| Y02P | Climate change mitigation technologies in the production or processing of goods | 3 |
Query 7Tags sit on top of the ordinary subclass: a Y02T family is also counted under H01R or B60L. CPC-only, so the Chinese and Japanese filings are under-represented.
05 · Connectors
H01R rose from 69.8% to 84.3% of the families between cohorts
Within H01R, 476 of the 535 families (89.0%) carry H01R 13/00, the details of coupling devices: contacts, housings, seals, locking, shielding. Direct conductive connections (H01R 4/00, 131), the machinery for making and assembling connectors (H01R 43/00, 102) and two-part coupling devices (H01R 24/00, 89) follow. Roughly a fifth of the H01R portfolio protects how the connectors are made.
Families by IPC main group within H01R (non-exclusive)
Data table: H01R main groups
| Main group | Title | Families | Share of 535 H01R families |
|---|---|---|---|
| H01R 13/00 | Details of coupling devices of the kinds covered by groups H01R 12/70 or H01R 24/00–H01R 33/00 | 476 | 89.0% |
| H01R 4/00 | Electrically-conductive connections between two or more conductive members in direct contact | 131 | 24.5% |
| H01R 43/00 | Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining or repairing line connectors | 102 | 19.1% |
| H01R 24/00 | Two-part coupling devices, or either of their cooperating parts, characterised by their overall structure | 89 | 16.6% |
| H01R 12/00 | Structural associations of mutually-insulated connecting elements specially adapted for printed circuits | 63 | 11.8% |
| H01R 9/00 | Structural associations of mutually-insulated connecting elements, e.g. terminal strips or blocks | 49 | 9.2% |
| H01R 11/00 | Individual connecting elements providing two or more spaced connecting locations | 35 | 6.5% |
| H01R 31/00 | Coupling parts supported only by co-operation with counterpart | 33 | 6.2% |
| H01R 25/00 | Coupling parts adapted for simultaneous co-operation with two or more identical counterparts | 16 | 3.0% |
| H01R 101/00 | One pole (indexing code) | 14 | 2.6% |
| H01R 27/00 | Coupling parts adapted for co-operation with two or more dissimilar counterparts | 12 | 2.2% |
| H01R 35/00 | Flexible or turnable line connectors | 12 | 2.2% |
Query 6The column sums to 1,032 across at most 535 families
Between the complete cohorts the portfolio moves inward. H01R's share rises from 69.8% to 84.3%, and cable installation (H02G, 3.2% to 8.5%), printed circuits (H05K, 6.7% to 9.0%) and electric-vehicle supply (B60L, 2.4% to 4.9%) rise with it. Shop fittings (A47F) fall from 15 families to 4, coin-freed apparatus (G07F) from 14 to 4, data processing (G06F) from 12 to 3. That cluster fits HARTING Systems, the retail-systems entity with 45 families; the report does not cross-tabulate entity against class, so this is an inference, not a measurement.
Share of cohort families carrying each IPC subclass (%)
Data table: technology shift
| IPC subclass | Families 2014–2017 | Share of 252 | Families 2018–2021 | Share of 223 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H01R | 176 | 69.8% | 188 | 84.3% |
| H05K | 17 | 6.7% | 20 | 9.0% |
| H02G | 8 | 3.2% | 19 | 8.5% |
| B60L | 6 | 2.4% | 11 | 4.9% |
| A47F | 15 | 6.0% | 4 | 1.8% |
| G07F | 14 | 5.6% | 4 | 1.8% |
| G06F | 12 | 4.8% | 3 | 1.3% |
| G01R | 11 | 4.4% | 4 | 1.8% |
Query 6Both cohorts end before the incomplete years; shares do not sum to 100%
06 · Entities
HARTING Electric files 365 families and 60.6% of all applications
HARTING Electric, under its GmbH & Co. KG and its Stiftung & Co. KG form, is the applicant for 365 families and 1,415 applications. It also carries the international strategy: 3.88 applications per family against 3.32 for the portfolio. HARTING Electronics follows with 102 families, the holding entities with 69 and HARTING International Innovation AG with 67. The last is the newest name: every spelling carries a first filing year of 2023.
