Biocides for Industrial Water Systems Patents: Top Filers 2026
- 56.5% of all filing sits with five companies. Top 5 combined account for 590 of the 1,044 records in scope, a concentration that makes freedom-to-operate checks against a handful of portfolios more useful than a broad landscape scan.
- Filing has fallen sharply since the 2018 peak. From 80 records in the peak year, filing moved from 36 in 2021 to 8 in 2024, a -78% swing over that span — though 2025 onward is still filling in as publications lag behind filing.
- Dual-class claims dominate: biocide activity plus water treatment. A01N (57.9%) and C02F (55.9%) co-occur on the majority of records, meaning most granted claims already tie microbial activity to a water-treatment application rather than either alone.
Filing growth compares 2021 (36 records) with 2024 (8) — 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 1,044 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Biocides for industrial water systems sit at the intersection of microbiology and process engineering: oxidizing agents like chlorine and bromine compounds, non-oxidizing organics, and combination chemistries such as peracetic acid blends, all deployed to control biofilm, Legionella and fouling in cooling towers, pulp mills and closed-loop systems. The dataset covers 1,044 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, indexed where claims reference oxidizing or non-oxidizing biocide chemistry together with control mechanisms such as biofilm control, halogen stabilizers, contact time or resistance development.
The claims in this space rarely stop at the active ingredient. Most documents pair a biocide chemistry claim with a water-treatment or corrosion-control application claim, which is why the IPC composition below shows heavy overlap between A01N and C02F rather than either class standing alone.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,044-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing rose to a 2018 peak, then contracted
Filing climbed to 80 records in 2018 before declining; the 2021-to-2024 window alone shows a drop from 36 to 8 records, a -78% move. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as confirmation the field is still shrinking at that rate.
Claims cluster in biocide and water-treatment classes
A01N (biocides/agrochemicals) and C02F (water and wastewater treatment) each appear on more than half of all records — 57.9% and 55.9% respectively — confirming that most filings claim a biocide chemistry tied to a treatment application. A61L, A01P and the pulp-specific D21C/D21H classes are each present on a tenth or more of records, pointing to sterilisation, pesticide-activity and paper-industry applications as secondary but non-trivial claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,044 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Biocides for Industrial Water Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about biocides for industrial water systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records defining this space
ZA200007545B — Method and composition for inhibiting growth of microorganisms including peracetic acid and a non-oxidizing biocide
Filed by Nalco Chemical Company, this record claims a combination treatment using peracetic acid alongside a non-oxidizing biocide to inhibit microbial growth in industrial water systems. It sits in the same claim family as two of the most-cited records in the dataset, both built around peracetic acid combined with a second biocide.Representative of the peracetic-acid combination approach that dominates the most-cited prior art in this dataset.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5494588A | Method and composition for inhibiting growth of microorganisms including peracetic acid and a second organic … | 173 |
| 2 | US5785867A | Method and composition for inhibiting growth of microorganisms including peracetic acid and a non-oxidizing b… | 156 |
| 3 | US20100160449A1 | Peracetic Acid Oil-Field Biocide and Method | 146 |
| 4 | US5069286A | Method for prevention of well fouling | 137 |
| 5 | US6068012A | Performance-based control system | 122 |
| 6 | US5658467A | Method and composition for inhibiting growth of microorganisms including peracetic acid and a non-oxidizing b… | 117 |
| 7 | US20160068417A1 | Systems and method of water treatment utilizing reactive oxygen species and applications thereof | 110 |
| 8 | US6007726A | Stable oxidizing bromine formulations, methods of manufacture thereof and methods of use for microbiofouling … | 106 |
| 9 | WO1996014092A1 | Synergistic biocidal combinations | 94 |
| 10 | US20100059226A1 | Method of Delivering Frac Fluid and Additives | 78 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
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Three findings that shape where new claims can realistically land, and where the risk of running into blocking prior art is highest.
Freedom-to-operate work should start narrow
With the top five assignees holding 590 of 1,044 records (56.5%), a broad landscape scan is less useful than a focused clearance against those portfolios. The top ten extend that to 73.8%, so the remaining ranked companies each hold a comparatively small slice.
Peak filing has passed, but the tail is still active
Filing peaked at 80 records in 2018 and has fallen through the last complete reporting window, with 2021's 36 records dropping to 8 by 2024. That contraction likely reflects consolidation of claim space by established players rather than declining commercial interest in the underlying chemistry.
