Chloroprene & Specialty Rubbers Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees hold 452 records, 28.3% of all 1,595 records in scope — the rest is a long tail across 100 ranked companies.
- Filing has cooled since 2021. Filings peaked at 44 in 2021 and have declined since, with the most recent year understated by publication lag.
- Composition claims dominate. C08L polymer compositions appear in 50.7% of records, more than double the next largest class, C08K additives at 35.1%.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers 1,595 published records matching chloroprene rubber, polychloroprene and specialty synthetic rubber claims combined with functional terms such as flame resistance, ozone resistance, adhesive grade, dry rubber, crystallization, green strength, metal adhesion and supply. The scope spans filings from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, so the most recent filing year is necessarily incomplete.
Records are grouped into patent families for the assignee ranking, which neutralises repeat filings by the same applicant across jurisdictions or continuations. Technology composition is read from IPC subclasses; because a single record can carry several classes, the class shares below sum to more than the record total and should be read against the 1,595-record denominator, not against each other.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,595 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings rose from 36 in 2017 to a peak of 44 in 2021, sat at 20 by the 2022 midpoint, and have fallen to 4 by 2026 — a decline consistent with a maturing claim space rather than a collapsing one, given that recent years are always undercounted at this cut-off.
IPC subclass composition
C08L (polymer compositions) and C08K (additives) together anchor the field, appearing in 50.7% and 35.1% of records respectively. Adhesives (C09J, 12.3%) and layered products (B32B, 8.3%) mark where chloroprene chemistry crosses into downstream product claims rather than staying in base polymer formulation.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,595 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Chloroprene and Specialty Rubbers with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about chloroprene and specialty rubbers and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
US9464146B2 — Chloroprene rubber, method for producing same, chloroprene rubber composition and vulcanized product
Provided are a chloroprene rubber that is less adhesive to rolls and gives a vulcanized product superior in physical properties, a production method thereof, a chloroprene rubber composition and a vulcanized product thereof. The chloroprene rubber comprises a steroid skeleton-containing compound, at 0.01 to 1 mass percent, and can be prepared by emulsion-polymerizing chloroprene alone or in combination with other monomers in the presence of a rosin containing a steroid skeleton.Filed by Denka Company Limited, published 2016-10-11.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6524679B2 | Glass reinforced gypsum board | 174 |
| 2 | US4245689A | Dimensionally stable cellulosic backing web | 116 |
| 3 | US4631976A | Steering wheel | 113 |
| 4 | US4830461A | Pressure-sensitive sensors | 93 |
| 5 | US4111237A | Braid reinforced flexible brake hose | 87 |
| 6 | US20060269327A1 | Semiconductive rubber member | 75 |
| 7 | US6075081A | Manufacture of rubber articles | 73 |
| 8 | CN101353453A | 一种耐寒性能得到改进的氯丁橡胶组合物 | 70 |
| 9 | US4461795A | Marks for use in rubber articles | 66 |
| 10 | CN101597410A | 耐候性好的防油、阻燃氯化聚乙烯护套料及其制备方法 | 63 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and citation data that matter for deciding where to file next.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is thin
Five assignees hold 452 of 1,595 records, and the top ten extend that to 563, or 35.3%. Beyond that the ranking of 100 companies thins quickly, meaning most entrants hold only one or a handful of families rather than a defensible cluster.
Filing volume has been falling since 2021
The field peaked at 44 filings in 2021 and has declined every year since, reaching 4 by 2026. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2026 figure understates true activity, but the multi-year downward slope from the 2021 peak through the 2022 midpoint of 20 is a real signal of cooling filing pace.
Composition claims crowd the core, adhesives sit thinner
Over half of records touch C08L polymer compositions and over a third touch C08K additive use, showing the core formulation space is heavily claimed. Adhesives (C09J, 12.3%) and shaping processes (B29C, 6.3%) carry far fewer records, which is where downstream application claims have more room.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to chloroprene and specialty rubbers, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders account for a substantial but not overwhelming share of the field, and recent-year filing activity across the largest assignees has gone quiet.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 258 records, more than the next several assignees combined against a fifth-place figure of 32 and a tenth-place figure of 19 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader rather than a crowded top tier.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing appearing 7 times and the next strongest pairs appearing twice each. Most filing in this field is done by single entities rather than through joint development arrangements.
The largest historical filers are quiet in the latest year
Every one of the six assignees tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year. Given publication lag this likely understates true activity, but it is consistent with the broader downward trend from the 2021 peak.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Denka Company Limited | 0 | — |
| Daikin Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ARLANXEO Deutschland GmbH | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Bayer AG | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | 0 | — |
| ARLANXEO Deutschland GmbH | 0 | — |
| Armacell Enterprise GmbH & Co. KG | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature but not closed field, with claim density concentrated in a handful of subclasses and assignees.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With 258 records held by a single assignee, any new formulation or process claim in this space should be checked against that portfolio first, not against the field average.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the adhesives and lamination branches
C09J and B32B carry far fewer records than the core polymer and additive classes, suggesting less-crowded claim space for adhesive-grade and laminate applications of chloroprene chemistry.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about chloroprene and specialty rubber patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset shows one company well ahead of the field, with 258 of the 1,595 records in scope, compared with 32 for the fifth-ranked assignee and 19 for the tenth. That gap indicates a genuine market leader in chloroprene formulation rather than a crowded top tier of similarly sized filers. Beyond the top ten, which together hold 35.3% of all records, the ranking of 100 companies thins into a long tail of assignees with only a handful of families each.
Filing activity in this dataset peaked at 44 records in 2021 and has declined in every year since, falling to 4 by 2026. Because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. Even allowing for that lag, the multi-year decline from the 2021 peak through a 2022 midpoint of 20 filings points to a genuinely cooling rate of new filing rather than a data artefact.
US9464146B2, assigned to Denka, covers a chloroprene rubber containing a steroid skeleton-containing compound, at a concentration of 0.01 to 1 mass percent, produced by emulsion polymerization of chloroprene in the presence of a rosin containing a steroid skeleton. The claimed benefit is reduced adhesion to processing rolls alongside improved physical properties in the vulcanized product. Anyone working with rosin-based emulsion polymerization additives for roll-release performance in chloroprene rubber should review this filing's specific compound and concentration range before designing a similar additive system.
Relative to the core polymer composition and additive classes, which appear in 50.7% and 35.1% of the 1,595 records respectively, downstream application classes carry noticeably fewer records: adhesives (C09J) sit at 12.3%, layered laminates (B32B) at 8.3%, and shaping processes (B29C) at 6.3%. That gap suggests less-claimed room in adhesive-grade formulations, laminate bonding structures and shaping or extrusion process claims, rather than in base polymer chemistry where filing density is already high.
It is moderately concentrated. The top five assignees account for 452 records, 28.3% of all 1,595 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 563 records, or 35.3%. That leaves roughly two-thirds of the field spread across the remaining ranked companies and the many single- or few-filing entrants not captured in the ranking, so the field is neither a monopoly nor evenly distributed.
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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.