Families by applicant entity group (non-exclusive)
Data table: entity groups
| Entity group | Families | Applications | Applications per family | Share of 2,334 applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HARTING Electric / Electric Stiftung & Co. KG | 365 | 1,415 | 3.88 | 60.6% |
| Office-side renderings (CN / JP) | 187 | 205 | 1.10 | 8.8% |
| HARTING Electronics GmbH (& Co. KG) | 102 | 324 | 3.18 | 13.9% |
| Holding (HARTING AG & Co. KG / KGaA / Stiftung & Co. KG) | 69 | 109 | 1.58 | 4.7% |
| HARTING International Innovation AG | 67 | 87 | 1.30 | 3.7% |
| HARTING Systems GmbH (& Co. KG) | 45 | 59 | 1.31 | 2.5% |
| HARTING Automotive GmbH | 31 | 62 | 2.00 | 2.7% |
| HARTING (Zhuhai) Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 22 | 28 | 1.27 | 1.2% |
| HARTING Customised Solutions GmbH & Co. KG | 16 | 27 | 1.69 | 1.2% |
| HARTING IT Software Development / Applied Technologies | 7 | 13 | 1.86 | 0.6% |
| HARTING Corporation | 5 | 5 | 1.00 | 0.2% |
| HARTING Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 0.0% |
| Sum of rows (non-exclusive) | 917 | 2,335 | — | — |
| Distinct total | 704 | 2,334 | 3.32 | 100% |
Query 5Rows sum to 917 families across 704
One row is not an entity. "Office-side renderings" holds the Chinese and Japanese spellings under which CNIPA and the JPO record HARTING's filings, without saying which German entity is behind each.
07 · Grants
Cohorts old enough to be decided reach grant shares of 50.0% to 60.5%
2014–2020
For families first filed 2014–2020 the granted share of applications sits between 50.0% and 60.5%. That band, not the portfolio average, describes HARTING's conversion rate.
2021
The share drops from 53.6% for the 2020 cohort to 17.7%. Examination takes three to five years.
2022–2024
3.8%, 2.6% and 4.6%: these rows measure pendency, not refusal, and are not a quality signal.
Granted share of applications by filing cohort (%)
Data table: grant status by cohort
| Cohort (earliest filing year) | Applications | Granted | Granted share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 214 | 107 | 50.0% |
| 2015 | 271 | 164 | 60.5% |
| 2016 | 197 | 119 | 60.4% |
| 2017 | 265 | 160 | 60.4% |
| 2018 | 201 | 115 | 57.2% |
| 2019 | 195 | 105 | 53.8% |
| 2020 | 237 | 127 | 53.6% |
| 2021* | 266 | 47 | 17.7% |
| 2022* | 182 | 7 | 3.8% |
| 2023* | 155 | 4 | 2.6% |
| 2024* | 151 | 7 | 4.6% |
| Total | 2,334 | 962 | 41.2% |
Query 5Hatched: cohorts still in examination
Across the whole window 325 of 704 families (46.2%) and 962 of 2,334 applications (41.2%) are recorded as granted. Among the larger offices the spread is wide: 78.7% at KIPO and 66.2% at the USPTO against 47.3% at the EPO and 24.7% at the DPMA. The low German figure fits the DPMA as the priority-establishing first filing (538 of 704 families file there); the report does not trace applications through withdrawal, continuation or grant.
Granted share of applications by office (%)
Data table: grant status by office
| Office | Applications | Granted | Granted share |
|---|---|---|---|
| RU | 37 | 37 | 100.0% |
| PL | 23 | 23 | 100.0% |
| CH | 6 | 5 | 83.3% |
| KR | 136 | 107 | 78.7% |
| US | 317 | 210 | 66.2% |
| CN | 376 | 199 | 52.9% |
| EP | 389 | 184 | 47.3% |
| JP | 18 | 5 | 27.8% |
| DE | 538 | 133 | 24.7% |
| CA | 19 | 1 | 5.3% |
| GB | 35 | 0 | 0.0% |
| DK | 2 | 2 | 100.0% |
| ES | 2 | 2 | 100.0% |
| MX | 2 | 0 | 0.0% |
| BR | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| WO (no grant in the PCT phase) | 433 | — | — |
Query 5Applications, all cohorts. WO excluded: the PCT phase produces no grant.
