Digital Rock Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Digital Rock and Pore-Scale Imaging Patents: Who Files, and Where the Field Is Heading
66.5% of all 173 records sit with just five assignees, and 85.5% with ten — this is a field with a short, well-defended top table. Filings rose to a peak of 39 in 2023 before falling to 11 in 2024 — a 69% drop from the 36 filed in 2021, the last comparison the data supports. 2025 and 2026 numbers are still low because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; they should not be read as a genuine slowdown yet.
- 1SHELL INTERNATIONALE RESEARCH MAATSCHAPPIJ BV38
- 2UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING33
- 3HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC17
- 4SHELL USA INC16
- 5ENI SPA11
See the full digital rock and pore scale imaging 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
Common questions about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in digital rock physics and pore-scale imaging?
The dataset’s leading assignee holds 38 of the 173 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 11. The top five assignees combined account for 66.5% of all records, and the top ten for 85.5%, so the field is concentrated among a small group of oilfield service majors, major operators and specialist imaging firms rather than spread across many small filers. Anyone entering this space should expect to run into that leader’s claims first.
Is patent filing in digital rock imaging growing or shrinking?
Filings peaked at 39 in 2023 and fell to 11 by 2024, a 69% drop from the 36 filed in 2021. Because patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the apparent decline in 2025 and 2026 figures is partly an artefact of records not yet published, not confirmed evidence of a shrinking field. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete count.
What technology areas dominate the patent claims in this field?
Material analysis and testing (IPC class G01N) appears on 59.0% of the 173 records, and image data processing (G06T) on 39.9%, making these the two anchor classes. Electric digital data processing (G06F), geophysics (G01V) and drilling (E21B) each cover roughly a fifth of records, while AI-based computing (G06N) and image recognition (G06V) remain comparatively thin at under 11%.
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 Digital Rock and Pore Scale Imaging 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.