Cold-Chain Logistics Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 80.9% of records sit with the five leading assignees out of 68 records in scope — a tight concentration for a field this operationally broad.
- Filing dipped 25% from 8 records in 2021 to 6 in 2024, the last year with a complete publication picture.
- Refrigeration and HVAC classes dominate F24F and F25B together cover roughly six in ten records, while inventory-tracking claims under G06Q sit at just 13.2%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (8 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 68 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape actually covers
Cold-chain logistics patenting in this dataset spans two distinct engineering problems that happen to travel together: keeping a payload at temperature, and knowing where that payload is. The evidence skews heavily toward the first problem — refrigeration, air handling and fluid heating account for the largest technology classes — while the second, the identification and inventory-control layer implied by the search terms, shows up mostly through business-process filings rather than hardware.
That split matters for anyone scoping a filing strategy: the mechanical cold-chain stack (compressors, ejector cycles, desiccant wheels) is where the cited, defensible patents sit, while the tracking and routing layer is comparatively thin and largely procedural.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The 68 records in scope span three sequential lenses: how filing volume moved year over year, which IPC subclasses carry the claims, and where applicants filed first.
A single peak, then an unsettled recent picture
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2023, then eased — the 2021-to-2024 span shows an 8-to-6 decline, a 25% drop over three years. Readings for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the apparent recent dip should not be read as a slowdown yet.
Refrigeration hardware outweighs the data layer
F24F (air conditioning & ventilation) and F25B (refrigeration & heat pumps) lead at 30.9% and 29.4% of the 68 records respectively. G06Q (business, commerce & admin data processing) sits at 13.2%, on par with F24H fluid heaters — meaning the identification and inventory-control side of cold-chain logistics is claimed roughly a third as often as the core refrigeration hardware.
Shares are the percentage of the 68 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cold-Chain Logistics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cold-chain logistics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents setting the reference points
Dehumidifying air handling unit and desiccant wheel therefor
A dehumidifying air handling unit for an HVACR system includes a housing, a desiccant wheel, and a cooling heat exchanger, with the desiccant wheel carrying a metal organic framework desiccant that moves between two ends of the main airflow path to manage humidity independently of temperature control.US20230366568A1 · Trane International Inc. · published 2023-11-16
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130111944A1 | High Efficiency Ejector Cycle | 43 |
| 2 | US20130111935A1 | High Efficiency Ejector Cycle | 32 |
| 3 | WO2005116886A2 | A transaction management system and method | 31 |
| 4 | WO2012012488A1 | High efficiency ejector cycle | 25 |
| 5 | US20090204547A1 | Transaction management system and method | 20 |
| 6 | GB2010462A | Transporting and Storing Refrigerated Goods | 12 |
| 7 | WO2012012501A2 | High efficiency ejector cycle | 11 |
| 8 | US20220260262A1 | Dehumidifying air handling unit and dessicant wheel therefor | 10 |
| 9 | US9759462B2 | High efficiency ejector cycle | 10 |
| 10 | US2078379A | Mobile apparatus for icing refrigerator vehicles | 10 |
Citation counts favour older, earlier-published records within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
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 patterns in this dataset are worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
The field is crowded at the top, thin below it
Five assignees hold four in five of the records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 98.5%. That leaves almost no room outside the leading names for a broad claim on core refrigeration hardware — differentiation has to come from a specific mechanism, not a general approach.
Recent softening, not necessarily a retreat
The count fell from 8 records in 2021 to 6 in 2024 — the last year with a reliable publication picture. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as confirming a further decline.
Hardware claims outnumber data-layer claims by more than two to one
Business-process and data-processing claims under G06Q sit at 13.2% of records, well behind air-conditioning claims (F24F, 30.9%) and refrigeration claims (F25B, 29.4%). Anyone drafting an item-identification or routing claim is filing into comparatively open space relative to the mechanical stack.
