Engines & Turbines Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 31.0% of the field sits with five assignees. the top five combined hold 3,477 of the 11,231 records in scope, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- Filing has pulled back from its 2017 peak. 800 filings that year versus a measured -26% drop from 520 filings in 2021 to 383 in 2024, the last year with complete data.
- Turbines and gas-turbine plants dominate the claim space. F01D and F02C together touch more than half the records in scope, while combustion chambers and IC engines sit in single digits.
Filing growth compares 2021 (520 records) with 2024 (383) — 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 11,231 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset spans 11,231 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine fluid-machinery or turbomachinery language with claims touching internal combustion engines, gas turbines, pumps, compressors, hydraulic systems, flow-control valves or combustion systems. It captures the hardware layer of rotating and reciprocating equipment together with the control and monitoring software increasingly bundled into the same filings, most visibly through G05B control-system claims sitting alongside classic mechanical subclasses.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States, with the EPO, WIPO's PCT route, Germany, Canada and Austria making up the next tier — a pattern consistent with an industry where aerospace and power-generation OEMs file first at home and extend selectively abroad rather than filing broadly everywhere at once.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 11,231 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the claim space splits across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend
Filings peaked at 800 in 2017 and have since declined; the measured span from 520 filings in 2021 to 383 in 2024 marks a 26% drop over three years. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures shown here are still incomplete and should not be read as a continuing collapse.
Technology composition
F01D (turbines & non-positive engines) and F02C (gas-turbine plants) together account for the largest share of records at 32.5% and 24.5% respectively of the 11,231 records in scope. Pumps (F04D), control systems (G05B) and steam/thermal plants (F01K) form a second tier each in the 6-9% range, while jet propulsion, IC engines and combustion chambers each sit near 4-5%. Since records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 11,231 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Engines, Turbines, Pumps & Fluid Machinery Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about engines, turbines, pumps & fluid machinery patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Roudong Volume Variation Method for Fluid Machinery and Its Mechanisms and Applications
This filing describes a volume-variation method for fluid machinery based on combining revolution and inverse rotation of a rotor within a cavity, aimed at reducing speed, momentum loss and lubrication needs relative to conventional rotor geometries, with claimed applications spanning internal combustion engines, pumps, compressors, motors and refrigeration equipment.Filed by an individual inventor rather than a corporate assignee — illustrative of how mechanism-level fluid-machinery claims can originate outside the large OEM filers that dominate this field.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090216910A1 | Computing infrastructure | 1,027 |
| 2 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 3 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 4 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 5 | US8706914B2 | Computing infrastructure | 692 |
| 6 | US20180284758A1 | Methods and systems for industrial internet of things data collection for equipment analysis in an upstream o… | 600 |
| 7 | US20200225655A1 | Methods, systems, kits and apparatuses for monitoring and managing industrial settings in an industrial inter… | 563 |
| 8 | US20200103894A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for computerized maintena… | 514 |
| 9 | US20020123864A1 | Remote analysis of process control plant data | 510 |
| 10 | US6330525B1 | Method and apparatus for diagnosing a pump system | 505 |
Citation counts are drawn from a fixed corpus and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once concentration, technology mix and citation data are read together.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is thin
Five assignees hold 3,477 of the 11,231 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 43.6%. Below that line the ranking thins quickly into single- and few-filing entrants, meaning most freedom-to-operate risk for a new entrant concentrates around a small set of established aerospace and power-generation portfolios rather than being spread evenly across the field.
Turbine and gas-turbine claims occupy the most space
F01D and F02C together are the two most heavily claimed subclasses, reflecting decades of incremental turbine and gas-turbine-plant filing by the same handful of leaders. High density here signals occupied claim space, not that the underlying mechanical problems are solved — it means new filings need to differentiate sharply on structure or control method to clear prior art.
Filing volume has cooled from its 2017 peak
The trend line fell from 800 filings in 2017 to 383 in 2024, a measured 26% decline over the 2021-2024 window. Several leading assignees show sharp year-on-year drops in the most recent filed year, though that final year is still filling in as publications lag behind filing by roughly 18 months.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to engines, turbines, pumps & fluid machinery patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc. | Rolls-Royce plc | 71 |
| General Electric Company | GE Poland sp. z o.o. | 45 |
| General Electric Company | GE Avio S.r.l. | 34 |
| Nuovo Pignone Tecnologie S.r.l. | Nuovo Pignone S.r.l. | 16 |
| General Electric Company | GE Germany Holdings GmbH | 9 |
| General Electric Company | ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company | 9 |
| Rolls-Royce plc | Rolls-Royce plc | 9 |
| United Technologies Corporation | SPANGLER BRANDON W | 5 |
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in this dataset, and the strongest links sit inside single corporate families — related entities under a common parent filing jointly rather than genuine cross-company collaboration.
