Drill Pipe and Tool Joint Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 29.2% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 454 of the 1,555 records in scope, but the remaining 70.8% is spread thin across a long tail.
- Filing has cooled from its 2020 peak. Output ran 76 records in 2020 and fell to 13 by 2024, a 19% drop from 2021's 16 — read the last two years as incomplete, not as a real decline.
- E21B dominates, but coating classes are thin. 73.4% of records sit in earth and rock drilling, while surface-deposition coating (C23C) reaches only 9.2% and powder metallurgy (B22F) just 3.3%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (13) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,555 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Drill pipe and tool joint design sits at the intersection of oilfield mechanics and metallurgy: tube body upsets, weld-neck geometry, stress relief grooves, hardbanding, internal plastic coating and make-up torque behaviour all fall inside this search. The 1,555 records in scope span filings from 2015 onward, captured through a data cut-off of 2026-07-31, and combine drilling-tool claims with materials and coating claims that protect the same physical joint from fatigue, wear and galling.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. Treat 2024 as the last year with a reasonably complete count, and treat 2025-2026 as still filling in.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,555-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A 2020 peak, then a cooling that predates the publication lag
Annual filings rose to a peak of 76 records in 2020, then eased; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a 19% decline (16 to 13 records), a real signal since 2024 is the last year that can be treated as complete. Years after 2024 are undercounted by definition and should not be read as a continued fall.
Drilling mechanics dominate; coating and powder metallurgy are thin
E21B (earth and rock drilling) appears in 73.4% of the 1,555 records, far ahead of F16L pipe fittings (21.3%), C22C alloys (15.7%) and B23K welding (14.2%). Surface coating (C23C, 9.2%), powder metallurgy (B22F, 3.3%) and laminates (B32B, 2.6%) each cover a small minority of records, which is where claim density thins out fastest.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,555 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Drill Pipe and Tool Joint Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about drill pipe and tool joint design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited patents
US5358285A — Stress relief groove for drill pipe
A joint of drill pipe with upset tube ends and tool joints welded to each end. Each tool joint runs from a cylindrical section through a tapered section to a weld neck whose wall thickness matches the tube's upset end, and an external stress relief groove is cut into the weld neck to raise the fatigue life of the tube under the varying stresses of rotary drilling.Filed 1994-10-25 — a foundational reference for stress relief groove geometry that later filings in this space still have to design around or improve upon.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160342916A1 | Downhole tool management system | 290 |
| 2 | US6196336B1 | Method and apparatus for drilling boreholes in earth formations (drilling liner systems) | 277 |
| 3 | US5474334A | Coupling assembly | 213 |
| 4 | US6003606A | Puller-thruster downhole tool | 208 |
| 5 | US6322110B1 | Tubular connection | 169 |
| 6 | US6030004A | High torque threaded tool joint for drill pipe and other drill stem components | 167 |
| 7 | US6375895B1 | Hardfacing alloy, methods, and products | 165 |
| 8 | US20110220415A1 | Ultra-low friction coatings for drill stem assemblies | 162 |
| 9 | US20050161215A1 | Downhole Tool | 152 |
| 10 | US7007753B2 | Top drive swivel apparatus and method | 147 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a measure of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four figures worth pulling out of the full dataset before deciding where to file or where to look for freedom to operate.
The top of the field is concentrated, the rest is not
The five leading assignees combine for 454 of the 1,555 records in scope, 29.2% of the field. The top ten stretch that to 713 records, 45.9% — meaning more than half of all filings still sit outside the ten most active assignees, spread across a genuine long tail.
A real cooling, not a publication-lag artefact
Filings fell from 16 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, a 19% decline over a span where the count can be treated as complete. The 2020 peak of 76 records marks the high point; the years since then, including 2025-2026, are still filling in and should not be read as confirming a steeper drop.
Drilling mechanics claims dwarf materials-side claims
E21B (earth and rock drilling) appears in 73.4% of the 1,555 records, well ahead of pipe-fitting claims under F16L (21.3%) and alloy claims under C22C (15.7%). Coating-specific claims under C23C reach only 9.2%, and powder metallurgy claims sit at 3.3% — both comparatively open relative to the mechanical core.
