Bottom Hole Assembly Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Bottom Hole Assembly Design Patents: Who Files, What They Claim, and What's Still Open
51.8% concentration. The top five assignees account for 556 of the 1,073 records in scope — more than half the field sits with a handful of operators and service companies. Annual filings hit a peak of 61 in 2018, cooled, then rebuilt: 2021 to 2024 — the last complete published year — moved from 26 to 30, a 15% rise. Counts in 2025 and 2026 are still filling in behind the publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
- 1HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC350
- 2MOTIVE DRILLING TECH68
- 3NABORS DRILLING TECHNOLOGIES USA INC49
- 4EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY(US)47
- 5SCHLUMBERGER TECH CORP42
See the full bottom hole assembly design 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 bottom hole assembly patents
Who holds the most patents on bottom hole assembly design?
One assignee leads the ranked list with 350 of the 1,073 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top five assignees combine for 556 records, or 51.8% of everything published, and the top ten reach 705 records, or 65.7%. Beyond that point coverage thins quickly into a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so freedom-to-operate checks should focus first on the leading names before worrying about the smaller filers.
Is bottom hole assembly patent filing activity growing or slowing?
Filing peaked at 61 in 2018 and has moved in cycles since. Using complete published data, filings rose from 26 in 2021 to 30 in 2024, a 15% increase, which points to renewed rather than declining activity. Counts for 2025 and 2026 look lower only because publication lags actual filing by roughly 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as a downturn.
What technology areas dominate bottom hole assembly patent claims?
E21B, the earth and rock drilling subclass, appears on 87.7% of the 1,073 records in scope, making it by far the largest single category. Digital and analogue computing classes relevant to downhole control, G06F and G06G, each sit near 6%, with geophysics, measurement and business-process classes all below 2.5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as coverage rates, not as a breakdown of a fixed pie.
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 Bottom Hole Assembly Design 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.