Corrosion-Resistant Alloys Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since the 2017 peak. 37 filings that year against 9 in the most recent (partial) year, with 2022 sitting at 29 — a flat-to-declining trend rather than a growth curve.
- Corrosion & metal removal claims dominate the IPC mix. C23F carries 939 of 1,117 records, dwarfing coatings (C23C, 179) and the alloy composition subclass itself (C22C, 39).
- Filing is split across six receiving offices with no single gatekeeper. The United States (191), Russia (159), EPO (140) and China (139) each hold a meaningful share, so no one jurisdiction controls the claim space.
Filing growth compares 2021 (33 records) with 2024 (31) — 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 1,117 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing corrosion-resistant alloys and related protection methods — pitting resistance, passive film chemistry, inhibitor formulations, chloride-environment performance and galvanic corrosion — filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026. The search combines title/abstract terms for corrosion resistance and protection with IPC classes C23F (corrosion and metal removal), C22C (alloys) and C23C (coating and surface deposition), giving a view that spans both alloy composition claims and the inhibitor and coating methods used alongside them.
Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the most recent year in the trend line understates real filing activity; treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,117-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those families split across the IPC subclasses that define the field.
A peak year already behind us
Filings ran at 37 in 2017, held near 29 at the 2022 midpoint, and sit at 9 in the most recent partial year. Read alongside the publication lag, this points to a mature, steady-state filing rate rather than an emerging one — new entrants are more likely to be filing into established claim territory than opening new ground.
Corrosion mitigation, not alloy design, is where the claims sit
C23F (corrosion and metal removal) accounts for 939 of the 1,117 records — the large majority. C09K materials (245), C23C coatings (179) and C09D coatings/paints (171) follow well behind, with C22C alloy-composition claims themselves at just 39 and C10M lubricants, C02F water treatment and F16L pipe fittings smaller still. The imbalance suggests protection methods and inhibitor chemistry are more heavily claimed than the base alloy compositions they are applied to.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,117 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Corrosion-Resistant Alloys and Protection with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about corrosion-resistant alloys and protection and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
US20220297172A1 — High performance alloy for corrosion resistance
A corrosion resistant alloy, a method for making the corrosion resistant alloy, and a method for using the corrosion resistant alloy are provided. The corrosion resistant alloy includes 13-15 wt. % chromium, 5-7 wt. % nickel, and 2.5-4.5 wt. % molybdenum.Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, published 2022-09-22 — a composition claim sitting squarely in the underclaimed C22C alloy space rather than the crowded C23F protection-method space.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4647392A | Monobasic-dibasic acid/salt antifreeze corrosion inhibitor | 183 |
| 2 | US5868819A | Water-reducible coating composition for providing corrosion protection | 137 |
| 3 | US5853797A | Method of providing corrosion protection | 118 |
| 4 | US5960878A | Methods of protecting well tubular goods from corrosion | 114 |
| 5 | US5393457A | Vapor phase corrosion inhibitor-desiccant material | 102 |
| 6 | US5964928A | Protective coatings for metals and other surfaces | 99 |
| 7 | US4759864A | Corrosion-inhibited antifreeze formulation | 91 |
| 8 | US6228283B1 | Aqueous corrosion inhibitor | 81 |
| 9 | US5320778A | Vapor phase corrosion inhibitor-desiccant material | 78 |
| 10 | US5939362A | Enhanced corrosion protection by use of friction reducers in conjuction with corrosion inhibitors | 74 |
Citation counts favour older records simply by virtue of being in the corpus longer; read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial weight.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once volume, geography and citation weight are read together.
The field has already crested
Peak filing was 2017 at 37 records; by the 2022 midpoint activity had eased to 29, and the most recent partial year shows 9. Even allowing for publication lag, this is not an accelerating field — it is one where the core protection-method claims were staked out years ago.
Protection methods outweigh alloy composition claims
Corrosion and metal removal (C23F) carries the large majority of records, while the alloy-composition subclass C22C holds only 39. New alloy chemistries are comparatively lightly claimed next to the inhibitor and treatment methods applied to them.
