Cured-in-Place Pipe Lining Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- One assignee holds 95 of the 150 records in scope, while the fifth-ranked holder sits at just 7 and the tenth at 4 — a steep drop-off after the leader.
- F16L pipe-and-fitting claims cover 91.3% of the 150 records, but B32B laminate structures, UV optics (G02B), and additive chemistry (C08K) each sit under 4%, well outside the crowded core.
- Filings fell from 2 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, a 50% drop, in the last span the dataset can treat as complete — 2025 and 2026 are still filling in behind publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (1) — 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.
What this landscape covers
Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining rehabilitates buried or damaged pipe by inserting a resin-saturated liner and curing it in place, avoiding excavation. The 150 records in scope span resin impregnation, UV and steam curing methods, liner thickness control, styrene emission management, wrinkle-defect mitigation, and structural classification of finished liners. Filing activity runs from 2015 through the mid-2020s, with a peak in 2018 and a smaller, more concentrated set of active filers in recent years.
The technology composition is heavily weighted toward pipe-and-fitting mechanics (F16L) and plastics shaping (B29C), with a thin scatter of records touching laminate structures, optics, and polymer additives — branches that sit close to the core problem but carry far less claim density.
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Filing trends and technology classes
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown below are drawn from the same 150-record set defined by the search string above; publication lag means the last one to two years will fill in as more records index.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 24 in 2018, then eased. The most recent complete comparison the dataset supports is 2021 (2 filings) against 2024 (1 filing), a 50% decline — read 2025 and 2026 as still incomplete rather than as a continuation of that decline.
IPC subclass composition
F16L (pipes and pipe fittings) appears in 91.3% of the 150 records and B29C (shaping of plastics) in 28.7%, confirming the core claim space sits at the mechanical-and-process intersection. B32B, G02B, B29B, B29D, B29K and C08K each appear in under 4% of records, marking the outer edges of the field rather than its center.
Shares are the percentage of the 150 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cured-in-Place Pipe Lining with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cured-in-place pipe lining and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Cured in place pipe system having integrated thermoplastic with improved melt-flow characteristics (US20180003332A1)
A tubular substrate of needle-punched carbon, aramid and thermoplastic fibers defines a longitudinal channel housing an air bladder with an air duct, enclosed in a loose-fitting protective film. Multiple overlapping, unbound layers allow circumferential expansion to fit varying host-pipe geometries. The integrated thermoplastic is specified with a melt/flow point near 300-342°F and a cure point near 330-370°F.Filed by Infrastructure Technologies, LLC, published 2018-01-04.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110221093A1 | Method and system for manufacturing wind turbine blades | 48 |
| 2 | US20060090804A1 | Installation of cured in place liners with air and flow-through steam to cure | 41 |
| 3 | US6463960B1 | Secondary conduit for transmission carriers | 26 |
| 4 | US20070001330A1 | Exhaust and/or condensate port for cured in place liners and installation methods and apparatus | 18 |
| 5 | US20070114689A1 | Dual gland air inversion and steam cure of cured in place liners | 13 |
| 6 | WO2007044052A2 | Exhaust and/or condensate port for cured in place liners and installation methods and apparatus | 12 |
| 7 | US7766048B2 | Installation of cured in place liners with air and flow-through steam to cure | 11 |
| 8 | US20180003332A1 | Cured in place pipe system having integrated thermoplastic with improved melt-flow characteristics | 9 |
| 9 | US20090165927A1 | Installation Of Cured In Place Liners With Dual Gland Air Inversion And Steam Cure Apparatus | 9 |
| 10 | WO2018139923A1 | Fitting element for use in rehabilitation of pipelines and method for producing the same | 8 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them — treat them as a marker of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the assignee ranking, the IPC breakdown, and the filing trend are read together.
One holder dominates, then a steep drop
The leading assignee holds 95 of the 150 records in this ranking; the fifth-placed holder has only 7 and the tenth just 4. That gap means most of the remaining 34 ranked companies are single- or few-filing entrants rather than sustained competitors.
The mechanical core is heavily claimed
F16L pipe-and-fitting claims run through nearly every record in scope, and B29C plastics-shaping claims sit under a third. New filings aimed squarely at liner mechanics are filing into dense prior art; the room to move is in the adjacent classes.
