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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/fusion-confinement-and-reactors-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Fusion Confinement & ReactorsFusion confinement and reactor patents: who is filing, what they claim, and where the field is still open
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 108 records and has since fallen 48% to 56 by 2024, the last year the data can treat as complete given an 18-month publication lag.
- The top 5 assignees hold 36.0% of all 1,378 records in scope, yet the ranked leader files across a field where a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants still competes for claim space.
- G21B fusion reactor classifications cover 47.8% of records, while confinement-adjacent classes like coating deposition (C23C, 10.2%) and semiconductor devices (H01L, 8.8%) sit far thinner.
1,378
Published Records
36%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-48%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (108 records) with 2024 (56) — 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 1,378 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 1,378 patent records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine fusion or plasma confinement language with the engineering systems that make a reactor operable — neutron detection, coolant flow, radiation dose management, plasma control, and fuel assembly. It is not a landscape of fusion physics alone; the search string deliberately pairs confinement concepts with the plant-engineering claims that separate a demonstration device from something that could run continuously.
Readers using this page to decide where to file, or whom to watch, should treat the concentration figures and the technology composition as the two load-bearing facts: a handful of assignees hold over a third of the record set, but the technology classes show real breathing room outside the core fusion-reactor and plasma-accelerator subclasses.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,378-record dataset: the pace of filing over time, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several classes, the composition shares add to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings rose from 74 in 2017 to a peak of 108 in 2021, then declined to 56 by 2024 — a 48% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are shown but should be read as partial, since publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G21B (fusion reactors) and H05H (plasma and particle accelerators) dominate at 47.8% and 26.7% of records respectively. Supporting classes — coating and surface deposition (C23C), electron and discharge tubes (H01J), semiconductor devices (H01L), and nuclear power plant and reactor classes (G21D, G21C) — each sit in the 6.9%–10.2% range, marking the engineering periphery around the confinement core.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,378 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fusion confinement & reactors patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative Filing
A representative claim in the space
Representative Record
Efficient Compact Fusion Reactor — Tokamak Energy Ltd (filed 2014-07-31)
TOKAMAK ENERGY LTD
An efficient compact nuclear fusion reactor for use as a neutron source or energy source is described. The reactor comprises a toroidal plasma chamber and a plasma confinement system arranged to generate a magnetic field for confining a plasma in the chamber. The plasma confinement system is configured so that a major radius of the confined plasma is 1.5 m or less. The reactor is constructed using high temperature superconducting toroidal magnets, which may be operated at low temperature (77K or lower) to provide enhanced performance. The toroidal magnetic field can be increased to 5 T or more giving significant increases in fusion output, so that neutron output is very efficient and the reaAbstract truncated as published in the source record.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6391251B1 | Forming structures from CAD solid models | 833 |
| 2 | US6811744B2 | Forming structures from CAD solid models | 378 |
| 3 | US5292370A | Coupled microwave ECR and radio-frequency plasma source for plasma processing | 314 |
| 4 | US5224441A | Apparatus for rapid plasma treatments and method | 232 |
| 5 | US20030206820A1 | Forming structures from CAD solid models | 231 |
| 6 | US20100018648A1 | Workpiece support for a plasma reactor with controlled apportionment of RF power to a process kit ring | 220 |
| 7 | US20050133527A1 | Powder feeder for material deposition systems | 192 |
| 8 | US6099457A | Endocurietherapy | 179 |
| 9 | US20140030444A1 | High pressure, high power plasma activated conformal film deposition | 167 |
| 10 | US5192849A | Multipurpose low-thermal-mass chuck for semiconductor processing equipment | 154 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them; treat this table as a signal of influence within the searched corpus, not a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
The trend and composition data point to a field that is consolidating engineering claims around a shrinking number of core assignees, even as filing volume cools from its 2021 peak.
Concentration
36.0% of 1,378 records
held by top 5 assignees
The top of the field is dense, the rest is thin
The five leading assignees account for over a third of all records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 48.6%. That leaves the remaining ranked leaders, and the many unranked single-filing entrants, competing for the other half of the field — useful context for anyone assuming this is a wide-open space.
Based on the 100-company assignee ranking returned by the dataset.
