Aircraft Lavatory Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Aircraft Lavatory System Patents: Who Holds the Vacuum Toilet and Flush Valve Claims
48.5% concentration. The top five assignees alone account for 596 of the 1,228 records in scope — nearly half the field held by a handful of names. Filings ran from 66 in 2017 down to single digits by 2024 (9, versus 36 in 2021 — a -75% change over that three-year span). Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures are not yet complete and should not be read as a further collapse in inventive activity.
- 1MAG AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES LLC215
- 2BE AEROSPACE INC132
- 3MARICAP OY88
- 4AIRBUS OPERATIONS GMBH82
- 5THE BOEING CO79
See the full aircraft lavatory systems analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about aircraft lavatory patents
Who holds the most patents on aircraft vacuum toilet systems?
Filing activity in this space is concentrated: the leading assignee holds 215 of the 1,228 records in scope, and the top five assignees combined hold 596 records, or 48.5% of the field. That concentration has held for years, built on early vacuum toilet and flush valve filings that later entrants have had to design around. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work should start with those top portfolios rather than a broad keyword search.
Is aircraft lavatory patent filing still active, or has it slowed down?
Filing peaked in 2017 at 66 records and declined through 2024, with the 2021-to-2024 window showing a -75% drop from 36 to 9 filings. That looks like a slowdown, but it is also consistent with a mechanically mature space where the core flush valve and vacuum generator geometries are already well claimed. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent trend should not be read as final.
What patent classes cover aircraft lavatory technology?
The two largest IPC subclasses are B64D (aircraft equipment, 37.5% of the 1,228 records) and E03D (water closets and flushing, 36.6%), followed by E03F sewerage at 27.0%. Because a single patent record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than summing to 100%. The overlap itself is informative: it shows that most inventive work in this field straddles aviation-specific engineering and general sanitary plumbing codes rather than sitting in one alone.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aircraft Lavatory Systems covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.