Coil Coatings Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has flattened, not grown. Annual filings peaked at 17 in 2021, sat at 9 by the 2022 midpoint, and the most recent year shows near-zero — partly a publication-lag artefact, but the multi-year trend is flat at best.
- The top 5 hold under a third of the field. 212 of 711 records (29.8%) sit with the five leading assignees — real concentration, but with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- Coating chemistry dominates over process claims. C09D coatings/paints/inks covers 66.8% of records, more than three times the share of B05D coating-process claims (20.0%) — the crowded ground is formulation, not application method.
What the coil coatings patent record actually covers
Coil coating patenting spans two connected problems: formulating a coating that survives continuous roll-to-roll application, forming, and long-term outdoor exposure, and engineering the process line — cure ovens, backing coats, strippable protective films — that applies it at speed. The dataset in scope runs from 2015 through mid-2026 and captures 711 published records matching coil-coating-specific search terms including cut-edge corrosion, chromium-free pretreatment, and strippable film claims. Cut-edge corrosion and adhesion-under-forming are the two failure modes that recur across the claim language, which is consistent with a mature industrial coating category rather than an emerging one.
Receiving-office activity is led by the United States, followed by Europe (EPO), Canada, China, the WIPO PCT route, and Japan — a spread that suggests coil coatings remain a multi-jurisdiction filing category rather than one concentrated in a single manufacturing region.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 711-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, the composition shares add to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings opened this window at 13 in 2017, rose to a peak of 17 in 2021, and had fallen back to 9 by the 2022 midpoint. The most recent year shows 0, which is expected given an 18-month average publication lag rather than a sign the field has stopped — but the multi-year shape through the peak is flat-to-declining, not growing.
IPC subclass composition
C09D (coatings, paints and inks) covers 66.8% of the 711 records, making it the dominant class by a wide margin. B05D (coating processes, 20.0%), C08G (condensation polymers, 19.4%) and C08L (polymer compositions, 16.3%) form a second tier tied to resin chemistry and application method. B32B (layered products, 11.8%), C08K (additives, 8.0%), C23C (surface deposition, 6.6%) and C25D (electroplating, 4.5%) round out the smaller, more specialised branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 711 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Coil Coatings with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about coil coatings and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in the field
US4103050A — Aqueous coil coating primer
A heat-curable aqueous coil coating primer combining a water-dispersible polyurethane binder with a thermosetting or thermoplastic resinous latex in synergistic combination, paired with a pigment phase carrying corrosion-inhibiting pigment and optional opacifying pigment.Filed by Lilly Industries in 1978, this record predates the current filing window but anchors the aqueous-primer claim space that later coil coating chemistry had to work around.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DE19914896A1 | Aqueous coating material, e.g. for painting cars or industrial substrates, contains a polyurethane binder bas… | 242 |
| 2 | US5688598A | Non-blistering thick film coating compositions and method for providing non-blistering thick film coatings on… | 67 |
| 3 | US4734467A | Coil coating paint composition | 66 |
| 4 | US5736602A | Retroreflective coating composition for coil coating application, method for application, and articles produc… | 63 |
| 5 | US20080233390A1 | Polymer Composition For Corrosion Protection | 60 |
| 6 | US6897265B2 | Polyester coil coating | 60 |
| 7 | JP1991236954A | Film laminating steel belt for three-piece can and its manufacture | 60 |
| 8 | US6413648B1 | Can and coil coating resins | 55 |
| 9 | WO2014094993A1 | Pigments | 53 |
| 10 | US4416940A | Simulated weathered-copper coatings for metal | 48 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour 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.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the trend, the concentration figures, and the IPC composition are read together.
Real concentration, but not a duopoly
The five leading assignees hold 212 of 711 records combined — meaningful concentration, but well short of dominance. The tenth-ranked assignee holds only 15 records, and the ranking runs a full 100 companies deep, pointing to a long tail of smaller filers alongside the leaders.
