Frothers and Froth Stability Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Frothers and Froth Stability Patents: Mapping Who Files and Where Claims Concentrate
Concentration at the top. the five most active assignees hold 40.7% of all 172 records in scope, and the ranked leaders extend to 62 companies with a long tail beyond them. Filings rose to a peak of 18 in 2023 before falling to 1 in 2024, a -90% move from the 10 filings recorded in 2021. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and should not yet be read as a continued decline.
- 1HUNTSMAN AUSTRALIA24
- 2PRAXAIR TECH INC19
- 33M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES CO9
- 4IP2IPO INNOVATIONS LTD9
- 5BASF SE9
See the full frothers and froth stability analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about frother and froth stability patents
Who holds the most patents on flotation frothers?
Across the 172 records in this landscape, one assignee leads with 24 records, ahead of a field where the fifth-ranked company holds 9 and the tenth-ranked holds 6. The top five assignees combined account for 40.7% of all records, and the top ten reach 61.6%, so the field is concentrated at the top but still has 62 ranked companies contributing filings. Checking the current holder’s most recent filings, not just their historical total, matters given that several top filers show zero activity in the latest year.
Is froth stability patent filing still growing?
No, filings peaked at 18 in 2023 and fell sharply to 1 by 2024, a 90% drop from the 10 filings seen in 2021. That said, patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by about 18 months, so the apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 numbers partly reflects records that have not yet published rather than a confirmed slowdown. Anyone using this trend to justify new R&D investment should treat 2024 as the most recent reliable data point.
What technology areas do frother patents actually cover?
The dominant classification is B03D, covering flotation apparatus and process, which appears in 62.2% of the 172 records. Chemistry-specific classes such as C07C (16.3%), C08G and C08L (6.4% each) describe the frother compounds and polymer chemistries themselves and are comparatively thinner. Grinding and abrasive classes (B24B, B24D) also appear at 11.6% each, reflecting overlap with mineral processing equipment claims — a single record often carries several of these classes at once.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Frothers and Froth Stability covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.