Filing is US-anchored with a strong PCT layer
United States receiving-office filings lead at 538 records, followed by WIPO PCT filings at 192 and European (EPO) filings at 185. Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom follow at meaningfully lower volumes, indicating protection strategy in this field is built around US priority with selective international extension.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to drill pipe and tool joint design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders hold a meaningful but not overwhelming share of the field, and recent-year momentum has slowed across the board, likely reflecting the publication lag as much as any pullback in R&D.
A clear leader, then a fast drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 113 records, well ahead of fifth place at 74 and tenth place at 37. The gap between first and fifth is wide enough to call a genuine leader, but the drop from fifth to tenth shows the field flattens out quickly after that.
Most of the field sits outside the concentrated core
With the top five holding 29.2% of the 1,555 records, the remaining 70.8% is distributed across the rest of the 100-assignee ranking and beyond it. That is room for smaller operators and services firms to hold defensible niches rather than compete head-on with the leaders.
Leading assignees show flat or falling recent activity
Several of the most active historical filers show zero recorded filings in the latest year, including year-over-year drops of -100% for some. This is consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 cooling and with publication lag rather than a sudden industry-wide halt.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Hydril Co | 0 | -100% |
| Scoperta Inc | 0 | — |
| MAKO RENTALS INC | 0 | -100% |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Co | 0 | — |
| National Oilwell Varco Norway AS | 0 | — |
| Weatherford Technology Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company | 0 | — |
| NanoSteel Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
A landscape like this is a starting map, not a final answer — the next step is usually to test a specific claim idea or a specific competitor against the full underlying dataset.
Stress-test a claim idea
Run a candidate claim on stress relief groove geometry, hardbanding alloy composition or internal coating method against the full corpus to see how crowded that exact space really is.
Explore claim space in EurekaTrack a specific competitor
Pull the full filing history and recent-year momentum for any single assignee named in this ranking to see whether their activity is genuinely slowing or just lagging in publication.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaMap white space in coating and powder metallurgy
C23C and B22F together cover a small share of the 1,555 records — a targeted search inside Eureka can confirm whether that gap is real freedom to operate or simply unindexed activity.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 113 records, noticeably ahead of fifth place at 74 and tenth place at 37. The top five assignees combined hold 454 of the 1,555 records in scope, 29.2% of the field, and the top ten reach 713 records, 45.9%. Beyond that point the field flattens into a long tail of smaller filers, so leadership is concentrated at the very top but far from a monopoly across the whole dataset.
Filing peaked at 76 records in 2020 and has since eased, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing a 19% decline from 16 to 13 records. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continuing drop. The honest read is that 2024 is the last year you can treat as settled, and it already shows a real cooling from the 2020 peak.
US5358285A claims a drill pipe joint where upset tube ends connect to tool joints through a tapered weld neck, with an external stress relief groove cut into that weld neck specifically to extend fatigue life under rotary drilling stresses. Filed in 1994, it is an old reference, so its enforceable term has likely lapsed, but its claim language still frames how later groove-geometry patents in this dataset are drafted and cited against. Anyone drafting a new stress relief groove claim should check that this filing's specific geometry and wall-thickness relationship are clearly differentiated, since it remains one of the most-cited records in the corpus.
Coating and powder-metallurgy classes are the clearest gaps: C23C (coating and surface deposition) covers only 9.2% of the 1,555 records, and B22F (powder metallurgy) covers just 3.3%, both far behind the 73.4% held by core E21B drilling-mechanics claims. Laminate-based approaches under B32B sit even lower at 2.6%. These lower-density classes are worth a closer look for freedom-to-operate, particularly around hardbanding alloy composition and internal plastic coating adhesion methods, though thin filing density does not automatically mean the technology is easy — it may also mean it is harder to claim usefully.
The United States receives the largest share by far at 538 records, followed by WIPO PCT filings at 192 and European Patent Office filings at 185. Canada follows at 168, with Australia at 90 and the United Kingdom at 65. The pattern points to a US-anchored filing strategy with PCT used as the primary route to international coverage, rather than heavy direct filing into a wide spread of national offices.
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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.