The 35 GB applications show a granted count of zero. For a national office of that size this is more likely a gap in PATSTAT's grant flag than a real outcome; do not read it as ten years of unsuccessful UK filings.
08 · Inventors
Inventor teams per invention grew after 2018
525 distinct Latin-script inventors are named across 686 of the 704 families. The most frequently named appears on 44 families, 6.3% of the total; no one reaches 50. Every one of the fifteen most frequent is recorded in Germany. Two profiles show: Daniel Wesseler's 20 families are all from 2020–2024, as are Marc Genau's 26 of 28 and Sebastian Griepenstroh's 26 of 35, while Lutz Tröger (1 of 27), Heiko Herbrechtsmeier (1 of 19) and Bernard Schlegel (1 of 16) contributed almost entirely in the first half.
The fifteen most frequently named inventors, families
Data table: inventors
| Inventor | Country | Families 2014–2024 | of which first filed 2020–2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meier, Heiko | DE | 44 | 9 |
| Griepenstroh, Sebastian | DE | 35 | 26 |
| Friesen, Markus | DE | 33 | 17 |
| Loske, Felix | DE | 31 | 14 |
| Kropiewnicki, Norbert | DE | 30 | 17 |
| Genau, Marc | DE | 28 | 26 |
| Tröger, Lutz | DE | 27 | 1 |
| Beimdieck, Carsten | DE | 26 | 18 |
| Riechmann, Till | DE | 22 | 13 |
| Kliever, Wilhelm | DE | 21 | 9 |
| Ferderer, Albert | DE | 21 | 11 |
| Wesseler, Daniel | DE | 20 | 20 |
| Herbrechtsmeier, Heiko | DE | 19 | 1 |
| Schlegel, Bernard | DE | 16 | 1 |
| Hellige, Denny | DE | 16 | 11 |
Query 8Latin-script renderings only
Distinct inventors per cohort move from a 2014–2020 range of 64 to 90 to 127 in 2021, 106 in 2023 and 125 in 2024, on family counts that did not rise as much. That is roughly 1.3 inventors per family in 2014–2018 against 1.6 to 1.8 from 2019: larger teams per invention. 2023 and 2024 are lower bounds.
Distinct inventors named per filing cohort
Data table: inventors per cohort
| Cohort | Distinct inventors | Families with a named inventor | Inventors per such family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 64 | 49 | 1.31 |
| 2015 | 90 | 72 | 1.25 |
| 2016 | 73 | 52 | 1.40 |
| 2017 | 88 | 77 | 1.14 |
| 2018 | 72 | 54 | 1.33 |
| 2019 | 80 | 50 | 1.60 |
| 2020 | 79 | 46 | 1.72 |
| 2021 | 127 | 69 | 1.84 |
| 2022* | 96 | 62 | 1.55 |
| 2023* | 106 | 76 | 1.39 |
| 2024* | 125 | 79 | 1.58 |
| All cohorts (distinct) | 525 | 686 | — |
Query 8Hatched: incomplete cohorts
How names were consolidated, and what is excluded. MEIER, HEIKO and MEIER HEIKO are merged on a punctuation-stripped key. Chinese and Japanese inventor renderings are not merged and are excluded: they carry a single Latin initial, so the key would collapse every CN inventor sharing that initial into one person. This costs no family that also has a Latin spelling (686 of 704 are covered). Different people with identical names cannot be separated.
09 · Citations
One holding-frame family draws 139 citations, more than twice the next
354 of 704 families (50.3%) have been cited at least once, drawing 2,755 citations in total. The most cited family, Holding frame for plug connectors (2014), accounts for 139 on its own. Four of the top ten are holding frames and three more are modular connectors or connector modules: the mechanism that lets one industrial connector carry interchangeable inserts. Liquid-cooled contact element (2016, 57) and Terminal unit for an actively cooled cable (2016, 40) concern cooled high-current contacts and, with Car charging plug-in connector (2017, 41), point at fast charging.
