Fastest
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 →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/casing-exit-and-sidetracking-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Novel Drilling MethodsCasing Exit and Sidetracking Patents: Who Holds the Whipstock Claims
- One filer holds 270 of 413 records in scope, and the top five together account for 91.0% of all filings — this field is about as concentrated as drilling-method IP gets.
- Filing peaked at 79 records in 2023, then eased to 6 in 2024 (down 45% from 11 in 2021) — a real slowdown, not just a publication-lag artefact, since 2024 is the last complete year.
- 96.1% of records sit in E21B (earth & rock drilling), with only scattered claims spilling into welding, forging or digital-control classes — the periphery around casing exit is barely staked out.
413
Published Records
91%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-45%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (11 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 413 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the casing exit and sidetracking filings actually cover
Casing exit and sidetracking technology governs how an operator deflects a drill string out of an existing wellbore casing to create a new lateral or sidetrack — whipstock design, window milling, anchor setting, cement plug kickoff and the mechanical junctions where laterals meet the main bore. The 413 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off and cluster heavily around mechanical whipstock apparatus and multilateral junction hardware rather than software or sensing layers. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years understate real activity.
The dataset draws from receiving offices led by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the WIPO PCT route, with Norway also represented — a spread consistent with offshore and North Sea drilling activity sitting alongside US land and Gulf programmes.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 413-record corpus: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filings rose sharply into 2023, then pulled back
Annual filings climbed from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 79 in 2023, then dropped to 6 in 2024 — a 45% decline from the 2021 figure of 11. Because 2024 is the last year with a complete publication window, this pullback is a genuine signal rather than an artefact of publication lag; 2025 and 2026 figures will keep filling in and should not yet be read as continued decline.
E21B dominates; the periphery is thin
E21B (earth & rock drilling for wells) covers 96.1% of the 413 records in scope. Everything else is marginal by comparison: welding/brazing (B23K) appears in 1.2% of records, forged metal products (B21K) in 0.5%, and single-digit-record slivers touch layered materials, navigation/gyroscopes, geophysics and digital data processing — each at 0.2%. Because a record can carry more than one class, these shares add up to over 100%, but the pattern is clear: claim activity is almost entirely mechanical downhole hardware, not adjacent sensing or software layers.
Shares are the percentage of the 413 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Casing Exit and Sidetracking with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about casing exit and sidetracking and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
The most-cited prior art in this field
Representative Recent Filing
Multilateral junction with integral flow control (US11680463B2)
HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, INC.
A multilateral junction built around a y-block and a port seal member: a main bore, lateral bore and lateral port machined into a single object, with the seal member able to sit open, closed or choked and gaskets isolating the lateral bore when closed. A controller can drive the opening, closing or choking operation directly.Filed by Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.; granted 2023-06-20.
Highest-citation records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5425419A | Whipstock apparatus and methods of use | 100 |
| 2 | US20160145956A1 | Whipstock and deflector assembly for multilateral wellbores | 99 |
| 3 | US5806596A | One-trip whipstock setting and squeezing method | 87 |
| 4 | US20100012322A1 | Whipstock | 70 |
| 5 | US20060049234A1 | Friction stirring and its application to drill bits, oil field and mining tools, and components in other indu… | 67 |
| 6 | US20110011580A1 | Wireless transfer of power and data between a mother wellbore and a lateral wellbore | 64 |
| 7 | US8469084B2 | Wireless transfer of power and data between a mother wellbore and a lateral wellbore | 59 |
| 8 | US20190153841A1 | Method of Avoiding Frac Hits During Formation Stimulation | 48 |
| 9 | US20120273555A1 | Friction stirring and its application to drill bits, oil field and mining tools, and components in other indu… | 39 |
| 10 | US20030183388A1 | One trip through tubing window milling apparatus and method | 39 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
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 →Insights
What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, timing and classification data above.
Concentration
91.0% of 413
top 5 assignees' share of all records
This is a leader-plus-tail field, not a fragmented one
The top five assignees together account for 91.0% of the 413 records in scope, with one company alone holding 270. A new entrant is not competing against a dispersed field of small filers — it is filing directly around a small number of deep, long-standing whipstock and junction portfolios.
Source: assignee ranking, 31 companies
Timing
79 in 2023 → 6 in 2024
peak year vs. last complete year
The 2023 peak has already cooled
Filing volume peaked at 79 records in 2023 before dropping to 6 in 2024, a 45% fall from the 2021 figure of 11. That 2024 figure is real, not a publication-lag illusion — 2025 and 2026 are the years still filling in.