Who is filing, and where momentum sits
The ranked leaders are dominated by aerospace and power-generation OEMs and their subsidiaries, with the leader holding 1,584 records against a fifth-place figure of 410 and a tenth-place figure of 232 — a steep drop-off that flattens into a long tail.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee's 1,584 records dwarf the fifth-place figure of 410, underscoring how much of the turbine and gas-turbine claim space traces back to a small set of legacy aerospace-engine portfolios built up over many years of incremental filing.
The drop-off from fifth to tenth is steep
Between fifth and tenth place the record count nearly halves, from 410 to 232, before the ranking flattens into smaller portfolios. This shape suggests a workable strategy for a mid-size filer: contest a specific sub-branch rather than the broad turbine or gas-turbine categories the leaders already occupy densely.
Several leaders are filing far less in the latest year
Recent-year momentum figures show some of the largest historical filers pulling back sharply year-on-year, with drops as steep as -95% for one major assignee and -80% to -93% for several others. Because the latest year is still incomplete in the publication data, this should be read as a slowdown signal rather than a confirmed retreat from the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Nuovo Pignone Tecnologie S.r.l. | 8 | -38% |
| General Electric Company | 3 | -95% |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. | 3 | -80% |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC | 1 | -83% |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 1 | -93% |
| Nuovo Pignone S.r.l. | 1 | -67% |
| United Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field where claim density and filing pace diverge sharply by sub-area — useful next steps depend on whether the goal is defensive clearance or a new filing strategy.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top holders
With 31.0% of records held by five assignees, any new filing in F01D or F02C territory should be checked against those portfolios specifically rather than the field broadly.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest claim language against the under-claimed branches
Sub-areas like combustion-chamber cooling geometry or hydraulic fault-tolerant valving show thinner filing density than the core turbine categories, which may leave room for narrower, well-drafted claims.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the momentum shift before it shows up elsewhere
Several leading filers show double-digit to near-total year-on-year declines in the most recent filed year, a signal worth monitoring even while the publication lag settles.
Set up a filing-trend alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Filing in this dataset is concentrated: the top five assignees combined hold 3,477 of the 11,231 records in scope, or 31.0% of the field, and the leading single assignee alone accounts for 1,584 records. The ranking then thins quickly, with the tenth-place assignee holding 232 records, so most of the remaining ranked companies each hold a comparatively small slice. This concentration is dominated by long-established aerospace-engine and power-generation OEM portfolios rather than recent entrants.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 800 records and has declined since; the most reliable recent comparison is 520 filings in 2021 falling to 383 in 2024, a measured 26% drop over that three-year span. Publication of a filed patent typically lags the filing date by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in the underlying trend are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a further decline. Taken together, the data supports describing this as a field past its filing peak rather than one that is currently collapsing.
Turbines and non-positive-displacement engines (IPC class F01D) cover 32.5% of the 11,231 records in scope, and gas-turbine plants (F02C) cover 24.5%, making these the two most heavily claimed areas by a wide margin. Pumps, control and regulating systems, and steam or thermal power plants each sit in a second tier between roughly 6% and 9%. Jet propulsion, internal combustion engines and combustion chambers each account for around 4-5% of records, marking them as comparatively less crowded relative to the two leading subclasses.
Relative to the density in turbine (F01D) and gas-turbine plant (F02C) claims, sub-areas such as combustion-chamber cooling geometry, hydraulic fault-tolerant valving, and control-system integration for jet and reaction propulsion show thinner filing coverage in this dataset. This does not mean these areas are unclaimed, but that the claim space is less densely occupied than the core turbine categories, which can leave room for well-differentiated claims. Any white-space assessment should be paired with a targeted prior-art search rather than relied on from aggregate class shares alone.
The most-cited records in this corpus, including filings on industrial-internet-of-things data collection and computing infrastructure for machine analytics, are cited far more heavily than typical field filings, with the top record cited 1,027 times. Because citation counts accumulate over time within a fixed searched corpus, older filings are structurally favoured over newer ones and high citation counts reflect influence on subsequent filings, not necessarily current commercial importance. Readers should treat these citation leaders as markers of foundational IIoT-adjacent claiming activity in this space, particularly around machine monitoring and predictive maintenance, rather than as an index of the most valuable current technology.
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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.