Ten most cited families, incoming citations
Data table: most cited families
| DOCDB family | Title | Earliest filing year | Incoming citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 49475936 | Holding frame for plug connectors | 2014 | 139 |
| 56925929 | Holding frame for plug connector modules that is fixible in a housing | 2015 | 67 |
| 52396325 | Holding frame for a plug-type connector | 2014 | 57 |
| 59501125 | Liquid-cooled contact element | 2016 | 57 |
| 53054818 | Modular plug connector | 2015 | 52 |
| 63372503 | Car charging plug-in connector | 2017 | 41 |
| 59631518 | Terminal unit for an actively cooled cable | 2016 | 40 |
| 56741022 | Holding frame for holding plug connector modules | 2015 | 40 |
| 63407004 | Modular connector for circuit boards | 2017 | 38 |
| 67184754 | Plug connector module for an industrial plug connector | 2018 | 38 |
| All cited families | 354 families / 2,755 citations | — | — |
Query 8Titles from the EP, WO, US or GB member
Citation counts favour older families and are not a quality score. A family is cited only after it publishes and keeps accumulating citations for years; nine of the ten entries were first filed in 2014–2017. Citations are incoming references to any publication of the family from any citing document, without separating examiner from applicant citations.
10 · Partners
One external partner in eleven years
15 of 704 families (2.1%) name more than one applicant. Exactly one has an applicant outside the group: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on two applications of a single family. On the other 14 families every co-applicant is another HARTING entity, most often HARTING Electric alongside itself under two spellings of its legal form. HARTING reaches 16 offices but shares almost none of its inventions outside the group.
Co-applicants on multi-applicant families, exactly as recorded
| Co-applicant | Type | Relationship | Families | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Massachusetts Institute of Technology | University | External partner | 1 | 2 |
| HARTING Electric Stiftung & Co. KG | Company | Group-internal | 9 | 9 |
| Harting Electric GmbH & Co. KG | Company | Group-internal | 8 | 9 |
| HARTING Electric Stiftung &Co. KG | Company | Group-internal | 2 | 2 |
| HARTING ELECTRIC GMBH & CO., KG | Company | Group-internal | 2 | 2 |
| HARTING Electric & Stiftung & Co. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING IT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT GMBH & CO. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING IT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT GMBH & CO,. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING Electric Stiftung & Co., KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| Harting Electric GmbH & Co., KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING AG & CO. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTIN Electric Stiftung & Co. KG | Company | Group-internal (typo variant) | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING ELECTRIC GMBH &CO. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
| HARTING Electric Stiftung GmbH & Co. KG | Company | Group-internal | 1 | 1 |
Query 8Individual name records, not disjoint: the group-internal rows add up to more than 14 families
Co-applicants are joined on the application, not the family. Sharing a DOCDB family is not co-filing. Molex LLC (one Chinese member) and DIAC Holdings LLC (EP, US and WO members of one family) appear on other members of HARTING families without ever sharing an application; they are excluded. The same rule keeps HARTING's own Chinese and Japanese renderings off the partner list, where they would otherwise rank as its largest collaborators.
11 · How we counted
How the numbers were counted
- One family, one countCOUNT(DISTINCT docdb_family_id), pseudo-families excluded. A family's year is the earliest filing of any patent-of-invention member, taken without a year restriction and only then filtered to 2014–2024.
- Who filed, by person_nameThe set is defined by applicant names (applt_seq_nr > 0), not by codes: a substring search on '%HARTING%' over filing years 2008–2026, plus the Chinese and Japanese renderings found through family overlap. han_name is a cross-check only.
- Patents of inventionipr_type = 'PI'. PCT rate = families with any WO member ÷ all families (432 / 704 = 61.4%). Grant rate = granted applications ÷ applications, per office or per cohort.
