Brake Performance Testing Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- 75.5% concentration. The top 5 of 49 ranked assignees account for 160 of the 212 records in scope — a field with a dominant leader and a long tail below it.
- Filing peaked in 2020. 40 records that year, against 3 in 2017; the 2021→2024 span shows a -33% pull-back that predates any recent-year publication lag.
- Tyre chemistry outweighs brake hardware. B60C pneumatic tyre claims sit in 52.4% of records versus 14.6% for B60T vehicle brakes — most of the claim density here is materials, not mechanisms.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 212 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Brake performance testing and certification sits at the intersection of two claim traditions: wheel-rail and tyre-road adhesion chemistry, and the test methodology and instrumentation used to validate stopping performance against a standard. The 212 records in scope span deceleration measurement, wet-rail and wet-road adhesion testing, test-track validation and simulation-based compliance checking, drawing on filings from both the rail sector and the tyre and rubber industry that supplies its friction materials.
The dataset is dominated by polymer and rubber compound claims rather than brake-system hardware, which tells a reader where the actual filing activity has concentrated over the past decade and where it has not.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 212 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 40 in 2020, then eased; the 2021-to-2024 comparison (3 to 2, a -33% change) is the most recent span that can be read as complete, since publication lags filing by roughly 18 months and 2025-2026 figures are still filling in.
IPC subclass composition
B60C (pneumatic tyres) and C08L (polymer compositions) each cover roughly half the 212 records, with C08K additives close behind; brake-specific classes B60T and rail-specific B61K each cover well under a fifth of records, since a single filing can carry several IPC codes these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 212 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Brake Performance Testing and Certification with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about brake performance testing and certification and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
System and method for game theory-based design of robotic systems (US20180060459A1)
A method, computer program product, and computer system for configuring a stochastic simulation scenario, wherein the scenario may include one or more variables such as agent behavior, and may be randomized and digital. The scenario is executed to generate results, and at least a portion of the variables is optimized using one or more optimization metrics on those results.Filed by the Government of the United States (Secretary of the Army), published 2018-03-01. Its presence among the most-cited records in this dataset reflects the simulation-validation search terms rather than a rail- or tyre-specific claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4915856A | Solid lubricant composition | 126 |
| 2 | US5967211A | Tire tread for ice traction | 105 |
| 3 | US20020062207A1 | Computer-implemented system and method for simulating motor vehicle and bicycle traffic | 76 |
| 4 | US20180060459A1 | System and method for game theory-based design of robotic systems | 58 |
| 5 | US20040049327A1 | Radio based automatic train control system using universal code | 43 |
| 6 | EP0905186A1 | Tire tread for ice traction | 32 |
| 7 | US20140329930A1 | Rubber composition and pneumatic tire | 31 |
| 8 | US2734702A | John k | 30 |
| 9 | US20170267027A1 | Pneumatic tire | 28 |
| 10 | US20040024514A1 | Automatic control method, usable in particular for maintaining the slip of a tire at an optimum level | 23 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside a searched corpus, so older records such as the solid-lubricant and ice-traction tyre patents lead the table; treat this as a signal of influence rather than of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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A dominant leader, then a long tail
The leading assignee alone holds 114 of the 212 records in scope. Combined with the next four, the top five account for 75.5% of all records — a concentration ratio that leaves little room for a new entrant to build a broad portfolio without licensing or design-around work.
Post-peak, not accelerating
Filing peaked at 40 records in 2020 and has not returned to that level. The 2021-to-2024 comparison shows a -33% change over three years, the last span that can be treated as complete before the 18-month publication lag makes 2025-2026 numbers provisional.
Materials claims outnumber mechanism claims
B60C and C08L each appear in roughly half the records, and C08K in over a third, while B60T (vehicle brakes) sits at 14.6% and B61K (railway auxiliary equipment) at 5.7%. Most of the density in this landscape is rubber and polymer chemistry for friction surfaces, not braking-system hardware or control logic.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to brake performance testing and certification, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked list covers 49 companies across the 212 records; a small number of tyre and rail-brake specialists hold most of the volume, and momentum has cooled across nearly all of them in the latest year.
One assignee sets the pace
The leading assignee's 114 records are more than the next four combined, putting outsized weight on a single portfolio's claim scope across tyre compounding and adhesion testing.
A sharp drop after the leader
Fifth place holds 10 records and tenth place holds 3, showing the field flattens quickly outside the top few names rather than declining gradually.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the board
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year, with two showing a -100% year-on-year change. This is consistent with publication lag rather than a genuine stop in R&D, since 2025-2026 filings are still working through to publication.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| L B FOSTER RAIL TECHNOLOGIES CORP | 0 | -100% |
| DURAFILM CORP | 0 | — |
| Michelin & Cie (Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) | 0 | — |
| AUVINEN JUKKA | 0 | — |
| Metrom Rail LLC | 0 | -100% |
| The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co | 0 | — |
| Michelin Recherche et Technique S.A. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a small set of next questions for a technical or IP team.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's claim scope
With one assignee holding 114 of 212 records, any new filing in tyre-adhesion chemistry or wet-rail testing should be checked against that portfolio's claim boundaries first.
Explore the assignee's portfolio in EurekaModel the under-claimed IPC pockets
B61K, C10M and C09K each cover under 15% of the 212 records; a first-claim search in these classes may find less prior art than the dominant B60C and C08L space.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the 2025-2026 filings as they publish
The apparent post-2020 decline is partly a publication-lag artefact; revisit the trend once 2025 filings finish publishing to see if momentum has actually held.
Set a filing alert in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Across the 212 records in this dataset, one assignee holds 114 records, well ahead of the rest of the ranked field. The top five assignees together hold 160 records, or 75.5% of all records in scope, and the top ten hold 184, or 86.8%. This is a concentrated field: a new entrant should expect to negotiate around, or design around, a small number of dominant portfolios rather than facing many similarly sized competitors.
Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 40 records after rising from just 3 in 2017. The most recent complete comparison, 2021 (3 records) to 2024 (2 records), shows a -33% change over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to call the current direction from those years alone.
Pneumatic tyre claims (IPC class B60C) appear in 52.4% of the 212 records and polymer composition claims (C08L) in 50.9%, with additive-use claims (C08K) in 38.2%. Brake-specific claims (B60T) appear in only 14.6% of records and railway auxiliary equipment (B61K) in 5.7%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these figures add up to more than 100%, and the practical takeaway is that most filing activity here is materials chemistry for friction surfaces rather than braking mechanisms or control systems.
The IPC classes with the lowest record counts relative to the dominant tyre-chemistry classes are B61K (railway auxiliary equipment, 5.7% of records), C10M (lubricants, 5.7%) and C09K (miscellaneous materials, 6.6%). These pockets sit adjacent to the crowded B60C and C08L space but carry far fewer of the 212 records, which suggests less-developed prior art around wet-rail adhesion sensing, lubricant-brake interaction and railway-specific test equipment. A first claim in these areas is more likely to clear a novelty search than one filed directly against tyre compound chemistry.
The most-cited records in this dataset, including a solid lubricant composition patent cited 126 times and an ice-traction tyre tread patent cited 105 times, are older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus. High citation counts here signal historical influence on later filings, not that the underlying technology remains the current state of the art. A team evaluating current filing strategy should weight recent filing trends and IPC composition more heavily than citation counts alone.
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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.