Forward Osmosis Fouling Control Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
A patent landscape review of forward osmosis membrane fouling control: filing trends since 2015, the leading assignees among 144 records, IPC technology composition, and where white space remains for new entrants.
Filing growth = 2021 (1 records) → 2024 (2); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 144 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Forward osmosis relies on an osmotic gradient rather than applied pressure to draw water across a semi-permeable membrane, which makes fouling and scaling control the practical bottleneck for running the process at scale. This landscape covers 144 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that claim fouling, scaling or biofouling control through cleaning, pretreatment or monitoring methods specific to forward osmosis and osmotic membrane systems. The scope excludes general reverse-osmosis fouling art unless the claim language ties back to forward osmosis or osmotic membrane operation.
Coverage spans six receiving offices, with the United States, WIPO's PCT route and the European Patent Office each handling a meaningful share of filings, alongside India, Israel and South Korea. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The dataset spans 144 records across a filing history that peaked in 2017 and has settled into a lower but recovering rate through the early 2020s.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a slow rebuild
Annual filings hit 16 in 2017, the high point of the series, then declined before rebuilding: 2021 recorded 1 filing and 2024 recorded 2, a 100% increase over that three-year window. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 counts shown are provisional and will rise as more applications publish.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition: filtration hardware dominates
B01D (separation processes, including filtration) appears in 86.1% of the 144 records, and C02F (water and wastewater treatment) appears in 60.4%, confirming that most claims combine membrane or module hardware with treatment-process steps. Smaller shares in G01N (material analysis and testing, 10.4%), A61M (devices for body fluids, 6.3%) and A01C (planting and sowing, 5.6%) mark adjacent applications — diagnostic monitoring, medical fluid handling and agricultural fertigation — that draw on the same fouling-control principles but remain minor branches of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 144 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Apparatus and method for predicting membrane fouling in forward osmosis
This filing from Korea University Research and Business Foundation describes an apparatus that simulates forward-osmosis fouling on a membrane test unit, feeds it primary influent water during the fouling process, then switches to a faster-flow secondary influent stream during a cleaning cycle, and uses the resulting data to predict fouling behaviour ahead of full-scale operation.Filed 2017-09-28. The claim structure ties a physical fouling-simulation rig to a prediction method, positioning the invention as a testing and monitoring tool rather than a membrane material or chemical treatment.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20120267306A1 | Osmotic separation systems and methods | 70 |
| 2 | JP2012250200A | Saline water conversion system using forward osmosis membrane | 44 |
| 3 | WO2014128293A1 | Systems for water extraction | 42 |
| 4 | US20160016127A1 | Systems for water extraction | 38 |
| 5 | WO2010120327A1 | Improved TFC membranes with hydrolyzed and other additives | 38 |
| 6 | WO2011053794A2 | Osmotic separation systems and methods | 37 |
| 7 | US20150353397A1 | Water reuse system and method | 35 |
| 8 | WO2014110429A1 | Water reuse system and method | 30 |
| 9 | WO2016094835A1 | A membrane and gas recycling system for forward osmosis water treatment systems using switchable polar solven… | 28 |
| 10 | CN105417801A | 一种正渗透与电渗析协同从污水中提取淡水的方法及系统 | 27 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC mix are read together.
Coverage sits with a small leading group
The leader holds 18 records and the top five combined account for 52.1% of all 144 records in scope. The tenth-ranked assignee holds only 4, which means the gap between the leader and the rest of the ranked field is wide, and most of the 61 ranked companies hold only a handful of filings each.
A small but real rebuild after the 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 16 in 2017 and fell sharply afterward. The most recent complete comparison point shows growth from 1 filing in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a 100% increase over that span — a real signal from a low base, not evidence of a return to 2017-level activity.
Hardware and process claims overlap heavily
B01D separation-process claims appear in 86.1% of records and C02F water-treatment claims in 60.4%, and because a single record can carry both classes, the bulk of filings combine a physical filtration element with a treatment-process step rather than claiming either in isolation.
Filing is spread across three major routes
The United States receives the most filings at 28, with the PCT route at 19 and the European Patent Office at 18 close behind, and India, Israel and South Korea each hold smaller but non-trivial shares — a signal that no single jurisdiction has become the default filing venue for this technology.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to forward osmosis membrane fouling control patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The ranking and the trend point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new filing.
Map the leader's claim boundaries
With the top assignee holding 18 records and the top five holding 52.1% of the 144 records in scope, a freedom-to-operate review should start by mapping exactly what those leading portfolios claim before drafting around them.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the smaller IPC branches
A01C, A61L and A01D each cover only a handful of records, and each represents a plausible adjacent application — agricultural fertigation, sterilisation and harvesting-linked water handling — that has not attracted concentrated claim coverage yet.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the post-2021 filing rebuild
Filing activity is rebuilding from a low base after the 2017 peak; monitoring new publications as the 2025-2026 lag resolves will show whether the 100% three-year growth trend continues.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset ranks 61 companies and research institutions by filing count, with the leading assignee holding 18 of the 144 records in scope. The top five combined account for 52.1% of all records, so coverage is concentrated at the top but not held by a single dominant player. Below the top ten, which together hold 68.8% of records, filing counts drop off quickly into a long tail of assignees with only one or a few records each.
Filing peaked at 16 records in 2017 and declined sharply afterward, but the most recent complete comparison shows a rebuild: 1 filing in 2021 rose to 2 in 2024, a 100% increase over that span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are provisional and should not be read as a renewed decline. The honest read is a small recovery from a low base, not a return to 2017-level filing volume.
Separation-process claims under IPC class B01D appear in 86.1% of the 144 records, and water and wastewater treatment claims under C02F appear in 60.4%, meaning most filings combine a physical filtration or membrane element with a treatment-process step. Smaller shares fall in material analysis and testing (G01N, 10.4%), medical fluid devices (A61M, 6.3%) and agricultural planting and sowing (A01C, 5.6%), marking narrower adjacent applications. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed.
The heaviest overlap sits where B01D separation-process claims meet C02F treatment-process claims, since that combination covers the majority of the 144 records in scope. Smaller IPC branches such as A01C, A61L and A01D each cover only a handful of records and represent comparatively open claim space for fouling-control methods applied to fertigation, sterilisation-linked water handling or harvesting-adjacent systems. A freedom-to-operate search focused specifically on the top five assignees' claim language is the more urgent first step given they hold 52.1% of all records.
WO2017164540A1, filed by Korea University Research and Business Foundation in 2017, claims an apparatus that simulates forward-osmosis membrane fouling using a dedicated test unit, supplies primary influent water during the fouling phase and a faster-flow secondary influent stream during a cleaning phase, then predicts fouling behaviour from the resulting data. The claim scope centres on the fouling-simulation and prediction method itself rather than on a membrane material or chemical treatment additive. Anyone building a testing or monitoring rig with a comparable dual-flow-rate cleaning cycle tied to a prediction algorithm should review this filing's claim language closely.
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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.