One assignee leads with 954 records, more than four times the fifth-ranked filer's 220. The top five assignees combined hold 2,146 of the 5,210 records in scope, or 41.2% of the field, so a small group of companies controls a disproportionate share of core removal-rate and abrasive-composition claims. Anyone entering this space should map their planned claims against these leaders' portfolios first, since they set the density baseline for tungsten, copper and oxide CMP chemistry.

Filing activity peaked at 254 records in 2020 and has since declined, falling from 221 in 2021 to 141 in 2024 — a 36% drop over that three-year span, which is the most recent period with complete publication data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 will rise as later filings publish, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as continuing the decline. The pattern through 2024 is consistent with a maturing core chemistry rather than a growing one.

Grinding and polishing (IPC class B24B) and semiconductor devices (H01L) each appear in more than half of all 5,210 records, at 55.6% and 54.4% respectively, and nearly a third of records also carry a polishing-composition classification (C09G). Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares overlap substantially, showing that most claims are drafted to cover both the abrasive chemistry and its semiconductor process context together rather than one in isolation. Corrosion and metal-removal chemistry (C23F) and analytical testing methods (G01N) are comparatively thin by contrast.

Relative to the dense core of removal-rate and abrasive-composition claims, several adjacent branches show comparatively thin filing density, including pad-conditioning wear correlation, real-time particle-agglomeration detection, and corrosion-inhibitor chemistry tied specifically to metal removal in C23F. These areas sit close to heavily claimed territory, so a new filing still needs a targeted prior-art search rather than an assumption of open ground. Under-claimed does not mean unclaimed, particularly where a branch overlaps an already dense IPC class.

US20190062596A1, filed by DuPont Electronic Materials Holding, describes a CMP method for tungsten-and-titanium-containing substrates using a specific combination of chitosan, a named dicarboxylic acid, an iron-ion source, an oxidizing agent, and a positively-charged colloidal silica abrasive. It does not block CMP formulations generally; it constrains formulations that combine those specific named components for that specific substrate chemistry. A formulation that changes the abrasive surface charge, swaps the dicarboxylic acid, or targets a different substrate combination sits outside its literal claim scope, though a full freedom-to-operate check should confirm this against the granted claim language rather than the abstract alone.