Electroplating & Electrodeposition Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Concentrated but not locked down. the ranked leader holds 15 records and the top 5 assignees combine for just 28.1% of all 135 records in scope — well short of the field being closed.
- Filing is climbing again. after a 2017 peak of 17 records, filings rebuilt from 8 in 2021 to 11 in 2024, a 38% rise over that span.
- China now leads the filing venues. 48 records route through China's receiving office versus 41 for the United States, with EPO, WIPO, Japan and Australia trailing well behind.
Filing growth compares 2021 (8 records) with 2024 (11) — 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 135 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 135 published records at the intersection of surface electroplating or electrodeposition and the substrate, bath, adhesion or corrosion-resistance claims that make a plating process commercially usable rather than merely demonstrated. The scope spans classic wet-chemistry electroplating through to damascene metal filling and roll-to-roll deposition used in semiconductor and photovoltaic manufacturing, so the dataset sits across surface engineering, electronics packaging and metallurgy rather than inside a single industry vertical.
The IPC composition confirms that reach: C25D (electroplating and electroforming) covers 62.2% of records, but 17.8% also carry a semiconductor-devices class and smaller shares touch alloys, printed circuits and layered products. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend below are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 135-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 17 in 2017, cooled, then rebuilt from 8 records in 2021 to 11 in 2024 — a 38% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are understated because publication trails filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C25D electroplating and electroforming appears in 62.2% of the 135 records, with C23C coating and surface deposition at 25.9% and H01L semiconductor devices at 17.8%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% of the record total — they show where claims cluster, not a partition of the dataset.
Shares are the percentage of the 135 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electroplating & Electrodeposition Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electroplating & electrodeposition patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
Graphene/copper composite deformed copper-chromium-zirconium alloy layered strip and preparation method thereof
The filing covers a strip made by solid-solution treating a bulk copper-chromium-zirconium alloy, deforming it through room-temperature equal-channel extrusion and low-temperature rolling, then applying a graphene/copper composite deposition liquid via surface electrodeposition to the deformed alloy strip.Filed by Changzhou University, published 2024-08-01 — illustrates how electrodeposition claims are now being layered onto alloy-processing routes rather than treated as a standalone finishing step.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4552626A | Metal plating of polyamide thermoplastics | 98 |
| 2 | US5185292A | Process for forming extremely thin edge-connectable integrated circuit structure | 83 |
| 3 | US20100320081A1 | Apparatus for wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling | 74 |
| 4 | US20080093221A1 | Roll-To-Roll Electroplating for Photovoltaic Film Manufacturing | 66 |
| 5 | US20100320609A1 | Wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling | 60 |
| 6 | US20150179458A1 | Wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling | 44 |
| 7 | US20100167085A1 | Electroplating Method and Electroplated Product | 36 |
| 8 | EP0174019B1 | Steel strip plated with a zinc-based coating layer containing an inorganic dispersoid | 34 |
| 9 | EP1477578A1 | Method for producing a metal coated heavy metal foam | 30 |
| 10 | US8962085B2 | Wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling | 29 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
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 findings from the dataset that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The top of the field is well short of closed
The leading assignee holds 15 records and the top 5 combined account for 28.1% of the 135 records in scope; the top 10 reach 40.7%. That leaves a majority of the field spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is workable territory for a new filer rather than a blocked one.
Activity is rebuilding, not fading
Filings ran from 8 records in 2021 to 11 in 2024, a 38% increase over that span, after an earlier 2017 peak of 17. The 2025–2026 counts look lower only because publication lags filing by about 18 months — they are not evidence of a cooling field.
Filing venue has shifted toward China
China's receiving office now carries more records than the United States (48 versus 41), with EPO, WIPO, Japan and Australia well behind. A freedom-to-operate check that only covers US and EPO filings will miss a meaningful share of this landscape.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electroplating & electrodeposition patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Players and where the gaps sit
The ranked assignees span equipment makers, device manufacturers and specialty platers, but no single player dominates the field outright.
A single leader, not a monopoly
The top-ranked assignee holds 15 of the 135 records, roughly triple the fifth-place count of 5. That gap shows a genuine leader in filing volume, but the leader's share of the whole field is still small enough that adjacent claims remain open to challenge and to new entrants.
Inventor teams file together repeatedly
Ten co-assignee pairs recur in the dataset, with the strongest trio of inventors linked across three separate pairings at 5 records each. That pattern points to a small, stable core team behind a cluster of related filings rather than diffuse, one-off collaboration.
Latest-year filing is thin across the board
Recent-year momentum by assignee is low across the ranked leaders, with most showing zero filings in the latest year and only isolated activity, such as a single record from one implant-focused filer. That is consistent with publication lag rather than an actual pullback from the technology.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NANOVIS LLC | 1 | — |
| Novellus Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Proterial, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SoloPower | 0 | — |
| BYD Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| WILLEY MARK J | 0 | — |
| PORTER DAVID W | 0 | — |
| MAYER STEVEN T | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate against China filings
With 48 of 135 records routed through China's receiving office against 41 for the US, an FTO review limited to US and EPO coverage will understate exposure in this field.
Explore assignee coverageWatch the co-filing core for continuation activity
The three recurring co-assignee pairs sharing 5 records each suggest a stable inventor team; tracking their future filings is a low-cost way to anticipate the next wave of claims.
Track inventor activityRevisit 2025–2026 counts once publication catches up
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent two years in this dataset will keep rising; re-pull the trend later before drawing conclusions about a slowdown.
Monitor filing trendsCommon questions about this landscape
Filing is led by one assignee with 15 of the 135 records in this dataset, with the fifth-ranked filer at 5 records and the tenth at 3. The top 5 assignees combine for 28.1% of all records and the top 10 for 40.7%, which means the majority of filings sit outside the leading group across a long tail of 100 ranked assignees. That spread indicates a field with an identifiable leader but no single company controlling the technology outright.
Filings grew from 8 records in 2021 to 11 in 2024, a 38% increase over that three-year span, following an earlier peak of 17 records in 2017. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is an artefact of publication lag, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months, not a genuine decline. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete data point.
C25D, covering electroplating and electroforming, appears in 62.2% of the 135 records and is the dominant class. C23C, coating and surface deposition, covers 25.9%, and H01L, semiconductor devices, covers 17.8%, reflecting how much of this technology serves electronics packaging and damascene metal-fill applications. Smaller shares touch alloys, printed circuits, layered products and antennas, and because records often carry multiple classes these shares add up to more than the total record count.
China's receiving office carries the largest share of records at 48, ahead of the United States at 41, with EPO at 16, WIPO/PCT at 11, Japan at 8 and Australia at 2. A filing or freedom-to-operate strategy built only around US and European coverage will miss a substantial portion of the documented activity in this field. Companies competing in Chinese manufacturing supply chains in particular should treat Chinese-office filings as a primary search venue, not a supplementary one.
The dataset shows comparatively thin coverage in areas such as roll-to-roll electrodeposition for flexible substrates, graphene-metal composite plating layers, and alloy-layer adhesion work like the copper-chromium-zirconium strip approach described in recent filings. These are branches adjacent to the dense C25D and C23C core rather than unrelated fields, so a new claim there can still build on established bath-chemistry and adhesion-testing methods while avoiding the most heavily filed claim language. Confirming current openness requires a fresh novelty search, since this landscape reflects records published through the given cut-off date.
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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.