Gas Turbines Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 49.4% of all 97,551 records sit with just five assignees, and the leader alone holds 19,442 — this field is unusually concentrated for a mechanical-engineering category this large.
- Filings fell 22% from 2021 to 2024 (896 to 699), the last span the data can treat as complete once publication lag is accounted for.
- F02C and F01D cover roughly a quarter of records between them while gearing, testing and aircraft-equipment classes each sit under 2% — a sign of where claim space is still open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (896 records) with 2024 (699) — 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 97,551 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the gas turbine patent record shows
The dataset covers 97,551 published records filed or published between 2015 and the August 2026 cut-off, drawn from a search string that pairs gas turbine and combustion-turbine terminology with operating-parameter language: flow rate, pressure ratio, rotor speed, seal clearance and pressure control. That pairing biases the corpus toward control and mechanical-condition claims rather than pure materials or manufacturing filings, which matters when reading the technology composition below.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 1,572 records and has since eased; the most recent years in the trend are necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months. Ownership of the field is concentrated at the top, with a long tail of smaller filers behind a handful of aerospace and industrial-turbine incumbents.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several classes, the composition shares add up to more than one hundred percent.
A 2019 peak followed by a multi-year pullback
Volume ran from 1,199 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,572 in 2019, then declined; the 2021-to-2024 span alone fell 22% (896 to 699 records). Years after 2024 should be read as still filling in rather than as evidence of a further drop.
Core turbine and combustion classes dominate
F02C (gas-turbine plants) and F01D (turbines and non-positive engines) are the two largest subclasses at 12.8% and 10.3% of all records respectively. Jet and reaction propulsion (F02K) and combustion chambers (F23R) follow at much lower shares, and gearing, testing, and aircraft-equipment classes each sit under 2% of records — thinner coverage that is worth checking before assuming a claim direction is already occupied.
Shares are the percentage of the 97,551 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaThe most-cited records and a representative filing
Method of cooling a gas turbine engine (US20150068213A1)
The application describes removing load from a gas turbine engine, running it at rated speed, and modulating the angle of at least one stage of inlet guide vanes near the compressor inlet to change inlet flow rate and shorten the engine's cooling time.Filed by General Electric, 2015-03-12 — illustrative of how operating-parameter claims (flow rate, rated speed) attach to core turbine hardware in this corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6619030B1 | Aircraft engine with inter-turbine engine frame supported counter rotating low pressure turbine rotors | 493 |
| 2 | US6263664B1 | Combined steam and gas turbine engine with magnetic transmission | 470 |
| 3 | US5915917A | Compressor stall and surge control using airflow asymmetry measurement | 442 |
| 4 | US4696156A | Fuel and oil heat management system for a gas turbine engine | 427 |
| 5 | US8205432B2 | Epicyclic gear train for turbo fan engine | 411 |
| 6 | US5317877A | Intercooled turbine blade cooling air feed system | 403 |
| 7 | US6732502B2 | Counter rotating aircraft gas turbine engine with high overall pressure ratio compressor | 387 |
| 8 | US4827712A | Turbofan gas turbine engine | 384 |
| 9 | US5857836A | Evaporatively cooled rotor for a gas turbine engine | 353 |
| 10 | US4215412A | Real time performance monitoring of gas turbine engines | 337 |
Citation counts favour older filings inside any searched corpus, since they have had longer to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Five assignees, half the field
The leader alone holds 19,442 records, and the top five combined account for 48,234 of the 97,551 records in scope. Fifth place still holds 2,816 records, so the drop-off from first to fifth is steep but the fifth-place holder is far from a marginal filer.
A real pullback, not a data artefact
Because 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete under the roughly 18-month publication lag, the -22% figure from 2021 to 2024 is the safest growth statement this dataset supports. Years from 2025 onward will keep filling in and should not yet be read as continuing the decline.
