Automatic Bean-to-Cup Machines Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- 38.1% of all 1,060 records sit with the top five assignees, so brewing-unit and milk-frothing claim space is already crowded near the top of the field.
- Filings fell 60% from a 2021 peak of 104 to 42 in 2024, the last year the dataset can treat as complete.
- A47J dominates at 83.1% of records while adjacent classes like G06V image recognition (3.8%) and G07F vending apparatus (2.3%) stay thin — signalling where claim space is still open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (104 records) with 2024 (42) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,060 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the automatic bean-to-cup machine patent record shows
Automatic bean-to-cup machines sit at the intersection of mechanical brewing hardware and, increasingly, software-driven user interfaces and recognition systems. The dataset covers 1,060 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine bean-to-cup or automatic coffee machine terminology with functional claims around brewing units, milk frothing, descaling cycles, cleaning automation, user interfaces or noise level. That scope captures both the core mechanical patents that have defined the category for two decades and the newer layer of digital controls being claimed on top of them.
Filing activity peaked in 2021 and has since declined toward a lower but still active baseline, a pattern consistent with a category where core mechanical claims are largely staked out and growth has shifted toward incremental and software-adjacent filings.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,060-record dataset: the year-by-year filing curve, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Both use the full record set as the denominator.
A 2021 peak followed by a real pullback
Annual filings ran from 70 in 2017 to a peak of 104 in 2021, then declined to 42 by 2024 — a 60% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, so treat the most recent two years as incomplete rather than as evidence of a further slowdown.
Mechanical claims still dominate the classification mix
A47J (kitchen and cooking utensils) covers 83.1% of the 1,060 records, confirming that most claims are still anchored in physical brewing hardware. Behind it, image processing (G06T, 4.7%), coffee/tea composition (A23F, 4.1%), business/commerce data processing (G06Q, 3.8%) and image recognition (G06V, 3.8%) each cover a single-digit share, with data recognition (G06K), vending apparatus (G07F) and electric heating circuits (H05B) each under 2.5%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,060 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Automatic Bean-to-Cup Machines with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about automatic bean-to-cup machines and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
US7066079B2 — Automatic coffee machine (REX-ROYAL AG, 2006-06-27)
The patent covers a brewing unit built around a sliding block fixed to the housing and a vertical tube section, with an upper locking element that moves between brewing, stand-by and parking positions. In the brewing position the locking element protrudes into the tube section to form a brewing chamber; in stand-by it withdraws while remaining axially aligned with the tube.Abstract text drawn directly from the granted filing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2010037806A1 | User-friendly interface for a beverage machine | 202 |
| 2 | US20080201241A1 | Automated coffee system | 162 |
| 3 | WO2010046442A1 | Warning device for a beverage machine | 79 |
| 4 | US7350455B2 | Coffee maker | 61 |
| 5 | US8739687B1 | Device for metering coffee brewing | 56 |
| 6 | US5367947A | Coffee machine | 52 |
| 7 | US20110041701A1 | Automatic POD conveyor and brewer assembly for fresh hot beverage | 46 |
| 8 | US20160192806A1 | Coffee machine for providing coffee brew with reduced caffeine content | 45 |
| 9 | US20150212661A1 | Method and system for creating a food or drink recipe | 43 |
| 10 | US20100100241A1 | Autonomous food and beverage distribution machine | 43 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure 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 citation data mean for filing strategy
Reading the ranking and the citation table together shows where claim space is settled and where it is still being contested.
The top of the field is dense, not exclusive
Five assignees account for 38.1% of all records in scope, and the top ten reach 60.6%. That leaves close to 40% of filings spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — enough concentration to expect prior art collisions on core brewing-unit mechanics, but not so much that new entrants are locked out entirely.
A real pullback from a 2021 peak, not a stall
Annual filings fell 60% from 104 in 2021 to 42 in 2024, the last year that can be read as complete. That decline lines up with several established leaders showing flat or negative year-on-year movement in the most recent tracked year, consistent with a category consolidating around existing mechanical claims rather than expanding them.
