Borehole Imaging and Dipmeter Patents: Filing Trends and Technology Gaps
One family dominates the field. the leading assignee holds 53 families against a fifth-place count of 14 and a tenth-place count of 7 — a steep drop-off rather than an even spread. Filings peaked at 9 in 2019. The tracked decline from 3 filings in 2021 to 0 in 2024 is a -100% move over that three-year span; 2025 and 2026 counts will rise as publication catches up with filing, so the most recent years should not be read as a continuing collapse.
- 1HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC53
- 2BAKER HUGHES CO24
- 3SCHLUMBERGER TECH CORP22
- 4SCHLUMBERGER KK18
- 5SCHLUMBERGER CANADA LTD14
See the full borehole imaging and dipmeter 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 on borehole imaging and dipmeter patents
Who holds the most patents on borehole imaging and dipmeter technology?
One assignee leads this dataset with 53 patent families, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 14 and the tenth-ranked holder at 7. The gap reflects decades of continuation filing by a small number of large oilfield services groups, several of which appear in the ranking under multiple corporate and jurisdictional entity names for the same underlying group. A new entrant should treat the top of this ranking as a single effective portfolio rather than several independent competitors.
Is patent filing in borehole imaging and dipmeter tools slowing down?
Filings peaked at 9 in 2019 and the tracked span from 2021 (3 filings) to 2024 (0 filings) shows a 100% decline. However, patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the low counts recorded for 2025 and 2026 in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence that R&D activity itself has stopped. A clearer read on the most recent two years will only be available once those filings work through the publication pipeline.
What technical areas are under-claimed in this field?
The core sensing and drilling classes, G01V and E21B, cover 81.1% and 45.0% of the 169 records in scope, while data-processing-adjacent classes like G06F, G06T, G06N and G06V each sit under 8%. That gap suggests automated dip computation, image orientation correction and AI-assisted breakout classification are comparatively open relative to the dense hardware and drilling-mechanics claims. Anyone filing new claims should look at how those processing-layer applications interact with the underlying imaging hardware claims already held by the leading assignees.
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 Borehole Imaging and Dipmeter 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.