Data Center Cooling Patent Landscape 2026
Data Center Cooling Patent Landscape in 2026
The data center cooling patent field is in a growth phase on a multi-year basis, with Munters Corp holding a clear lead; the top five filers account for 36% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, signaling a moderately concentrated but still contested space. Activity surged to a 2023 peak before easing, partly reflecting publication lag, and the dominant jurisdiction is the United States.
Munters Corp leads a moderately concentrated field with active challengers close behind
Munters Corp sits at the top of the applicant ranking, followed by International Business Machines Corporation and Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc. These three leaders form a clear first tier, with Solvcor Technologies LLC and Google LLC completing the top five.
The top five filers hold 36% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating moderate concentration: a single player has a meaningful lead, but the gap to the second and third tiers is not insurmountable, leaving room for challengers and new entrants to capture share.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Munters Corp | 88 | |
| 2 | International Business Machines Corporation | 67 | |
| 3 | Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc | 62 | |
| 4 | Solvcor Technologies LLC | 39 | |
| 5 | Google LLC | 37 | |
| 6 | Vertiv Corp | 32 | |
| 7 | Inertech IP LLC | 23 | |
| 8 | Carrier Corp | 19 | |
| 9 | Deepwater Desal LLC | 15 | |
| 10 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP | 14 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Zonit Structured Solutions LLC | 13 | |
| 12 | Green Revolution Cooling | 13 | |
| 13 | Hewlett Packard Development Company LP | 12 | |
| 14 | Honeywell International Inc | 12 | |
| 15 | Inspur Suzhou Intelligent Technology Co Ltd | 11 | |
| 16 | Amazon Technologies Inc | 11 | |
| 17 | Dell Products LP | 10 | |
| 18 | Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co Ltd | 10 | |
| 19 | Additive Rocket Corp | 10 | |
| 20 | Schneider Electric IT Corp | 10 |
The presence of both dedicated thermal-management specialists (Munters Corp, Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc) and large technology incumbents (IBM, Google, Hewlett Packard) suggests the field is contested across two distinct player archetypes — pure-play cooling specialists and hyperscaler verticals — which implies different IP strategies and partnership opportunities for new entrants.
Filing data for the most recent 18–24 months is subject to publication lag and likely understates current activity; year-over-year comparisons for 2024–2026 should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2023 filing surge across a broad thermal-management technology mix
Annual filing volume and the IPC class distribution together reveal both the pace of investment and the technical approaches that dominate — and those that remain relatively sparse.
Annual filing trend
Filings grew on a multi-year basis and peaked in 2023 before easing; the recent decline in 2024–2026 values reflects publication lag rather than a real contraction. The field’s three-year recent window sits 41% above the prior three-year window, confirming net expansion over the full period.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H05K (printed circuits and assemblies), F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps), and F28D (heat-exchange apparatus) dominate the IPC mix, together accounting for the large majority of classified records. F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) and G06F (electric digital data processing) follow at notably lower counts, pointing to adjacent areas with relatively less coverage.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Refrigerant pump and data center cooling system
A refrigerant pump and a data center cooling system. The data center cooling system includes a refrigerant connected between a condenser and an evaporator. The refrigerant includes a housing, a partition plate, and a pump head. The housing is provided with a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet. The partition plate is disposed inside the housing, and they… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liquid Submerged, Horizontal Computer Server Rack … | 233 |
| 2 | Warm Water Cooling | 224 |
| 3 | Liquid cooled condensers for loop heat pipe like e… | 187 |
| 4 | Multi-mode cooling system and method with evaporat… | 187 |
| 5 | Cooling system with evaporators distributed in par… | 182 |
| 6 | IT equipment cooling | 164 |
| 7 | Integration of an internet-serving datacenter with… | 144 |
| 8 | Water-based data center | 138 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural observations — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — frame where incremental R&D investment is likely to encounter resistance and where open ground remains.
Growth phase, annual volume eased from a 2023 peak
The lifecycle assessment classifies the field as Growth: the recent three-year filing window sits 41% above the prior three-year window, confirming sustained expansion at the portfolio level. Annual volume peaked in 2023 and has eased since, consistent with a maturing growth phase rather than a fresh acceleration. Publication lag means the most recent years are further understated.
Growth stageModerate concentration with a visible specialist–hyperscaler divide
The top five filers account for 36% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total — concentrated enough that the leader (Munters Corp) has a structural advantage in prior art and licensing leverage, but dispersed enough that challengers including Solvcor Technologies LLC and Vertiv Corp can build credible positions. New entrants appearing with strong momentum in recent filings (Solvcor, Inertech IP, Honeywell International) indicate the top tier is still contested.
Moderate concentrationNo co-applicant activity detected in current evidence
The collaboration dataset returned no co-filing pairs in this corpus, suggesting that filings in this space are predominantly single-applicant and that cross-entity joint development agreements, if any, are not yet reflected in published patent records. This is either a structural characteristic of the field or an artifact of corpus scope; further investigation is warranted before concluding that collaborative R&D is absent.