Activity has thinned since the 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 24 in 2018 and, across the last span the dataset can treat as complete, fell from 2 in 2021 to 1 in 2024. Recent-year totals from 2025 onward will rise as publication catches up, so this should be read as a plateau after the peak rather than a verdict on the field's future.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cured-in-place pipe lining, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| INA Acquisition Corp | INSITUFORM HLDG (UK) LTD | 11 |
| INA Acquisition Corp | DRIVER FRANKLIN THOMAS | 9 |
| INSITUFORM HLDG (UK) LTD | DRIVER FRANKLIN THOMAS | 7 |
| INA Acquisition Corp | INSITUFORM (NETHERLANDS) BV | 6 |
| INSITUFORM HLDG (UK) LTD | INSITUFORM (NETHERLANDS) BV | 6 |
| INA Acquisition Corp | COYNE JOSEPH M | 5 |
| INSITUFORM HLDG (UK) LTD | COYNE JOSEPH M | 5 |
| INSITUFORM (NETHERLANDS) BV | DRIVER FRANKLIN THOMAS | 5 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset; the strongest links sit around the leading assignee's own corporate family, suggesting joint filings here reflect internal group structure more than external partnership.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The assignee ranking spans 35 companies; recent-year momentum has gone quiet across the historically active names, which opens room for new entrants to establish position in specific under-claimed branches.
The dominant filer
One assignee accounts for the large majority of records in the ranking, built up mainly during the 2018 filing peak. Its recent-year activity has slowed to zero, per the momentum data, which is a gap rather than a retreat from the space.
A thin second tier
Positions five through ten hold between 4 and 7 records each, well below the leader but still representing repeat filers rather than one-off entrants. This tier is where licensing or acquisition activity is most likely to matter.
Filings cluster within one corporate family
The strongest co-assignee pairs connect the leading filer to its own affiliated entities, not to outside partners. That suggests collaboration signals in this dataset track internal corporate structure rather than cross-company R&D alliances.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| INA Acquisition Corp | 0 | — |
| PIPE AQUA TEC GMBH & CO KG | 0 | — |
| INSITUFORM HLDG (UK) LTD | 0 | — |
| MOCS BEHEER BV | 0 | — |
| MOCS CIPP BV | 0 | — |
| INSITUFORM (NETHERLANDS) BV | 0 | — |
| DRIVER FRANKLIN THOMAS | 0 | — |
| SANDERS | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's family
With one assignee holding the large majority of records, any new filing aimed at the F16L core should be checked against that family's claim scope before drafting.
Explore assignee filings in EurekaScope claims toward the under-claimed branches
B32B, G02B and C08K each cover a small fraction of the 150 records, suggesting narrower but more available claim space than the crowded mechanical core.
Run a white-space search in EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 publication catch-up
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent 2024 low is not necessarily the field's current filing rate — recheck the trend once later years finish indexing.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on CIPP patent activity
One assignee accounts for 95 of the 150 records in this dataset's ranking, far ahead of the fifth-place holder at 7 and the tenth at 4. That concentration built up mainly around the 2018 filing peak. Newer entrants in the ranked list tend to hold only a handful of records each, so the field has one clear historical leader and a long tail of smaller filers rather than several evenly matched competitors.
Filings peaked at 24 in 2018 and have since thinned; across the last span the dataset treats as complete, filings fell from 2 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, a 50% decline. However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued decline. The honest read is a plateau after the 2018 peak, with the most recent trend still unresolved.
F16L (pipes and pipe fittings) appears in 91.3% of the 150 records in scope, and B29C (shaping of plastics) in 28.7%, making these the two dominant classes. Smaller classes — B32B for laminates, G02B for optical elements used in UV curing, B29B/B29D/B29K for plastics preparation and moulding, and C08K for polymer additives — each cover under 4% of records. Since records can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they mark where the crowded core sits versus where the field opens up.
US20180003332A1 covers a cured-in-place pipe system with a tubular substrate of needle-punched carbon, aramid and thermoplastic fibers, an internal air bladder with an air duct, and multiple overlapping unbound layers that allow circumferential expansion to fit varying host-pipe sizes. Its specificity around melt/flow and cure point ranges for the integrated thermoplastic means it most directly constrains designs using a similar fiber blend and layered-expansion approach, rather than CIPP liners generally. A freedom-to-operate review should focus on whether a new design uses an equivalent bladder-and-expansion mechanism or a materially different curing and expansion approach.
The IPC composition shows F16L and B29C dominating the 150-record set, while B32B laminate structures, G02B optical/UV-curing elements, and C08K additive chemistry each appear in under 4% of records. These smaller classes represent branches adjacent to the core liner mechanics that carry far less claim density, making them more viable starting points for a first claim than the heavily filed pipe-and-fitting space. Any white-space claim should still be checked against the leading assignee's family, since its filings span the widest range of the dataset.
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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.
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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.