Air Suspension Patents: Who Leads, Where Filings Cooled 2026
- Filing has cooled after a 2024 peak of 147 records, with the partial 2026 count sitting at 13 — a signal that claim space around ride-height and damping-force control is filling in rather than opening up.
- B60G carries 2,712 of 2,912 records, but F16F (springs and vibration dampers) still touches 702 of them, showing how tightly suspension mechanics and damper-valve claims overlap.
- China leads receiving offices with 950 filings, ahead of the United States (467) and Japan (460), which reshapes where freedom-to-operate checks need to start.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 2,912 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine air suspension, adaptive or semi-active damper claims with control-oriented language around ride height, damping force, road preview and energy consumption. The IPC gate (B60G17, B60G11, F16F9) keeps the set anchored to mechanical suspension and damper hardware rather than general vehicle dynamics software.
Publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart understate actual filing activity for those years. Read the recent-year figures as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,912-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A decade of filing, now past its peak
Filings rose from 69 in 2017 to a peak of 147 in 2024, with 2022 sitting at the midpoint of 107. The partial 2026 figure of 13 continues a decline that started after the peak, though the publication lag means the true 2025-2026 total will land higher once later filings publish.
Mechanical suspension dominates, damper valves are the secondary cluster
B60G (vehicle suspension) covers 2,712 of the 2,912 records, effectively defining the corpus. F16F (springs and vibration dampers) at 702 and B62D (steering) at 148 mark the two largest secondary clusters, with F16K valves, F15B fluid actuators and B60T brakes each appearing in the low tens — evidence that control-valve and actuator claims are filed alongside suspension hardware rather than as a separate category.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,912 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Air Suspension and Adaptive Damping with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about air suspension and adaptive damping and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative filing
US20120146307A1 — Multiple ride height control apparatus for air suspension
A multiple ride height control apparatus for an air suspension system having an air spring installed between a frame/body and a suspension arm to adjust ride height by filling and exhausting compressed air. The apparatus comprises a mechanical leveling valve controlled by adjusting its mounting angle through clockwise and counterclockwise rotation, a valve driver for rotating the leveling valve in the fill/exhaust direction, and a controller that governs the valve driver's operation.Filed by an individual inventor (Kim, Seok Hwan) rather than a corporate assignee — one of the reminders that influential claim scope in this field is not confined to the largest players.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050110229A1 | Vehicle height adjusting apparatus | 168 |
| 2 | CN102729760A | 汽车半主动悬架系统实时最佳阻尼控制算法 | 146 |
| 3 | US4325541A | Spring leg which has a load proportionally limited damping, consisting of an air suspension and a telescopic … | 143 |
| 4 | US2991804A | Air suspension and control apparatus therefor | 136 |
| 5 | US20070088475A1 | Method and apparatus for controlling damping of a vehicle suspension | 129 |
| 6 | US5452919A | Suspension system for a vehicle | 119 |
| 7 | US7316406B2 | Vehicle height adjusting apparatus | 118 |
| 8 | US20060219503A1 | Air suspension and electronically controlled suspension system | 113 |
| 9 | US3074709A | Air suspension systems for vehicles | 98 |
| 10 | US20070158920A1 | Pneumatic vehicle stabilization system | 91 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat this list as a map of influential prior art, not of current filing activity.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three read-throughs from the filing trend, the IPC split and the receiving-office data.
The growth phase has passed
Filing rose steadily to a 2024 peak before falling off sharply. Combined with several major assignees showing 0 filings in the latest tracked year, this looks less like a temporary dip and more like a maturing claim space where the easy mechanical variations have already been filed.
Suspension hardware, not software, still anchors the field
Nearly every record in this corpus touches B60G vehicle suspension claims. The F16F overlap (702 records) shows that damper and spring hardware claims are typically bundled with suspension-system claims rather than filed as standalone mechanical patents.
China is now the largest single filing venue
China's 950 filings outpace the United States (467) and Japan (460) combined receiving-office share is still meaningful, but any freedom-to-operate review that starts and ends with US and EP registers will miss the largest active filing venue in this field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to air suspension and adaptive damping, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Motors Corporation | Mitsubishi Motors Engineering Corporation | 17 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Toyota Motor Corporation | 13 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Japan Automobile Parts Research Institute, Inc. | 6 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| Jiangsu University | Zhejiang Wenda Shock Absorber Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| Mitsubishi Motors Corporation | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 4 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. | 3 |
| Hyundai Motor Company | Kia Motors Corporation | 3 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest link (17 shared filings) sits between two related Mitsubishi Motors entities — a pattern of intra-group co-filing rather than cross-company collaboration.