Combination claims are the norm, not the exception
The two leading IPC subclasses, A01N and C02F, each cover more than half of all records, and because a record can carry multiple classes, the practical pattern is a biocide-activity claim bundled with a water-treatment method claim. Filing a chemistry claim in isolation, without a treatment-application tie, is now the minority approach.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biocides for industrial water systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Bromine Compounds Ltd. | THE RES FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK | 8 |
| Kemira Oyj | University of Copenhagen | 6 |
| Solenis Technologies LP | Solenis Technologies Cayman LP | 5 |
| Nalco Company | TU WEN LI | 3 |
| Nalco Company | RICE LAURA E | 3 |
| Nalco Company | LUTH ELISA M | 3 |
| Nalco Company | COOPER ANDREW J | 3 |
| Kemira Oyj | KOLARI MARKO | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings link a chemical producer with an academic or foundation partner — a pattern worth checking before assuming any single assignee holds a claim outright.
Who holds the claim space, and where it thins out
The ranked leaders account for the bulk of filing, but momentum across the named leaders has slowed sharply in the most recent complete years, and several claim-adjacent branches remain lightly filed.
One assignee holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee holds 178 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 55 and the tenth-place holder at 24 — a steep drop-off that marks the boundary between the core group and the long tail.
Recent-year filing has gone quiet at the top
Several of the most active historical filers show zero records in the latest year, with year-over-year drops of -100% for some. This is consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 contraction rather than any single company exiting the space.
Cross-filing is the exception
Co-assignee filing is rare across this dataset, with only 10 pairs identified. The strongest pairing links a bromine-chemistry producer with a state university research foundation, suggesting some core chemistry work is jointly held with academic partners rather than fully proprietary.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Ecolab USA Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Kemira Oyj | 0 | -100% |
| Nalco Company | 0 | — |
| Clean Chem Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| A Y Laboratories Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Albemarle Corporation | 0 | — |
| Great Lakes Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
| Solenis Technologies LP | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to where claim space is dense and where it thins out. The next step is testing a specific chemistry or application angle against the records that actually matter for it.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top holders
With 56.5% of records held by five companies, a targeted clearance search against those portfolios will surface real blocking risk faster than a full-field scan.
Explore assignee portfolios in Eureka →Test a claim in the under-claimed branches
Halogen stabilizer chemistry and residual measurement sensors show comparatively light filing density relative to the core A01N/C02F overlap — a narrower opportunity worth validating.
Check white space with Eureka →Track whether the 2021-2024 contraction continues
Because 2025 and 2026 filings are still being published, the next 12 to 18 months of data will confirm whether the -78% contraction has bottomed out or continued.
Set up filing alerts in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
Filing in this space is concentrated: the top five assignees together hold 590 of the 1,044 records in scope, or 56.5%. The single largest filer holds 178 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 55, which marks a steep drop into the long tail. Anyone doing competitive tracking should focus first on the top five to ten names, since the top ten combined already account for 73.8% of all records.
Filing peaked in 2018 at 80 records and has declined since, with the most reliable complete-year comparison showing a drop from 36 records in 2021 to 8 in 2024, a -78% change. Records from 2025 onward are still incomplete because publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months, so the apparent recent-year drop should not be read as the field going quiet — it is partly a data-lag artefact. The safest conclusion is that the field has contracted from its 2018 peak, not that it has stopped.
The two dominant IPC subclasses are A01N (biocides and agrochemicals), present on 57.9% of the 1,044 records, and C02F (water and wastewater treatment), present on 55.9%. Because most records carry both classes together, a chemistry claim without an accompanying water-treatment application claim is now unusual in this dataset. Secondary classes worth checking include A61L for sterilising and disinfecting applications and the D21C/D21H pulp-industry classes, each covering roughly a tenth or more of records.
The highest-cited records in this dataset are built around combining peracetic acid with a second biocide — one oxidizing, one non-oxidizing — to inhibit microbial growth in industrial water systems, with the two leading citation counts (173 and 156) both following this pattern. A third heavily-cited record extends the same peracetic acid approach specifically to oil-field applications. Anyone drafting new claims in combination biocide chemistry should expect to design around this peracetic-acid-plus-second-biocide family specifically, not just generic biocide claims.
Relative to the dense A01N/C02F core, branches such as halogen stabilizer chemistry, resistance-development monitoring and residual measurement sensing show comparatively lighter filing density in this dataset. Corrosion-focused claims under C23F sit on only 7.2% of records despite biocide treatment and corrosion control being closely linked operationally, suggesting under-claimed overlap there. These are candidate areas for a narrower, more defensible first claim rather than a broad biocide composition claim.
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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.