Cold-Water Washing Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 82.0% of all 338 records in scope sit with just five assignees — this field is concentrated at the very top, not spread across a long tail.
- Filing fell 56% from 2021 (9) to 2024 (4), the most recent year that can be treated as complete once publication lag is accounted for.
- C11D detergent chemistry dominates at 68.3% of records, while appliance-side classes like A47L (7.7%) and B08B (7.7%) remain comparatively thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 338 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Cold-water and low-temperature washing sits at the intersection of surfactant chemistry, builder selection and appliance engineering. The search scope combines terms like cold water washing and low temperature detergent with functional claims around surfactant solubility, dissolution rate, energy saving, stain type, rinse performance and builder selection — the levers formulators pull to get cleaning performance without heating the wash.
338 published records fall inside this scope between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent-year counts understate actual filing activity and should not be read as a slowdown on their own.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 338 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing activity, 2017–2024
Filings peaked at 14 in 2017 and have declined since; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a 56% drop (9 to 4), the clearest complete-year comparison available. Years after 2024 are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates.
Where the claims sit
C11D (detergents and cleaning compositions) carries 68.3% of records, far ahead of C07C (15.7%) and D06F (12.7%). Appliance and general-cleaning classes — A47L, B08B, A45C — each sit near 7-8%, suggesting most of the inventive activity is chemical rather than mechanical.
Shares are the percentage of the 338 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cold-Water and Low-Temperature Washing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cold-water and low-temperature washing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this scope
Method for Manufacturing Fabric with Energy-Saving, Emission-Reduction Printing and Cold-Water Wash Step
A fabric-manufacturing method combining flat-screen and digital printing with a biological-enzyme pretreatment sequence: cloth feeding at 75°C, dipping, scouring and bleaching, heating to 90°C for 30 minutes, draining, then a hot-water wash followed by a cold-water wash, before non-ironing soft setting. The claimed benefit is a shortened process flow versus traditional full-width sizing.Filed by Zhejiang Furun Dyeing and Printing Co., Ltd., published 2022-07-07.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2007106293A1 | Surface active bleach and dynamic ph | 196 |
| 2 | US9631163B2 | Liquid laundry detergent composition | 118 |
| 3 | US9752101B2 | Liquid laundry detergent composition | 99 |
| 4 | US6699828B1 | Aqueous liquid detergent compositions comprising an effervescent system | 93 |
| 5 | US20140296124A1 | Cleaning compositions containing a polyetheramine, a soil release polymer, and a carboxymethylcellulose | 82 |
| 6 | WO2001000765A1 | Aqueous liquid detergent compositions comprising an effervescent system | 76 |
| 7 | US5559031A | Apparatus for the continuous production of ethanol from cereals | 57 |
| 8 | US20140296127A1 | Cleaning compositions containing a polyetheramine | 54 |
| 9 | US5545543A | Process for the continuous production of ethanol from cereals | 50 |
| 10 | US6726362B1 | Shoe bags for use in laundering process | 48 |
Citation counts favour older records that have had more time to be cited; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not 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 stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
A small group holds most of the claim space
The leader alone accounts for 157 records, and the top five combined reach 82.0% of all 338 records in scope. That leaves a genuinely thin tail below rank five — fifth place holds 12 records, tenth place just 5.
Complete-year filings are down, not flat
Filings dropped from 9 in 2021 to 4 in 2024, the most recent year that can be read as complete. That decline sits after a 2017 peak of 14, pointing to a field that filled its core claim space early rather than one still accelerating.
Formulation chemistry, not appliance design, carries the field
C11D detergent-composition claims dominate at 68.3% of the 338 records, well ahead of D06F laundering/drying/ironing at 12.7% and A47L washing appliances at 7.7%. Anyone filing on the machine side is filing into comparatively open ground.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cold-water and low-temperature washing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it's still open
The ranked leaders are large-formulation companies with long filing histories; recent-year momentum across the top names has flattened.
A single leader with outsized share
The top-ranked assignee holds 157 of the 338 records in scope — well over a third of the entire dataset on its own, before the rest of the top five is counted.
A thin but present second tier
Fifth place holds 12 records and tenth place holds 5 — a real second tier exists, but it is far behind the top five's combined 277 records.
Most assignees filed once or twice
Beyond the top ten, the ranking runs to 94 companies total, most holding only a handful of records each — evidence of a field where a few formulators set the pace and many others filed opportunistically.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Procter & Gamble Co. | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| Danisco US Inc. | 0 | — |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 0 | — |
| Clean Chem Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Sunshine Products Inc. | 0 | — |
| Access Business Group International LLC | 0 | — |
| Amway (US) LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The concentration at the top and the thinner appliance-side classes point to two different kinds of next step depending on what you're trying to do.
Map the leader's claim boundaries
With 157 of 338 records held by one assignee, understanding exactly what its granted claims cover — and where they stop — matters more here than in a more fragmented field.
Explore assignee claim scope in EurekaCheck the appliance-side classes before filing
A47L and B08B each sit near 7.7% of records, well below the dominant C11D chemistry classes. That gap is worth verifying against live filings before committing to a machine-side claim.
Run a white-space check in EurekaCommon questions
The ranking covers 94 companies, but activity is heavily concentrated: the top-ranked assignee alone holds 157 of the 338 records in scope, and the top five combined reach 82.0% of all records. Below rank five, holdings drop off quickly — fifth place holds only 12 records and tenth place just 5. Practically, this means a handful of large formulation companies set most of the prior art a new filer needs to search against.
Using the most recent complete-year comparison available, filings fell 56% from 9 in 2021 to 4 in 2024, following an earlier peak of 14 in 2017. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so they should not yet be read as continued decline. Overall the pattern looks like a field that filled its core claim space earlier in the period rather than one still building momentum.
C11D, the IPC subclass covering detergents and cleaning compositions, appears in 68.3% of the 338 records in scope, far ahead of any other class. C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) and D06F (laundering, drying and ironing) follow at 15.7% and 12.7% respectively. Appliance-focused classes such as A47L and B08B each sit around 7.7%, indicating the bulk of inventive activity is in formulation chemistry rather than washing machine design.
The clearest under-claimed ground is on the appliance and mechanical side: A47L (cleaning and washing appliances) and B08B (general cleaning) each account for only about 7.7% of the 338 records, versus 68.3% for detergent chemistry under C11D. Sub-areas like builder selection tuned for hard-water cold rinse, and rinse-performance sensing integrated into appliances, show comparatively thin filing density. That said, thin filing density signals open claim space, not necessarily an easy or commercially proven technical path.
US20220213630A1, filed by Zhejiang Furun Dyeing and Printing, claims a fabric-manufacturing method that combines flat-screen and digital printing with a biological-enzyme pretreatment sequence ending in a hot-water wash followed by a cold-water wash step. It is process-specific to textile printing and finishing, not to detergent formulation or washing-appliance design, so its blocking effect is narrow — it would matter most to someone replicating the same printing-to-wash sequence rather than to general cold-water detergent or appliance work. Anyone filing near this space should still check its specific process steps and temperatures against their own claims.
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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.