Cosmetic Preservation Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Cosmetic Preservation and Microbiological Safety Patents
Filings nearly tripled from 2021 to 2024, up +200% over that three-year span, though the leader's own recent-year count has flattened to zero, signalling a plateau at the very top even as the field keeps growing. Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 18 in 2020, then climbed again from 3 in 2021 to 9 in 2024 — a +200% increase over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent bars will keep rising as later filings publish.
- 1INT N&H DENMARK APS42
- 2GENERAL BISCUIT SA38
- 3AMERICAN NATIONAL CAN CO28
- 4NATUREX SA27
- 5BERG LLC26
See the full cosmetic preservation and microbiological safety analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Frequently asked questions
Who holds the most patents in cosmetic preservation and microbiological safety?
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 42 of the 524 records in scope, with the fifth-ranked company at 26 and the tenth-ranked at 16. That gradient shows a clear leader rather than a single dominant monopoly, and the ranking runs to 100 companies with a long tail of single- and double-digit filers below the top ten. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at the full ranking rather than just the top name, since a meaningful share of filings sits outside the leading cluster.
What share of preservation patents come from food versus cosmetic-specific filings?
The IPC composition shows A23L (foods and non-alcoholic beverages) covering 48.9% of the 524 records and A23B (food preservation) covering 23.7%, versus A61K (medicinal preparations) at 16.6%. This reflects how the underlying preservation science — antimicrobial acids, water activity control, chelating agents — is shared across food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications rather than being cosmetic-specific. Readers focused strictly on cosmetics should treat the food-class share as adjacent prior art rather than direct market competition.
Is patent filing activity in this field growing or slowing down?
Filings grew from 3 in 2021 to 9 in 2024, a +200% increase over that span, following an earlier peak of 18 in 2020. The 2025 and 2026 figures in the dataset are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so those most recent years will continue to rise as more records publish. Based on the complete years available, the trend through 2024 is one of acceleration rather than decline.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cosmetic Preservation and Microbiological Safety covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.