Electrical Submersible Pump Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 56.7% concentration. The top five assignees hold 625 of 1,103 records in scope, so freedom-to-operate work for ESP hardware runs through a short list of filers before it runs anywhere else.
- Filing eased, not stopped. Filings ran 65 in 2021 to 55 in 2024, a 15% pullback over that span, after a 2020 peak of 73 — a plateau rather than an exit from the field.
- Motor control trails mechanical claims. E21B well-drilling classes touch 68.8% of records, but H02P motor-control coverage sits at just 9.2%, a gap between mechanical dominance and drive electronics.
Filing growth compares 2021 (65 records) with 2024 (55) — 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 1,103 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the ESP patent record actually covers
Electrical submersible pump (ESP) systems sit at the intersection of downhole mechanics and motor electronics: pump stages, gas separation, motor winding insulation, and the variable-speed drives that control them. The 1,103 records in scope span filings from 2015 through mid-2026, concentrated overwhelmingly in wellbore-hardware classifications but reaching into electric-motor and control-system art as well. Most activity still centers on the mechanical pump and well-completion side rather than the drive electronics that increasingly differentiate ESP performance.
Filing offices tell a similar story: the United States, the PCT route through WIPO, and Canada together account for the bulk of receiving-office activity, with Europe and the UK trailing. That distribution reflects where ESP deployment and litigation risk concentrate — North American unconventional plays and the offshore basins served through PCT filings.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,103-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A 2020 peak followed by a plateau
Filings rose from 32 in 2017 to a peak of 73 in 2020, then eased to 65 in 2021 and 55 in 2024 — a 15% decline over that three-year window. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a continued drop.
Mechanical wellbore art dominates, control electronics lag
E21B (earth and rock drilling) touches 68.8% of the 1,103 records, well ahead of F04D non-positive-displacement pumps at 26.4%. Electric motor classes (H02K, 13.3%) and motor-control classes (H02P, 9.2%) are present but thinner, and transmission (H04B, 4.3%) and grid-power classes (H02J, 2.8%) barely register — each record can carry several classes, so these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,103 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electrical Submersible Pump Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electrical submersible pump systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in the field
Backspin detection in an electrical submersible pump assembly (US8400093B2)
The patent describes a system for detecting a backspin condition in an ESP motor: a sensor mounted near the motor feeds a signal through electronics to a controller, where a computer program monitors a control signal riding on one phase of the three-phase AC power line to the motor.Assigned to Baker Hughes Holdings LLC, published 2013-03-19.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20150211512A1 | System and method for driving multiple pumps electrically with a single prime mover | 256 |
| 2 | US20130175030A1 | Submersible Pump Control | 176 |
| 3 | US8714253B2 | Method and system for injection of viscous unweighted, low-weighted, or solids contaminated fluids downhole d… | 165 |
| 4 | US7170262B2 | Variable frequency power system and method of use | 134 |
| 5 | US20070074872A1 | Apparatus, Pumping System Incorporating Same, and Methods of Protecting Pump Components | 129 |
| 6 | US6315523B1 | Electrically isolated pump-off controller | 129 |
| 7 | US7011152B2 | Integrated subsea power pack for drilling and production | 109 |
| 8 | US20090260826A1 | Method and system for injection of viscous unweighted, low-weighted, or solids contaminated fluids downhole d… | 88 |
| 9 | US6585041B2 | Virtual sensors to provide expanded downhole instrumentation for electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) | 87 |
| 10 | US8037936B2 | Method of heating sub sea ESP pumping system | 86 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favor older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence on later art, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on: where claim density already crowds the field, where growth has actually gone, and where the record stays surprisingly thin.
The field is top-heavy
Five assignees account for 625 of the 1,103 records in scope. Any new ESP hardware program should map its claims against this small group first — clearance work elsewhere in the ranked list matters less than clearing these five.
Growth has plateaued, not collapsed
Filings moved from 65 in 2021 to 55 in 2024. Combined with a 2020 peak of 73, this reads as a maturing field rather than one in decline — and the most recent years are undercounted because publication lags filing.