Influence clusters around ejector-cycle efficiency work
The most-cited records in this dataset concentrate on high-efficiency ejector cycles and transaction-management systems, both published years ago. Their citation counts reflect their age and searched-corpus visibility more than current commercial weight, but they mark where later filings had to design around.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cold-chain logistics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what is still open
A small group of assignees carries most of the volume, but the co-filing pattern and the technology split point to specific pockets that remain lightly claimed.
One assignee sets the pace by a wide margin
The leading assignee holds 28 of the 68 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 3 and tenth place at 2. That gap suggests a genuinely dominant filer rather than a cluster of near-equal competitors.
A small collaborative core files together repeatedly
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, with the strongest three pairs each sharing 4 records. This points to a tight set of individual or corporate filers working jointly rather than a broad, loosely connected field.
Filing is US- and Europe-weighted, with India a distinct third
The United States leads with 24 filings, followed by the EPO at 17 and India at 7. WIPO/PCT and Germany fill out the remaining receiving-office volume, suggesting most applicants are prioritising US and European protection first.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Trane International Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Carrier Corporation | 0 | — |
| WANG JINLIANG | 0 | — |
| Asahi Kasei Corporation | 0 | — |
| ZOU JIANG | 0 | — |
| VERMA PARMESH | 0 | — |
| SALENREDERIERNA | 0 | — |
| RADCLIFF THOMAS D | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures here describe the field as filed. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on the specific mechanism you plan to claim.
Map your mechanism against the cited cluster
If your concept touches ejector-cycle efficiency, desiccant-based dehumidification, or transaction-management overlays, check it against the most-cited records first — that is where later filings have already had to design around.
Explore citation clusters in EurekaTest claim scope in the under-claimed branches
Item-identification and inventory-location claims sit well behind the refrigeration hardware in filing density. A narrowly drafted claim there faces less prior art to design around.
Run a white-space search in EurekaWatch the leader's next moves
With one assignee holding 28 of 68 records, its filing direction in the next 12–18 months is the single most useful early signal for where the field is heading.
Track assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about cold-chain logistics patents
Within this dataset of 68 records, one assignee leads clearly with 28 records, compared with 3 at fifth place and 2 at tenth. The top five assignees combined account for 80.9% of all records in scope, and the top ten reach 98.5%, so the field is heavily concentrated at the top with a long tail of single- or low-volume filers behind it. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should start with the leading assignee's portfolio rather than the tail.
Filing rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 11 records in 2023, then eased to 6 by 2024 — a 25% decline from the 8 records filed in 2021, using 2024 as the last year with a complete publication picture. Because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not yet be read as a genuine slowdown. A clearer picture of the most recent trend will only be available once those years finish publishing.
Refrigeration and air-handling hardware dominate: F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) covers 30.9% of the 68 records and F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) covers 29.4%. Business and data-processing claims under G06Q, which would cover inventory tracking and routing logic, sit at only 13.2%, tied with fluid-heater claims under F24H. This means the mechanical side of temperature control is far more heavily claimed than the identification and tracking side implied by cold-chain logistics as a full system.
US20230366568A1, assigned to Trane International Inc. and published 2023-11-16, describes a dehumidifying air handling unit that uses a rotating desiccant wheel coated with a metal organic framework desiccant to manage humidity independently within an HVACR airflow path. It matters because it represents the kind of specific mechanical claim — a named material plus a defined mechanical motion — that sits in the crowded refrigeration and air-handling classes where most of this field's filing activity concentrates. Anyone designing a similar humidity-control component in a cold-chain system should review its claim scope directly rather than assume open space in this class.
The technology composition points to inventory-location and item-identification claims as the most under-claimed branch, sitting at 13.2% of records against 30.9% for air-conditioning hardware and 29.4% for refrigeration. Shipboard cold-chain auxiliaries (B63J) and separation or filtration processes (B01D) also show comparatively low record counts, at 5.9% and 10.3% respectively. A first claim in these areas is more likely to face a shorter, more specific prior-art set than a claim on core compressor or ejector-cycle refrigeration.
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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.