Carbon Materials Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 14.7% of all 98,743 records sit with just five assignees, and that concentration only widens slightly to 21.3% across ten — the rest of the field is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Filing eased 18% from 2021 to 2024 (1,348 to 1,107 records), after peaking at 1,482 in 2022 — a cooling from a genuine surge, not a collapse.
- Battery-class filings dominate the mix H01M alone touches 13.5% of all records, more than three times the next largest class, showing where the claim pressure actually sits.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,348 records) with 2024 (1,107) — 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 98,743 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 98,743 published patent records matched against carbon materials terminology paired with material-property and synthesis-condition language, spanning filings from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. The search string deliberately couples “carbon materials” or “functional carbon materials” with structural and characterization terms — crystal structure, particle size, synthesis condition — so the corpus skews toward records that document how a carbon material was made and measured, not just that one was used.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional floors, not a sign the field is slowing.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 98,743-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the records actually fall into.
Filing trend: a 2022 peak, then a measured pullback
Annual filings rose from 929 in 2017 to a peak of 1,482 in 2022, then eased to 1,107 by 2024 — an 18% decline over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a further drop.
Battery chemistry classes dominate the IPC mix
H01M (batteries, cells & fuel cells) touches 13.5% of all 98,743 records, dwarfing the next largest class, C01B (non-metallic elements & inorganic compounds) at 4.3%. Capacitors, catalysis and ceramics classes each sit below 2%, and polymer additive uses (C08K) barely register at 0.7% — a signal of where carbon materials claims have concentrated versus where they have not.
Shares are the percentage of the 98,743 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Carbon Materials Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about carbon materials patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited records
WO2026063881A1 — A preparation of functional carbon materials via vacuum infusion method
The application describes a continuous vacuum-infusion process for preparing functional carbon materials, combining wet and dry carbon powder tanks, a reactor, a reagent tank, a flow cell, an ultrasonic generator and transducer, an energy generator, and a cooling tank. The stated aim is to shorten preparation time and reduce solution concentration relative to prior batch methods, while running as a continuous, lower-waste process.Filed 2026-03-26; one of the most recent entries in scope, illustrating current claim drafting style in this space.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070010702A1 | Medical device with low magnetic susceptibility | 1,511 |
| 2 | US5551451A | Fuel element composition | 598 |
| 3 | US20050107870A1 | Medical device with multiple coating layers | 578 |
| 4 | US5595577A | Method for making a carbonaceous heat source containing metal oxide | 559 |
| 5 | US20100143798A1 | Nano graphene reinforced nanocomposite particles for lithium battery electrodes | 503 |
| 6 | US20040210289A1 | Novel nanomagnetic particles | 477 |
| 7 | US6235427B1 | Nonaqueous secondary battery containing silicic material | 464 |
| 8 | US5076297A | Method for preparing carbon fuel for smoking articles and product produced thereby | 448 |
| 9 | US5410135A | Self limiting microwave heaters | 440 |
| 10 | US6953494B2 | Sorbents and methods for the removal of mercury from combustion gases | 402 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence, not of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC mix are read together.
The top of the field is crowded, but the field itself is not
Five assignees combined hold 14.7% of all 98,743 records, rising to 21.3% across ten — meaningful concentration at the top, but it leaves close to four-fifths of the corpus spread across a long tail of smaller filers. That tail is where freedom-to-operate searches need the most care, since a single obscure filing can still block a claim.
A cooling after a 2022 peak, not a retreat from the field
Filings rose steadily to a 2022 peak of 1,482, then eased to 1,107 by 2024. Several of the most active named filers show double-digit year-on-year pullbacks in the latest tracked year, but that pattern is consistent with slower re-filing after an earlier surge rather than abandonment.