Source: filing trend, 2017-2026
Classification
96.1% in E21B
share of records classed under earth & rock drilling
Claim space is almost entirely mechanical
With 96.1% of records sitting in E21B, casing exit and sidetracking IP is overwhelmingly about physical downhole apparatus. The handful of records touching welding, forging, navigation or digital processing suggest where a differently-shaped claim — control logic, materials, or sensing tied to the junction — would face far less prior art.
Source: IPC composition, 413 records
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to casing exit and sidetracking, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the momentum has gone
The ranked leaders are dominated by oilfield services majors with decades of whipstock and junction hardware behind them; recent-year momentum has gone flat across the named assignees tracked here.
Leader
270 records
leading assignee's share of 413
One assignee holds nearly two-thirds of the corpus
The top-ranked filer accounts for 270 of the 413 records in scope — well ahead of fifth place at 8 and tenth place at 5. That gap defines the field: a single deep portfolio, then a fast drop-off.
Source: assignee ranking
Momentum
0 in latest year
recent-year filings across tracked assignees
Recent-year filing has gone quiet across the named leaders
Every named assignee in the recent-momentum data shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, with year-over-year drops of -100% recorded for two of them. That is consistent with the 2023 peak and 2024 pullback seen in the overall trend, though 2025-2026 data is still incomplete.
Source: recent-year momentum by assignee
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
joint-filing relationships identified
Co-filing is rare and mostly inventor-pair driven
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, the strongest being a two-inventor pair filing together four times. Corporate co-assignment between separate companies is thin, suggesting most portfolios here were built in-house rather than through joint development.
Source: co-assignee pairs
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| SIEBER BOBBY G | 0 | — |
| MCGARIAN BRUCE | 0 | — |
| Coiled Tubing Specialties LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | 0 | — |
| TIW CORP | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this
The concentration and classification patterns above point to specific next steps depending on what you're trying to do.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 270 of 413 records, any new filing in whipstock or junction hardware needs a direct check against that portfolio before drafting claims.
Explore the assignee's filings in EurekaProbe the under-claimed periphery
Sensing, digital control and materials classes each carry only a handful of records against 96.1% concentration in E21B — a differently-anchored claim may clear more easily there.
Run a white-space search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on casing exit and sidetracking patents
One assignee dominates this field, holding 270 of the 413 records in scope — far ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 8 records and the tenth-ranked at 5. The top five assignees combined account for 91.0% of all records, and the top ten reach 97.8%. This is a heavily concentrated field: a small number of oilfield services majors control almost the entire filed portfolio, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them.
Filing activity rose from 3 records in 2017 to a peak of 79 in 2023, then dropped sharply to 6 in 2024 — a 45% decline from the 2021 level of 11. Because 2024 is the most recent year with a largely complete publication record, this drop reflects a real slowdown rather than the usual 18-month reporting lag. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not yet be read as confirming continued decline.
US11680463B2, held by Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. and granted in 2023, covers a multilateral junction built around a y-block with an integral port seal member that can be opened, closed or choked, plus gaskets to hydraulically isolate the lateral bore and an optional controller to drive the seal position. It effectively blocks single-machined-object y-block junctions with an integrated, controller-driven seal from being claimed the same way. Anyone designing a multilateral junction with automated flow isolation needs to check their seal geometry and control architecture against this claim set specifically.
The overwhelming majority of filings — 96.1% of the 413 records in scope — sit in E21B, the earth and rock drilling classification, meaning the field is dominated by mechanical whipstock and junction hardware. Classes touching welding and brazing, forged metal components, laminated materials, navigation/gyroscopic sensing, geophysical surveying and digital data processing each account for only a handful of records. That leaves sensing, control electronics and materials science approaches to casing exit hardware comparatively open relative to the crowded mechanical core.
With the top five assignees holding 91.0% of all 413 records and the top ten holding 97.8%, this field sits at the highly concentrated end of the spectrum. Oilfield services majors with long-running whipstock and junction hardware programmes account for nearly all of the filed volume, and co-assignment between separate companies is rare — only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the entire corpus. A new entrant should expect to compete directly against a small number of deep incumbent portfolios rather than a fragmented field of small filers.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Casing Exit and Sidetracking covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Casing Exit and Sidetracking in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole casing exit and sidetracking 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.