Software-adjacent classes remain thin
Image/video recognition (G06V) and business/commerce data processing (G06Q) each sit at 3.8% of records, dwarfed by the 83.1% mechanical share in A47J. That gap suggests recognition-driven personalisation and usage-data features are being claimed far less densely than the physical brewing hardware around them.
Influence concentrates in a handful of older filings
The most-cited records in this dataset, including a user interface filing cited 202 times and an automated coffee system cited 162 times, are older documents that have accumulated citations over years. Their prominence reflects influence within this corpus rather than current filing activity, and newer entrants should not assume the underlying claims are still being actively enforced or extended.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to automatic bean-to-cup machines, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the gate sits for new entrants
The leader board is dominated by established household-appliance and coffee-system manufacturers, several of which show flat or declining recent-year filing momentum — a sign that core mechanical claim positions are largely set rather than still being built out.
One filer sits well clear of the field
The leading assignee holds 147 records, ahead of a fifth-place holder at 56 and a tenth-place holder at 46 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader rather than a crowded tie at the top.
Established filers have gone quiet in the latest tracked year
Several of the largest historical filers show zero filings in the most recent year, with some registering a full -100% year-on-year drop. That pattern is consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 decline and suggests these firms have shifted filing effort elsewhere or are relying on existing granted claims.
Collaboration is limited and mostly internal
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairings link a single company with individual named inventors rather than with a separate corporate partner. Cross-company joint filing is rare in this field; most patent activity is filed solely by one assignee.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BSH Hausgerate GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | — |
| Nestec SA | 0 | — |
| Societe des Produits Nestle SA | 0 | -100% |
| Jura Elektroapparate AG | 0 | — |
| De'Longhi Appliances Srl | 0 | -100% |
| Eugster/Frismag AG | 0 | — |
| 7-Eleven Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mechanically mature core with thinner software-adjacent claim coverage. Two directions follow from that.
Stress-test a filing idea against the crowded core
Before drafting brewing-unit or milk-frothing claims, check them against the concentration held by the top assignees to see how much of that mechanical space is already occupied.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaScope the thinner classes before the gap closes
G06V recognition and G06Q data-processing coverage remain under 4% of records each — worth mapping in detail while the branch is still comparatively open.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about bean-to-cup machine patents
The dataset's leading assignee holds 147 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 56 and the tenth-place holder at 46, out of a ranking of 100 companies. The top five assignees combined account for 38.1% of all 1,060 records in scope, and the top ten reach 60.6%. That leaves a substantial long tail of assignees with only a handful of filings each, so the field is concentrated at the top without being closed to new entrants.
Filings peaked in 2021 at 104 for the year, then fell 60% to 42 by 2024, the most recent year the dataset can treat as complete. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 numbers in any raw chart will look artificially low and should not be read as a further decline. On the evidence available, the honest read is a real pullback from a 2021 high rather than a currently accelerating slowdown.
Kitchen and cooking utensil claims under IPC class A47J cover 83.1% of the 1,060 records, confirming that most patent activity is still anchored in physical brewing-unit hardware. Smaller shares sit in image processing, coffee/tea formulation, business data processing and image recognition, each in the 3-5% range, with vending apparatus and heating circuits below 2.5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages sum to more than 100% of the record total.
The thinnest coverage sits in classes adjacent to the mechanical core: image/video recognition (G06V) and business/commerce data processing (G06Q) each cover only 3.8% of records, and vending-integrated apparatus (G07F) covers 2.3%. That suggests recognition-driven personalisation, automated descaling scheduling and vending-payment integration are claimed far less densely than brewing hardware itself, making them reasonable areas to scope a first filing rather than competing directly on brewing-unit mechanics.
US7066079B2, assigned to REX-ROYAL AG, claims a brewing unit built around a sliding block fixed to the housing and a vertical tube section, with an upper locking element that moves between brewing, stand-by and parking positions to form and release a brewing chamber. It blocks designs that replicate this specific three-position locking mechanism for chamber formation, but it does not cover brewing units built on different actuation principles, such as rotary or piston-based chamber closure. Anyone designing a new brewing unit should map their actuation mechanism against this claim structure specifically rather than assuming all brewing-chamber patents in the field read the same way.
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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.
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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.