Battery chemistry absorbs most of the claim space
H01M alone covers 13.5% of all records, more than triple the next class. Capacitors, catalysis, ceramics and conductor/insulator applications each sit under 2%, and polymer-additive uses barely register at 0.7% — dense competition in energy storage contrasts with comparatively open claim space in structural and additive applications.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to carbon materials patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. | 22 |
| Resonac Holdings Corporation | Umicore (Belgium) | 22 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. | 18 |
| Toshiba Corporation | Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation | 15 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 15 |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | Osaka City University (Public University Corporation) | 12 |
| Resonac Holdings Corporation | TAKEUCHI MASATAKA | 12 |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | Cataler Corporation | 11 |
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus, with the strongest pairs each sharing 22 or 18 joint records — evidence of a small number of deliberate, ongoing R&D partnerships rather than broad industry-wide co-development.
Who is filing, and where the openings are
The ranked assignee list spans 100 companies; leadership sits with a handful of battery and electronics manufacturers, while momentum in the latest tracked year has cooled across nearly all of the most active names.
A single filer well ahead of the rest of the ranking
The leading assignee holds 4,401 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 1,567 and more than four times tenth place's 1,032 — a steep drop-off that flattens quickly once past the first few names.
Even active filers are pulling back in the latest year
Several of the most prolific historical filers show sharp year-on-year declines in their latest tracked year, from roughly -65% to as much as -95%. Given the 18-month publication lag, this looks more like incomplete recent data than a genuine exit from the field.
Co-filing is rare and concentrated among a few pairs
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus. The strongest pairs share 22 joint records each, suggesting long-running bilateral R&D arrangements rather than a broad pattern of joint filing across the sector.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) | 9 | -65% |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 8 | -78% |
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 2 | -71% |
| Panasonic Corporation (Japan) | 1 | 0% |
| LG Energy Solution, Ltd. | 1 | -95% |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| GS Yuasa International Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this from here
The dataset flags where claim density sits today; deciding whether to file, license or design around still calls for a closer read on specific claim language.
Map freedom-to-operate against the long tail
With close to four-fifths of records held outside the top ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate check needs to look past the named leaders into the wider ranked list.
Explore the assignee ranking in EurekaPressure-test the under-claimed branches
Thinner filing density in capacitor, catalytic-support and ceramic-bonded carbon applications is worth checking against your own roadmap before assuming the space is open.
Run a white-space search in EurekaRead the most recent filings directly
Recent filings like WO2026063881A1 show current drafting style; reading claim language directly is the fastest way to see what a new filing would need to design around.
Review recent filings in EurekaCommon questions about carbon materials patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 4,401 records out of 98,743 in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 1,567 and tenth place at 1,032. Leadership is concentrated among battery and electronics manufacturers, reflecting how much of the corpus falls under battery-chemistry IPC classes. That said, the top ten combined account for only 21.3% of all records, so the majority of filings sit with a long tail of smaller assignees rather than a handful of dominant players.
Filing rose from 929 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,482 in 2022, then eased to 1,107 by 2024 — an 18% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a further drop. The honest read is a cooling from an unusually strong 2022 peak, not a retreat from the field.
H01M, covering batteries, cells and fuel cells, is by far the most common class, touching 13.5% of all 98,743 records in this corpus. The next largest, C01B for non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds, sits at 4.3%, followed by smaller shares for capacitors, catalysis, ceramics and conductor applications. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed into a single total.
Based on IPC class density, structural and additive applications such as polymer-composite carbon additives (C08K, 0.7% of records), conductor and insulator coatings (H01B, 0.7%), and ceramic-bonded refractory structures (C04B, 0.9%) carry far less filing density than the battery-chemistry core. That does not guarantee those spaces are legally open — it means fewer competing claims have been filed there, which is a reasonable starting point for a deeper freedom-to-operate and prior-art search rather than a final answer.
WO2026063881A1 describes a continuous vacuum-infusion process for preparing functional carbon materials, using linked tanks for wet and dry carbon powder, a reactor, a reagent tank, an ultrasonic generator and transducer, and a cooling tank. Its stated advantages are shorter preparation time and lower solution concentration compared with batch methods, run as a continuous rather than batch process. Anyone designing a competing continuous carbon-material preparation process should read its claims directly, since the abstract alone does not establish claim scope.
Research Carbon Materials Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole carbon materials patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.