No single office controls the field
The United States leads with 191 filings, but Russia (159), the EPO (140) and China (139) are close behind, with Canada (84) and WIPO/PCT (57) adding further spread. A freedom-to-operate check limited to one jurisdiction would miss most of the corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to corrosion-resistant alloys and protection, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Norsk Hydro Technology International | Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) | 15 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | SA TEXACO BELGIUM NV | 5 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | Texaco Development Corporation | 3 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | TEXACO SERVICES EUROPE LTD | 3 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | TEKISAKO PETORORIUMU NVSA | 3 |
| Henkel AG & Co. KGaA | KODIAK WASSERTECH | 3 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | S A TEXACO PETROLEUM | 2 |
| Texaco Development Corporation | MAES JEAN PIERRE | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset; the strongest link, between a technology group and a national oil company, still totals just 15 shared families — cross-company collaboration is the exception, not the norm, in this field.
Who holds the claim space — and where recent momentum sits
Assignee activity in this dataset spans oilfield operators, industrial chemical suppliers and research institutes, but recent-year filing has gone quiet across the most prominent names.
The named leaders have stopped filing recently
Every one of the most active historical assignees in this corpus — spanning oilfield chemical suppliers, an industrial gas group, a naval research lab and a water-treatment specialist — shows zero filings in the latest year. That is consistent with a field where the core claims were laid down earlier and are now being maintained rather than extended.
Collaboration is limited and asymmetric
The strongest co-assignee link ties a technology group to a national oil company at 15 shared families; the next strongest pairs are smaller still. Most assignees in this dataset file solo, which matters for anyone scouting for licensing or joint-development partners.
Activity is genuinely multi-jurisdictional
With the US, Russia, EPO, China, Canada and WIPO/PCT all carrying volume, assignee strategy in this field is not concentrated on a single home market — filings are pursued across oilfield, industrial and research-driven geographies alike.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Texaco Development Corporation | 0 | — |
| Norsk Hydro Technology International | 0 | — |
| Preston Products Company | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| U.S. Naval Research Laboratory | 0 | — |
| Kurita Water Industries Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Ecolab USA Inc. | 0 | — |
| Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with stable claim boundaries and quiet recent activity — the open questions are about where those boundaries have gaps, not about tracking a fast-moving frontier.
Map the alloy-composition gap
With only 39 of 1,117 records classified under C22C, a targeted search of specific chromium-nickel-molybdenum ratios and rare-earth microalloying could surface composition claims that the broader corrosion-protection search misses.
Explore alloy composition claims in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate across all six offices
Because filing volume is spread across the US, Russia, EPO, China, Canada and WIPO, a single-jurisdiction clearance search will understate real risk for any commercial deployment.
Run a multi-jurisdiction FTO check in EurekaWatch for renewed filing after the lag window closes
The drop to 9 filings in the most recent year is partly a publication-lag artefact; revisit the trend once records from the last 18 months have fully published.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about corrosion-resistant alloy patents
The core classes are C23F (corrosion and metal removal, or protection against corrosion generally), C22C (alloys, including compositional claims), and C23C (coating and surface deposition processes). In this dataset C23F carries the large majority of records (939 of 1,117), while C22C, the class most directly tied to alloy composition itself, holds only 39. Related materials and coatings art also appears under C09K and C09D, so a full search needs to span several subclasses rather than relying on C22C alone.
Not on the evidence here. Filings peaked at 37 in 2017, held near 29 at the 2022 midpoint, and have fallen to 9 in the most recent partial year. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the last year or two is always undercounted, but the multi-year trajectory from peak to midpoint is already a decline, not a plateau followed by growth. Recent-year momentum data for the leading assignees, all showing zero filings in the latest year, reinforces the same picture.
This dataset's assignee ranking spans oilfield chemical suppliers, an industrial gas and chemicals group, a naval research laboratory and a water-treatment specialist among the more active filers. What stands out is not any single dominant leader but that recent-year filing across all the historically active names has dropped to zero, suggesting the field's claim territory was largely established in earlier years. A full ranking table with family counts is provided separately on this page.
The clearest gap is in alloy composition itself: C22C holds only 39 of 1,117 records against 939 under the general corrosion-protection class C23F, meaning specific compositional claims — particular chromium-nickel-molybdenum ratios, passive film control, or galvanic-pairing at dissimilar-metal joints — are comparatively lightly claimed relative to inhibitor and coating methods. Chloride-environment pitting thresholds and vapor-phase inhibitor formulations also show up as narrower branches worth a closer freedom-to-operate look rather than broad, heavily blocked territory.
The United States leads with 191 records in this dataset, followed closely by Russia (159), the European Patent Office (140) and China (139), with Canada (84) and the WIPO/PCT route (57) adding further volume. The spread across six offices with no single dominant jurisdiction means a clearance or competitive search confined to one country will miss a substantial share of the relevant art.
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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.