Flat trend, not a growth story
Filing volume peaked at 17 in 2021 and had already fallen to 9 by the 2022 midpoint. The apparent drop to 0 in the most recent year is partly a publication-lag effect, but the shape through the peak shows plateauing rather than expansion.
Formulation claims outweigh process claims
C09D coating-composition claims cover two-thirds of records, more than three times the 20.0% share held by B05D process claims. Filers are competing harder on the chemistry inside the can than on how it is applied to the coil.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to coil coatings, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is thinly claimed
The assignee ranking spans coatings majors and chemical suppliers, with recent-year filing counts showing little fresh momentum from the historically largest filers.
The single largest filer by a wide margin
The leading assignee holds 66 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 26 — a gap that marks out one clearly dominant filer ahead of a more even second tier.
A gradual, not a cliff-edge, drop-off
Filing counts step down steadily from fifth place (26 records) to tenth (15 records), rather than falling sharply — consistent with several established coatings suppliers competing at similar scale below the top filer.
Historic leaders show no fresh filings
Several of the highest-ranked assignees, including one major filer down -100% year over year, show zero filings in the most recent year — a pattern that likely reflects publication lag as much as any real slowdown, but it means recent competitive signal has to be read from newer entrants instead.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BASF Coatings GmbH | 0 | — |
| BASF Corporation | 0 | — |
| DuPont Powder Coatings France | 0 | — |
| Henkel AG & Co. KGaA | 0 | — |
| PPG Industries Ohio, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (US) | 0 | — |
| Rotomac Electricals Pvt. Ltd. | 0 | — |
| LAMCOATINGS BV | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, formulation-heavy field with real but not extreme concentration at the top. Two directions make sense from here.
Map claim language against the under-claimed branches
Chromium-free pretreatment and cut-edge corrosion claims carry lighter density than core C09D formulation claims. A first-claim search against these specific sub-areas is more useful than a broad novelty check against the whole field.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the second-tier filers, not just the leader
With the leading assignee's recent-year activity flat and a steady step-down through the ranked field, competitive signal is more likely to come from mid-ranked filers moving up than from the historic top spot.
Run an assignee watch in EurekaCommon questions about coil coatings patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset spans 100 companies, with the single leading filer holding 66 records — more than double the fifth-place holder's 26. That gap marks out one clearly dominant filer, but the top 5 combined only account for 29.8% of the 711 records in scope, so the field is concentrated at the very top without being a duopoly. Below the leader, filing counts step down gradually rather than sharply, pointing to several established coatings suppliers competing at similar scale.
The multi-year trend is flat to declining. Filings ran at 13 in 2017, peaked at 17 in 2021, and had already dropped to 9 by the 2022 midpoint. The apparent fall to near-zero in the most recent year should be read cautiously, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months — but even accounting for that lag, there is no visible growth trend through the observed peak.
Coating composition claims under IPC class C09D dominate, covering 66.8% of the 711 records in scope — more than three times the share of coating-process claims under B05D (20.0%). Polymer chemistry classes C08G and C08L each cover roughly a fifth or less of records, and more specialised areas like electroplating (C25D, 4.5%) and surface deposition (C23C, 6.6%) are comparatively thin. This distribution shows filers compete harder on formulation chemistry than on application process.
Chromium-free pretreatment, cut-edge corrosion barrier systems, and strippable protective film formulations all show lighter claim density than the core coating-composition classes that dominate the field. These are technically specific sub-areas rather than the broad formulation space where the largest filers concentrate, making them worth a targeted freedom-to-operate check before drafting new claims. Backing-coat and reverse-side coating claims are a similarly thinner branch worth checking.
US4103050A, filed by Lilly Industries in 1978, claims an aqueous heat-curable coil coating primer combining a water-dispersible polyurethane binder with a thermosetting or thermoplastic resinous latex, plus a corrosion-inhibiting pigment phase. It predates the current filing window covered by this dataset, so it is not itself an active blocker for most recent filings, but it anchors the aqueous-primer claim space that later formulations in this field had to differentiate from. Any new aqueous primer claim should be checked against this and the era of filings it influenced.
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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.