Who is filing, and where activity has stalled
Several of the historically active assignees in this corpus show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, which is the strongest signal in the momentum data.
Large OEMs have gone quiet in the most recent period
Toyota, Hyundai and Hino all show zero filings in the latest tracked year according to the momentum data. Given the publication lag, this may partly reflect filings still in the pipeline rather than a genuine stop, but it is consistent across multiple large OEMs at once.
Academic filing has dropped sharply
Jiangsu University moved from active filing to zero in the latest year, a -100% year-on-year change. University-origin filings in this space have tended to cluster around control algorithms rather than hardware, so this drop is worth tracking against algorithm-focused IPC codes specifically.
Supplier-side filing has also paused
ArvinMeritor Technology and Hyundai Mobis both register zero filings in the latest year. Since suppliers typically file close to production programmes, a pause here suggests fewer new air-suspension platforms are entering development, not that the technology itself has stalled.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Hyundai Motor Company | 0 | — |
| Hino Motors, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu University | 0 | -100% |
| ArvinMeritor Technology, LLC | 0 | — |
| Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| General Motors LLC | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Motors Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and assignee data point to a field past its filing peak but still active in specific sub-branches.
Check freedom-to-operate against the China register first
With 950 receiving-office filings, China now carries more air suspension and adaptive damping filings than the US and Japan combined. Any clearance search that skips Chinese-language filings is working from an incomplete map.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaWatch whether the 2024 peak was a one-off or a trend break
The drop from 147 filings in 2024 to a partial 13 in 2026 could reflect either genuine market cooling or publication lag catching up. Re-checking this trend once 2025 filings fully publish will settle which explanation holds.
Track filing trends in EurekaMap the thin IPC branches before committing claim language
F16K valve actuation and B60T brake-suspension coordination both appear at low volume relative to the B60G core, which is where narrow, defensible claims are still available.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Ranked by citation count within this corpus, the most-cited records are older US filings such as US20050110229A1 on vehicle height adjusting apparatus and US4325541A on a load-proportionally-limited damping spring leg, alongside US2991804A, one of the earliest air suspension and control patents in the set. High citation counts favour older documents simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so these should be read as foundational prior art rather than as evidence of current filing leadership. For current activity, the assignee ranking and recent-year momentum data are the better guide.
No — filing rose from 69 records in 2017 to a peak of 147 in 2024, then declined to a partial count of 13 in 2026. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the most recent one to two years will revise upward once pending applications publish, but the trend through 2024 already shows the growth phase flattening after the midpoint year of 2022 (107 filings). Several major assignees also show zero filings in the latest tracked year, which is consistent with a maturing rather than expanding claim space.
The core classification is B60G (vehicle suspension), which covers 2,712 of the 2,912 records in this dataset, essentially defining the field. F16F (springs and vibration dampers) is the largest secondary class at 702 records, reflecting how damper hardware claims are usually bundled with suspension-system claims. Smaller but relevant clusters sit in B62D (steering, 148 records), F16K (valves, 49) and F15B (fluid-pressure actuators, 32), which matter for anyone drafting claims around valve-controlled air springs specifically.
Receiving-office data shows China leading with 950 filings, ahead of the United States (467), Japan (460), South Korea (280), the EPO (258) and the WIPO PCT route (107). A filing strategy built only around US and European offices will miss the largest single venue for this technology. That said, receiving-office volume reflects filing activity, not market size or enforceability, so the choice of jurisdiction should still be weighed against where products actually ship.
US20120146307A1 claims a multiple ride-height control apparatus for air suspension that uses a mechanical leveling valve rotated clockwise or counterclockwise by a valve driver, governed by a controller, to fill and exhaust compressed air from an air spring. It is a mechanism-level claim tied specifically to angle-based mechanical valve rotation rather than to ride-height control generally, so systems using electronically metered solenoid valves or different actuation geometries sit outside its literal scope. Anyone designing a ride-height control system should still map their valve-actuation mechanism against this claim specifically rather than assuming the whole ride-height-control space is blocked.
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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.