Recently, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was announced, and Benjamin List and David W.C.MacMillan were honored for their outstanding academic contributions "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis". The struggles of Nobel laureates often give us ordinary people some thoughts and inspirations. John Goodenough, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019, impressed me the most. Goodenough was 97 years old at the time of the award, making him the oldest Nobel Prize winner so far.

According to public information, Mr. Goodenough is a professor and solid-state physicist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Texas at Austin, an inventor of cathode materials of lithium cobaltate, lithium manganate and lithium iron phosphate, and one of the founders of lithium-ion battery. Meanwhile, by searching the global patent database of PatSnap, it was found that Mr. Goodenough had 107 patent applications in 126 countries/regions up to now, including 21 valid patents and 48 granted patent application for inventions. Hydro-Québec and the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System are the main applicants for the above 100-plus patents.

An analysis of all Mr. Goodenough's patents shows that the focus of his technology research and development is mainly on the professional fields such as recharging, lithium-ion battery, cathode materials, alkali ions, polyanions, compounds and rechargeable batteries.

It is worth noting that, in general, the number of citations to a patent reflects the degree of influence and innovation of the patent in its field. One of Mr. Goodenough's patents, which has been cited for more than 1,000 times, is "Cathode Materials for Secondary (Rechargeable) Lithium Batteries" (publication No.: US5910382A). In addition, the patent alone involved seven patent lawsuits, reflecting the importance of the patent in the industry.