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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/cubic-boron-nitride-and-superhard-materials-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Functional MaterialsCubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Material Patents
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees account for 41.0% of all 1,216 records in scope, and the ranked leaders' top ten hold 63.8%.
- Filing activity has cooled since 2017. Annual filings peaked at 43 in 2017 and had fallen to 21 by the 2022 midpoint, with no sign of a rebound in the years since.
- Grinding tools and alloys dominate the claim space. B24D and C22C each cover close to half of all records, while catalysis-adjacent B01J sits at just 13.6%.
1,216
Published Records
41%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-54%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 1,216 published patent records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine cubic boron nitride, polycrystalline CBN, or superhard material claims with high-pressure high-temperature synthesis, binder phase, thermal stability in cutting, grain size, or wear resistance disclosures, classified under abrasives (B24D), alloys (C22C) or non-metallic inorganic compounds (C01B). It spans the core toolmaking chain: sintered compact composition, binder phase chemistry, and the grinding and cutting tools built on top of them.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any trend line understate real filing activity and should be read as provisional rather than a genuine drop-off.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,216-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the field splits across IPC subclasses.
A field past its filing peak
Annual filings rose to a peak of 43 in 2017, then eased to 21 by 2022 and continued lower through the most recent partial year. Read the last year or two as understated given publication lag, but the multi-year direction is flat to declining rather than growing.
Abrasives and alloys carry the claim density
B24D (grinding tools & abrasives, 49.1%) and C22C (alloys, 49.0%) are each present in close to half of all records, followed by C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories, 42.8%) and B22F (powder metallurgy, 29.4%). Catalysis-adjacent B01J (13.6%) and general inorganic compounds C01B (14.7%) are comparatively lightly claimed, which is where composition-level filing pressure is lowest.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,216 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The documents anchoring this field
Representative recent filing
EP4653408A1 — Cubic boron nitride sintered body and coated tool
TUNGALOY CORPORATION
Filed by Tungaloy, this application addresses tool life through wear and fracture resistance: a cubic boron nitride sintered body with a binder phase built from Ti, Al and W compound phases, where the W compound phase (WC) is held to an average grain size between 0.5 and 3.0 micrometres alongside specified content ratios for the CBN and binder phases.Filed 2025-11-26 — illustrates that grain-size control within the binder phase remains an active claim frontier even this late in the field's life.
Most-cited records in the dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5011514A | Cemented and cemented/sintered superabrasive polycrystalline bodies and methods of manufacture thereof | 435 |
| 2 | US5096465A | Diamond metal composite cutter and method for making same | 387 |
| 3 | US4311490A | Diamond and cubic boron nitride abrasive compacts using size selective abrasive particle layers | 370 |
| 4 | US5151107A | Cemented and cemented/sintered superabrasive polycrystalline bodies and methods of manufacture thereof | 241 |
| 5 | US4403015A | Compound sintered compact for use in a tool and the method for producing the same | 216 |
| 6 | US6312324B1 | Superabrasive tool and method of manufacturing the same | 204 |
| 7 | US5766394A | Method for forming a polycrystalline layer of ultra hard material | 190 |
| 8 | US5011510A | Composite abrasive-articles and manufacturing method therefor | 167 |
| 9 | US4606738A | Randomly-oriented polycrystalline silicon carbide coatings for abrasive grains | 165 |
| 10 | US5567503A | Polishing pad with abrasive particles in a non-porous binder | 157 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; treat them as evidence of influence on subsequent filers, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for strategy
Four read-throughs from the filing trend, the assignee concentration and the IPC composition, aimed at where to file and where to watch.
Concentration
41.0% / 63.8%
top 5 / top 10 share of 1,216 records
A small group of incumbents holds the composition claims
The leading assignee alone accounts for 135 records, and the top five combined for 499 of the 1,216 records in scope. New entrants filing on binder-phase composition or sintering conditions are filing directly into occupied claim space held by a handful of long-established players.
Concentration signal
Momentum
43 → 1
peak-year (2017) to latest partial year filings
Filing volume has not recovered since its 2017 peak
The midpoint year 2022 sat at 21 annual filings, roughly half the 2017 peak, and the trend has not reversed. Recent-year momentum figures for the leading assignees show zero filings in the latest year across the top names, though publication lag means the very last year is not yet a complete picture.
Filing trend signal
Technology mix
49.1% / 13.6%
B24D share vs. B01J share of 1,216 records
Tool-form claims dominate; catalysis-adjacent uses are thin
Grinding tools and alloy composition together touch roughly half of all records, while materials for miscellaneous applications (C09K, 14.9%) and chemical/physical process claims (B01J, 13.6%) are comparatively under-filed relative to the tool-form claim density.