Momentum
108 → 56 (2021→2024)
-48% over three years
Filing has cooled from its 2021 peak
Annual filings hit 108 in 2021 and had fallen to 56 by 2024, a 48% decline. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in and should not be read as confirmation the decline continues.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
Composition
47.8% G21B, 26.7% H05H
share of 1,378 records
Core confinement classes dominate, engineering classes trail
Fusion reactor claims (G21B) and plasma/particle accelerator claims (H05H) cover the largest shares of the record set. Coolant, coating and semiconductor-adjacent classes each sit under 11%, suggesting the plant-engineering side of confinement is comparatively under-claimed relative to the physics core.
Shares sum to more than 100% because records carry multiple IPC classes.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fusion confinement & reactors patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who Is Filing
Assignees and where their activity is heading
The ranking covers 100 companies by record count. A small number sit at the top with double-digit filings; recent-year momentum shows some of that group slowing while newer entrants pick up pace.
Leader
191 records
leading assignee
One assignee holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee's 191 records sit well ahead of fifth place at 65 and tenth place at 22, a gap that marks a genuine leader rather than a crowded tie at the top.
Counted by patent family across the 1,378-record set.
Momentum shift
Tokamak Energy: 3 in latest year
recent-year filings
Newer entrants are filing while legacy leaders pause
Tokamak Energy shows 3 filings in the latest year and Brilliant Light Power shows 2 filings, up 100% year-on-year, while several established assignees including TAE Technologies, Lam Research, Hitachi and Toshiba show flat or negative year-on-year momentum in the latest year.
Latest-year counts are partial due to publication lag.
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
joint-filing relationships
Collaboration is limited and concentrated among a few national labs
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links are between Japanese industrial and national-laboratory partners, pointing to institutional joint development rather than broad cross-company collaboration.
Strongest pair recorded 7 joint filings.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Tokamak Energy Ltd | 3 | — |
| Brilliant Light Power Inc | 2 | +100% |
| TAE Technologies Inc | 1 | -50% |
| Lam Research Corp | 0 | -100% |
| Hitachi Ltd | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corp | 0 | — |
| Alpha Ring International Ltd | 0 | — |
| Xyleco Inc | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific questions worth running deeper on rather than treating this page as a final answer.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's claim set
With 191 records held by a single assignee, any new filing near the confinement core should be checked against that portfolio's claim boundaries before drafting.
Explore the assignee's portfolio →Map the under-claimed engineering branches
Coolant, coating and radiation-dose classes each sit under 11% of records, which is where a first claim is more likely to clear prior art cleanly.
Run a white-space search →Watch momentum, not just cumulative counts
Recent-year filing shifts toward newer entrants like Tokamak Energy and Brilliant Light Power suggest the competitive set is not static even as aggregate volume cools.
Track assignee momentum →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about fusion confinement patents
One assignee leads with 191 records, well ahead of the field, with fifth place at 65 and tenth place at 22. The top 5 assignees combined hold 36.0% of the 1,378 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 48.6%. Beyond that group, the ranking continues across 100 companies, with a long tail of entrants holding only a handful of filings each, so leadership is concentrated but not monopolised.
Filing rose through the late 2010s and peaked in 2021 at 108 records, then fell to 56 by 2024 — a 48% decline over that three-year span. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend chart are necessarily incomplete and should not yet be read as confirming a continued decline. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a reliable data point.
Fusion reactor classifications (IPC class G21B) appear in 47.8% of the 1,378 records, and plasma and particle accelerator claims (H05H) appear in 26.7%. Supporting engineering classes — coating and surface deposition, electron and discharge tubes, semiconductor devices, and nuclear power plant and reactor classes — each cover roughly 7% to 10% of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add to more than 100% and should be read individually, not summed.
The engineering classes adjacent to the confinement core — coolant flow instrumentation, neutron detector arrays tied to fuel assembly monitoring, radiation dose management around high-field magnets, and coating durability under particle flux — each sit well below the 47.8% share held by core fusion-reactor claims. That gap suggests claim space is comparatively open in the plant-engineering layer even where the physics-level confinement claims are dense. A first filing there would need to tie a specific sensor, coolant, or coating configuration to a named confinement geometry to clear prior art cleanly.
Tokamak Energy shows 3 filings in the latest year and Brilliant Light Power shows 2, up 100% year-on-year, indicating active recent filing. By contrast, several longer-established assignees, including TAE Technologies, Lam Research, Hitachi and Toshiba, show flat or negative year-on-year momentum in the latest year. Because publication lag makes the most recent year understated across the board, these shifts are directional signals rather than confirmed trend reversals.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Fusion Confinement & Reactors Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.