Control electronics remain under-claimed
E21B wellbore classes cover 68.8% of records, but H02P motor-control art sits at just 9.2% and H04B transmission at 4.3%. Variable-speed drive and downhole telemetry claims have far less occupied claim space than the pump hardware around them.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electrical submersible pump systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has cooled
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies counted in records — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the whole ranking the dataset returns. Recent-year momentum has slowed across nearly every leading filer, which is consistent with a field settling into its plateau rather than one still expanding.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 210 records, more than three times the fifth-place total of 66. That gap is wide enough that a freedom-to-operate search which skips the leader misses the majority of relevant blocking art.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet at the top
Several of the most active historical filers show zero records in the latest year, with year-on-year drops of -67% to -100% among the leaders. This is likely publication lag rather than an actual filing stop, given the 18-month gap between filing and publication.
Corporate family filing patterns show up as co-assignee pairs
Only 10 co-assignee pairs exist in the dataset, and the strongest pairs each share 27 records — consistent with a single corporate group filing under multiple legal-entity names rather than genuine joint ventures between rivals.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | -100% |
| Schlumberger Technology Corp | 0 | -100% |
| Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Zenith Oilfield Technology Ltd | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Canada Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Schlumberger Ltd | 0 | -100% |
Turning this landscape into a filing or clearance decision
The dataset shows where claim density sits today. Deciding what to file next, or where an existing program is exposed, takes a closer read of the specific claims in force.
Run a clearance search against the top five assignees
With 56.7% of records held by five companies, a targeted clearance search against their granted claims will catch most of the relevant blocking art before a broader search is needed.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaMap the motor-control white space
H02P and H04B coverage is thin relative to the mechanical core. A first claim drafted around variable-speed drive fault handling or telemetry-over-power-cable has more room to establish novelty than another pump-stage mechanical claim.
Draft claim scope in EurekaCommon questions about ESP patents
One assignee leads clearly with 210 of the 1,103 records in scope, more than three times the fifth-place total of 66. The top five assignees combined hold 625 records, or 56.7% of the field, and the top ten reach 799 records, or 72.4%. This means clearance and licensing conversations for ESP hardware concentrate around a short list of companies rather than being spread evenly across the field.
Filings peaked at 73 in 2020, then eased to 65 in 2021 and 55 in 2024, a 15% decline over that three-year span. That reads as a plateau in a maturing field rather than a collapse, and the 2025-2026 figures shown in any trend chart are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. Judge momentum on the 2021-2024 window, not on the most recent one or two years.
Motor-control electronics are the clearest gap: H02P (control of motors and generators) touches only 9.2% of the 1,103 records, and H04B (transmission) reaches just 4.3%, compared with 68.8% for E21B earth and rock drilling classes covering the mechanical wellbore hardware. Variable-speed drive fault handling, downhole telemetry over the power cable, and motor winding insulation condition-sensing all sit in this thinner band. A new filing aimed at drive electronics or condition monitoring has more open claim space than another pump-stage mechanical design.
US8400093B2 claims a system for detecting a backspin condition in an ESP motor, using a sensor near the motor and a controller that reads a control signal carried on one phase of the three-phase AC power line. It is a specific detection architecture, not a claim over backspin detection in general, so designs that sense backspin through a different signal path or sensor placement are not automatically blocked. Anyone building motor protection electronics for an ESP should still read the full claim set before assuming clearance, since dependent claims may narrow or broaden the exposure.
At 56.7% of 1,103 records held by five assignees and 72.4% held by ten, ESP systems show a genuinely top-heavy filing pattern rather than a fragmented one. The presence of only 10 co-assignee pairs, with the strongest pairs sharing 27 records each, suggests most of that concentration comes from single corporate families filing under multiple legal-entity names rather than from joint filing between competitors. A new entrant should expect to negotiate with, or design around, a small number of established portfolios.
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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.