Composition signal
Collaboration
65 shared records
strongest co-assignee pairing
Filing partnerships cluster around a small number of corporate families
Only ten co-assignee pairings appear in this dataset, and the strongest single pairing spans 65 shared records, followed by a second pairing at 32. Co-filing here looks like intra-group collaboration between related entities rather than broad cross-company joint development.
Collaboration signal
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cubic boron nitride and superhard materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the claim space, and where it thins out
The ranking below covers the 100 companies the data endpoint returns for this search — not a top-50 or top-100 list by construction, simply the full ranked set. Filing counts drop from 135 at the top to 48 by the tenth position, then trail into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Leader
135 records
leading assignee filings
The top filer sits well clear of the field
The leading assignee's 135 records are roughly 1.7x the fifth-place count of 77, indicating a durable filing programme rather than a single burst of activity.
Leader position
Mid-field
77 → 48
fifth to tenth place record counts
The drop from fifth to tenth place is gradual, not a cliff
Positions five through ten fall from 77 to 48 records, a gentler decline than the gap between the leader and fifth place, suggesting a genuine second tier of active filers rather than a sharp leader-then-tail structure.
Mid-field position
Momentum
0 in latest year
recent-year filings across leading assignees
The most active historical filers have gone quiet recently
Every one of the leading assignees shows zero filings in the latest year, with one leading assignee down 100% year over year. This is consistent with the broader flat-to-declining filing trend rather than any single company's retreat.
Momentum position
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corp. | 0 | — |
| Element Six Production (Holdings) Ltd. | 0 | — |
| General Electric Co. | 0 | — |
| Element Six (UK) Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Diamond Innovations Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Smith International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Element Six Abrasives Ltd. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, concentrated field with a cooling filing trend — the next steps depend on whether you are filing, licensing, or monitoring competitors.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top filers
With 63.8% of records held by the top ten ranked assignees, any new composition or binder-phase filing should be checked against their specific claim scope before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
B01J and C09K carry the lowest record shares in this dataset; monitoring filing activity there over the next few publication cycles will show whether the flat overall trend is masking a shift into adjacent applications.
Set up monitoring in EurekaWatch for a rebound past the 2022 midpoint
Filings fell from 43 in 2017 to 21 by 2022; because of publication lag, it is too early to say whether the latest years confirm continued decline or an unrecorded uptick.
Explore the full filing trend in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on cubic boron nitride patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 135 of the 1,216 records in scope, with the top five assignees combined accounting for 41.0% of all records. This is a field where a small number of established abrasives and hard-metal manufacturers control most of the composition and binder-phase claim space, so any new filer should expect to be filing close to their existing patents. The ranking used here covers the 100 companies returned by the search, not an arbitrary top-50 cut.
No. Annual filings peaked at 43 in 2017 and had fallen to 21 by the 2022 midpoint, with the trend continuing flat to declining through the most recent years. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the very last year or two in the data will always look lower than it eventually turns out to be, so a modest rebound could still be hiding in unpublished filings. Even allowing for that lag, the multi-year direction since 2017 is clearly downward rather than growing.
The binder phase is the metallic or ceramic matrix that holds cubic boron nitride grains together in a sintered compact, and its composition directly affects wear resistance, fracture resistance and thermal stability during cutting. A large share of the claim activity in this dataset sits in binder-phase chemistry and grain-size control, illustrated by the representative EP4653408A1 filing, which specifies Ti, Al and W compound phases with a controlled average grain size. Because this is where much of the recent claim activity concentrates, binder-phase composition is a high-risk area for freedom-to-operate conflicts with established filers.
Grinding tools and abrasives (B24D) and alloys (C22C) each appear in close to half of the 1,216 records in scope, at 49.1% and 49.0% respectively, followed by ceramics and refractories (C04B) at 42.8%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed or treated as mutually exclusive categories. Lower-density classes such as B01J (13.6%) and C01B (14.7%) represent comparatively less-claimed territory relative to the tool-form core.
The IPC composition data shows B01J (chemical and physical processes, 13.6% of records) and C09K (materials for miscellaneous applications, 14.9%) carrying noticeably lower filing density than the tool-form classes like B24D and C22C, which each sit near 49%. That does not guarantee an easy grant, since lower filing density can also reflect less commercial interest, but it does suggest claim space that has not been heavily occupied by the incumbent filers who dominate the tool and alloy classes. Grain-size control below the ranges already claimed by leading sintered-body patents is a specific example worth checking before drafting.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cubic Boron Nitride and Superhard Materials covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.