Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
A patent landscape review of pressure sensitive adhesive filings from 2015 to 2026, covering the leading assignees, filing trends, technology classes and white space across 131,542 records.
Filing growth = 2021 (456 records) → 2024 (166); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 131,542 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What the pressure sensitive adhesive patent record shows
Pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) technology spans a search space that runs from industrial tapes and laminates to medical wound dressings and touch-panel films. The 131,542 records in scope capture claims built around tack, peel and shear performance rather than a single chemistry, which is why the class mix spreads across polymer composition, layered products and even implant-adjacent codes. Filing has been active enough to produce a peak year of 526 records in 2017, but the volume seen since has not matched that level.
Reading this landscape means separating raw document counts from real ownership. A handful of assignees hold a meaningful share of the whole corpus, yet the technology classes they compete in are broad enough that no single formulation chemistry defines the field. The sections below work through who holds that concentration, how filing has moved year over year, and which claim families are the ones a new entrant actually has to clear.
Filing trend and technology composition
The two figures below use the same 131,542-record denominator throughout — the filing trend by publication year, and the IPC subclass mix, which sums to more than 100% because most records carry multiple classes.
Filing trend, 2017 peak to present
Annual filings ran as high as 526 records in 2017. The 2021-to-2024 span, the last stretch of years unaffected by publication lag, shows a 64% drop from 456 to 166 records — a real pull-back, not an artefact of recent data still filling in.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Where PSA claims concentrate by IPC subclass
Adhesives (C09J, 7.2% of records) and layered products (B32B, 3.1%) carry the bulk of claim density. Addition polymers, polymer compositions, displays, implants, packaging and sterilising classes each sit at or below 1.4% of records, marking them as smaller but still active adjacent branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 131,542 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Adhesives & Sealants: Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited and most representative filings
Pressure sensitive adhesive composition, sheet, film, laminate and touch panel (US20170101560A1)
Filed by Fujifilm, this application claims a PSA composition tuned for low and stable relative permittivity across environmental temperatures, built for capacitive touch panel laminates. The claim structure ties a specific monomer-ratio polymer to a defined end-use stack — adhesive sheet, adhesive film, touch-panel laminate — rather than claiming the chemistry standalone.Filed 2017-04-13. Full text and family status rendered separately.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5226992A | Process for forming a composite elastic necked-bonded material | 2,087 |
| 2 | US9282962B2 | Adhesive film laminate | 1,943 |
| 3 | US7455682B2 | Structure containing wound treatment material | 1,799 |
| 4 | US4573986A | Disposable waste-containment garment | 1,784 |
| 5 | US7886951B2 | Pouch used to deliver medication when ruptured | 1,680 |
| 6 | US8201720B2 | Pouch used to deliver medication when ruptured | 1,657 |
| 7 | US5018515A | See through absorbent dressing | 1,557 |
| 8 | US4733659A | Foam bandage | 1,437 |
| 9 | US4640688A | Urine collection catheter | 1,405 |
| 10 | US7172593B2 | Non-metallic implant devices and intra-operative methods for assembly and fixation | 1,393 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to be cited — read this table as a map of foundational prior art, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and class data mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the class mix are read together: where ownership sits, how the field's volume has moved, and which adjacent classes remain lightly claimed.
Ownership sits with a small leading group, not a long uniform tail
The leader alone accounts for 10,616 records, and the top ten combined hold 30.9% of the field. That leaves the remaining ranked companies with materially smaller counts — fifth place sits at 2,377, tenth at 1,270 — so the drop-off from leader to mid-ranked entrant is steep rather than gradual.
Volume has pulled back sharply from its 2017 peak
Annual filings ran at 526 records in 2017 and had fallen to 166 by 2024, the last year the trend can treat as complete. That decline sits well before the 18-month publication lag affects the count, so it reflects real filing behaviour rather than incomplete data.
Core adhesive and laminate classes dominate; adjacent branches stay thin
C09J and B32B together anchor the class mix, while classes touching implants, packaging and sterilising each sit at 1.2% or below. That gap is where formulation work aimed at medical or packaging end-uses faces less occupied claim space than core adhesive chemistry does.
US filing leads by a wide margin over EPO and PCT routes
The United States receiving office accounts for more records than the EPO (4,245) and WIPO/PCT (2,304) combined, with Canada, Australia and the UK trailing further behind. That skew matters for freedom-to-operate work that assumes even jurisdictional spread.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to adhesives & sealants: pressure sensitive adhesive patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the shape of the field. Turning that shape into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means drilling into specific claim families and specific competitors.
Check freedom to operate against the leading assignees
The top 5 hold 24.8% of all records, but ownership concentration varies sharply by IPC subclass and by end-use — a laminate claim and a medical-adhesive claim from the same assignee may sit in very different white space.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in EurekaTrack which classes are cooling and which are not
The 2021-to-2024 pull-back is field-wide, but subclass-level trends can move independently of the aggregate — confirm whether a specific branch is still active before ruling it in or out.
Build a class-level trend view in EurekaMap the citation network around the oldest foundational filings
The most-cited records in this corpus date back years; understanding what they block and what has been designed around them is a prerequisite for any new formulation claim.
Explore citation trees in EurekaCommon questions about the PSA patent landscape
The assignee ranking behind this landscape covers 100 companies, and ownership is heavily concentrated at the top: the leading assignee alone accounts for 10,616 records, and the top 5 combined hold 24.8% of all 131,542 records in scope. Past the top 10, which together hold 30.9% of records, the counts drop off quickly rather than tapering gradually. This pattern means a freedom-to-operate check should weight the leading handful of assignees heavily rather than treating the ranking as evenly spread.
Filing peaked at 526 records in 2017 and has declined since, with the clearest complete-year comparison showing a 64% drop from 456 records in 2021 to 166 in 2024. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, years after 2024 in the trend are still filling in and should not be read as confirming a continued decline. Based on the years that are complete, the field has genuinely cooled from its mid-2010s peak.
Core adhesive formulation, classified under IPC C09J, appears in 7.2% of all 131,542 records, and layered products and laminates under B32B appear in 3.1%. Smaller but active adjacent areas include addition polymers, polymer compositions, display and signage applications, implants, packaging, and sterilising or disinfecting uses, each at 1.4% or below. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping claim coverage, not as mutually exclusive categories.
US20170101560A1, filed by Fujifilm on 2017-04-13, claims a pressure sensitive adhesive composition engineered for low and temperature-stable relative permittivity, built specifically for capacitive touch panel laminates. The claim scope ties a defined monomer-ratio polymer to a specific end-use stack: adhesive sheet, adhesive film, and touch-panel laminate. Anyone working on touch-panel-grade PSA formulations needs to check their monomer composition and permittivity targets against this filing's specific claim language rather than assuming a generic PSA claim would apply.
The class-level data shows core adhesive (C09J) and laminate (B32B) claims are the most densely filed, while classes tied to implants, packaging, and sterilising applications each sit at or below 1.4% of records. That gap suggests PSA formulations aimed at medical device integration or packaging-specific performance face less occupied claim space than general-purpose adhesive chemistry. It is not evidence that those branches are technically easier, only that fewer claims have been staked there so far.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.