Evidence pendingUS-dominant filing geography with meaningful EPO and China presence
The United States is the primary filing jurisdiction by a wide margin, reflecting the concentration of hyperscale data center infrastructure and cooling-specialist headquarters there. Europe (EPO) and China represent the next largest jurisdictions, followed by WIPO PCT filings that signal intent for broader international protection. Canada, Germany, and India each capture additional activity, consistent with regional data center build-outs in those markets.
US-led, global reachGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Munters Corp and IBM lead with distinct thermal-management emphases
The top two applicants differ meaningfully in technical focus: Munters Corp concentrates on electronic assembly cooling and heat-exchange apparatus, while IBM’s portfolio spans similar ground but adds refrigeration and heat-pump technology. Both are expanding, though from different bases.
Munters Corp
Munters Corp leads the ranking with 88 patent records, focused primarily on H05K 7 (printed circuits and assemblies) and F28D 15 (heat-exchange apparatus), reflecting a core competency in direct thermal management of electronic equipment. Recent filing momentum is strong at +59% versus the prior period, indicating active portfolio expansion rather than a steady-state position.
88 patent recordsInternational Business Machines Corporation
IBM holds 67 patent records with a focus on H05K 7, F28D 15, and F25B 27 (refrigeration and heat pumps), adding a refrigeration-cycle dimension absent from Munters Corp’s top classes. IBM’s presence as a technology incumbent rather than a pure-play cooling specialist means its filings tend to integrate cooling tightly with compute architecture; momentum data for the recent period is not separately itemized in evidence.
67 patent records| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Munters Corp | 35 | ▲ +59% |
| Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc | 14 | ▲ +8% |
| Solvcor Technologies LLC | 17 | ▲ new entrant |
| Inertech IP LLC | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
| Google LLC | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Carrier Corp | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Honeywell International Inc | 7 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches worth monitoring
Several IPC classes appear at lower relative share within a field dominated by H05K, F25B, and F28D. These observations of relative sparsity are noted below; two branches combine low current share with plausible technical relevance and a realistic entry path.
G06F · Electric digital data processing
G06F holds a 6% share among classified records — notably lower than the dominant thermal-hardware classes — despite being the logical home for software-defined cooling control, predictive thermal management algorithms, and digital-twin approaches to data center energy optimization. As AI-driven workload management becomes central to hyperscale operations, filing activity in this branch has room to grow. An entry path exists for players with software or controls expertise who can combine G06F claims with hardware claims in F25B or F28D.
Search this in Eureka →F04D · Non-positive-displacement pumps
F04D (fans, blowers, and centrifugal pumps) accounts for 5% of classified records, a relatively sparse share for a component that is critical to both air-side and liquid-side cooling architectures. As liquid cooling deployments scale and pump efficiency becomes a power-usage-effectiveness differentiator, F04D-anchored claims on novel pump geometries, variable-speed control integration, and low-noise designs represent an adjacent area with tangible technical value and a clear path into existing cooling system IP portfolios.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ across key technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H05K 7 · Printed circuits & assemblies | F28D 15 · Heat-exchange apparatus | G06F 1 · Electric digital data processing | F25B 49 · Refrigeration & heat pumps | F25B 41 · Refrigeration & heat pumps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Munters Corp | Strong · 58 | Strong · 47 | Moderate · 24 | Emerging · 6 | Absent |
| International Business Machines Corporation | Strong · 47 | Strong · 29 | Moderate · 10 | Moderate · 10 | Absent |
| Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc | Strong · 28 | Strong · 23 | Moderate · 7 | Absent | Absent |
| Hewlett Packard Development Company LP | Strong · 24 | Absent | Moderate · 6 | Strong · 14 | Absent |
| Google LLC | Strong · 19 | Strong · 17 | Moderate · 7 | Absent | Absent |
| Vertiv Corp | Strong · 12 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 14 | Strong · 13 |
| Green Revolution Cooling | Strong · 12 | Strong · 13 | Strong · 11 | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
Munters Corp leads the applicant ranking with 88 patent records, ahead of International Business Machines Corporation (67) and Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc (62). Munters Corp’s recent filing momentum is +59% versus the prior period, indicating continued active investment.
The top five filers — Munters Corp, IBM, Nortek Air Solutions Canada Inc, Solvcor Technologies LLC, and Google LLC — account for 36% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total. This indicates moderate concentration: a clear leader exists, but challengers can and do hold meaningful positions.
The field is classified as Growth. Recent three-year filings sit 41% above the prior three-year window. Annual volume peaked in 2023 and has eased since; values for 2024–2026 are further understated by publication lag and should not be read as a real decline.
The United States is the dominant filing jurisdiction, followed by Europe (EPO), China, and WIPO PCT. Canada, Germany, and India also capture notable activity, reflecting regional data center infrastructure expansion in those markets.
H05K (printed circuits and assemblies), F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps), and F28D (heat-exchange apparatus) are the three most represented IPC classes. F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) and G06F (electric digital data processing) follow at significantly lower counts.
G06F (electric digital data processing, covering software-defined and AI-driven cooling control) and F04D (non-positive-displacement pumps, covering fans and liquid-cooling pumps) are among the lower-share branches relative to the dominant hardware thermal classes. These represent adjacent areas where filing density is comparatively sparse, though neither constitutes a validated commercial gap without further technical and market analysis.
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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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