- Every breakdown overlapsThe fifteen IPC subclasses sum to 855, the twelve H01R main groups to 1,032, the entity table to 917 and office family counts to 2,296. Percentages are of 704 families or 2,334 applications. No pie charts.
Checks and limits
- Utility models and designs excluded, a material exclusionWithin the same scope and years PATSTAT holds 244 utility-model families (259 applications: 160 at CN, 90 at DE, 1 at JP) and 9 design families (14 applications, all US). For a connector maker with Chinese manufacturing this is a real part of its protection activity; it is outside this report by definition.
- 2022–2024 are incompleteAbout 18 months of publication delay plus national-phase lag. Applications per family fall from 3.4–4.7 (2014–2021) to 2.94, 2.04 and 1.66. Family counts for those years are lower bounds; no period comparison ends inside them.
- Year definitionTaking the minimum over the filings inside the window would pin pre-2014 families to 2014; the sum-equals-total check passes under both readings. Taking the minimum over every member regardless of ipr_type gives 703 families instead of 704; 3 families in the set have a non-PI member filed before 2014.
- Unclassified families12 of 704 families carry neither an IPC nor a CPC code, so classification shares rest on 692 classified families while expressed against 704.
- IPC across all membersIPC is aggregated over all applications of a family, because roughly 45 % of international families carry diverging main classifications. Labels are left-joined so retired symbols are not dropped; none appeared untitled.
- No code-set completion neededThe set comes from applicant names, so subtree, predecessor and retired-symbol rules do not apply. Classes only describe the set; no is_active filter was used.
- Y codes are CPC-onlyThey sit on top of the ordinary subclass and under-represent offices that do not assign CPC.
- Name review182 candidates reviewed, 65 variants kept. Excluded: the Chilean individuals Harting Glade and Harting Eckman, the Chilean Harting S.A., their Chinese renderings, and names that merely contain the string (HARTINGER, HARTINGTON and similar).
- Undiscovered spelling errors remain possibleHARTIN Electric Stiftung & Co. KG was found only because it shares a family with correct spellings. A family filed only under a misspelling would not be found.
- Two entity decisionsHARTING CORPORATION, with no country code, is in scope because four of its five families are shared with HARTING International Innovation and the holding. The GmbH & Co. KG and Stiftung & Co. KG forms are one company with a change of legal form: filings from 2008 to 2023 and from 2013 to 2025, overlapping in the data.
- Renderings not attributableThe Chinese and Japanese renderings cannot be assigned to a German legal entity, so they form their own bucket (187 families).
- Inventors are Latin-script renderings686 of 704 families are covered; people sharing a name cannot be separated.
- Grant flagRates for the 2021–2024 cohorts are low because examination takes three to five years. The 35 GB applications carry zero grants, more plausibly a gap in the grant flag than an outcome.
- Co-filing at application levelCo-applicants are joined on appln_id, never on docdb_family_id. Collaboration that never surfaces as a co-applicant record, such as joint development where only one party files, leaves no trace in tls207_pers_appln.
- No external benchmark (QA Check 9)A web search for third-party portfolio figures returned only a prior mtc.berlin publication, rejected as circular. The scope is evidenced internally: candidates reviewed, both han_name directions checked, renderings verified independently.
- WindowApplications before 2014, and families whose earliest patent-of-invention filing falls outside 2014–2024, are not part of the report.
- EditionsComputed on 15 August 2026 against PATSTAT Spring 2026 (patstat-mtc.patstat_2026a), IPC 20260101 (in force 1 January 2026) and CPC 202608 (in force 1 August 2026), read from dpt_edition. Figures from other editions are not comparable.
The core metrics bundle: KPIs, annual series, offices, periods and entities in one scan
Query 5queries.sql · 10 queries · Queries 5–8 each rebuild the scope themselves
Release protocol
- Agentsearch + draftBuilds the name scope and queries PATSTAT read-only. Every number comes from SQL.
- Checks13 rulesEvery claim must trace back to a query; chart and table must agree.
- Reviewsubject expertChecks scope, counts and wording before publication.
- Approvalsecond personA second person not involved in the report approves publication.
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