Core plant and turbine classes lead, adjacent classes are thin
F02C and F01D together anchor the corpus, but classes like gearing (F16H, 0.6%) and testing/balance (G01M, 0.3%) sit far below the leaders. Thin coverage in an adjacent, still-relevant class is often where a first claim has the clearest run.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to gas turbines patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric | ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company | 100 |
| Rolls-Royce Corp | Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc | 70 |
| General Electric | GE Avio S.r.l. | 66 |
| General Electric | GE Poland Sp. z o.o. | 48 |
| Rolls-Royce plc | Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG | 44 |
| United Technologies Corp | MTU Aero Engines AG | 33 |
| General Electric | GE Germany Holding GmbH | 24 |
| United Technologies Corp | GKN Aerospace | 13 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the data, and the strongest pairings link a lead OEM to its own subsidiaries or a closely tied upstream research partner — evidence of internal group filing rather than broad cross-industry collaboration.
Who holds the field, and where momentum is slowing
The ranked leaders are dominated by aerospace propulsion and industrial turbine OEMs, several of which appear more than once under related corporate entities.
A single dominant filer
The top-ranked assignee holds more records than the combined second-through-fourth place holders, a gap unusual enough to warrant checking whether recent filings cluster on specific subclasses before drafting nearby.
Sharp pullback among the most active recent filers
The assignees most active in the latest year all show steep year-on-year declines — one falling 87% and another 95% — consistent with the broader post-2019 slowdown rather than an isolated event at any single company.
Filing stays inside corporate families
The strongest co-assignee pairing links a major OEM with its own upstream research arm; the next two strongest pairs link a turbine manufacturer to its own regional subsidiaries. Cross-company joint filing outside these family structures is rare in this corpus.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric | 25 | -87% |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 17 | -87% |
| Raytheon Technologies Corp | 5 | -95% |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp | 1 | -95% |
| Rolls-Royce Corp | 1 | — |
| Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc | 1 | -50% |
| Honeywell International Inc | 1 | -75% |
| United Technologies Corp | 0 | — |
Turning this landscape into a filing decision
The dataset shows where claim density sits today; the next step is testing a specific claim direction against it.
Check a draft claim against the densest classes
F02C and F01D carry the highest record counts in this corpus, so a new claim touching gas-turbine plant control or non-positive-engine hardware needs a tighter novelty check than one in a thinner adjacent class.
Run a claim check in EurekaWatch the leading filer's recent subclass mix
The top assignee's scale means small shifts in where it files next carry outsized signal for the rest of the field, particularly given the sharp year-on-year pullback among the most active recent filers.
Track assignee activity in EurekaTest white space before assuming it is open
Low record counts in classes like gearing or testing/balance may reflect low relevance rather than open space; validate with a freedom-to-operate search before committing R&D budget.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about gas turbine patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 19,442 records, well ahead of the next several filers. The top five assignees combined hold 48,234 records, which is 49.4% of the 97,551 records in scope, so ownership is concentrated among a small number of aerospace and industrial turbine OEMs rather than spread evenly across the field. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should expect to encounter this leading filer's prior art across most core turbine and combustion subclasses.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 1,572 records and has declined since, with the most reliable comparison — 2021 to 2024 — showing a 22% drop from 896 to 699 records. Years after 2024 are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so they should not yet be read as confirming a continued decline. The honest read is a real pullback through 2024, with the trend beyond that point genuinely unknown for now.
Gas-turbine plants (F02C) and turbines and non-positive engines (F01D) are the two largest IPC subclasses, covering 12.8% and 10.3% of all 97,551 records respectively. Jet and reaction propulsion and combustion chambers follow at smaller shares, while gearing, testing, and aircraft-equipment classes each account for under 2% of records. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares describe density, not a competition for market share.
This General Electric application, filed 2015-03-12, describes a method of cooling a gas turbine engine by removing load, running the engine at rated speed, and modulating the angle of inlet guide vanes near the compressor inlet to change inlet flow rate and shorten cooling time. It is a process claim tied to a specific control sequence rather than a hardware claim, so it constrains how a cooling method is executed rather than blocking turbine hardware designs outright. Anyone designing a similar cooling sequence should check the claim's specific steps rather than assume the whole cooling concept is blocked.
The IPC composition data shows several subclasses sitting well below the F02C and F01D leaders, including gearing and transmissions (F16H, 0.6%) and testing and structural balance methods (G01M, 0.3%). Seal clearance control and rotor speed sensing for surge detection also show comparatively thin direct coverage relative to core combustion and turbine plant claims. Low density in these areas is a starting signal, not a guarantee of openness, so it still needs a targeted freedom-to-operate search before committing to a claim direction.
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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.