Leakage Path Detection Patents: Who Leads & Where Gaps Are 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 133 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the leakage path detection patent record shows
Geological carbon storage depends on proving that injected CO2 stays where it was put. Leakage path detection is the instrumented half of that promise: sensors, tracer methods, and monitoring apparatus built to find a migration route before it becomes a liability. The 133 records in scope span from 2017 through a partial 2026, and the technology composition leans heavily on testing and measurement classes rather than pure geophysics — a sign that much of the claimed ground is instrumentation and method, not subsurface modelling.
The assignee field is broad rather than deep: 70 companies are ranked, and even the leader holds only 10 of the 133 records. That pattern matters for anyone scoping freedom-to-operate — there is no single gatekeeper to clear, but there is a cluster of active filers worth tracking individually.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 133 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2022. The 2021-to-2024 span shows +20% growth (5 to 6 records), a real but modest increase; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publication catches up with filing, so they should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Testing machine and structure balance (G01M) leads at 27.8% of the 133 records, roughly double the next largest class, material analysis and testing (G01N) at 13.5%. Geophysics and gravity surveying (G01V) accounts for 7.5% of records, notably behind the instrumentation-heavy classes — a sign that the claimed art favours surface and near-surface detection hardware over subsurface modelling techniques. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than the record total and should be read independently, not summed.
Shares are the percentage of the 133 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Geological Carbon Storage: Leakage Path Detection Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about geological carbon storage: leakage path detection patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
US5563578A — Detection of hazardous gas leakage
A method and apparatus for detecting hazardous leakage conditions, including carbon dioxide gas leakage, by spontaneously sensing multiple conditions each encoded with a distinct response signature. For combustion-related hazards, the system detects several gaseous conditions with different chemical and thermal characteristics and indicates each independently; for fuel gas leakage, catalytic units paired with platinum-wire sensors and bridge comparators identify the specific leak condition.Filed 1996-10-08 by Isenstein, Robert J. — one of the earliest records in this dataset to combine multi-condition gas sensing with a hazard-specific response encoding scheme.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5134944A | Processes and means for waste resources utilization | 166 |
| 2 | US5742053A | Infrared gas detection method and apparatus | 58 |
| 3 | US20040128111A1 | Method for detecting heat exchanger tube failures and their location when using input/loss performance monito… | 57 |
| 4 | CN1924534A | 混凝土建筑物漏水源的检测堵漏方法 | 45 |
| 5 | US6651035B1 | Method for detecting heat exchanger tube failures and their location when using input/loss performance monito… | 44 |
| 6 | US3591944A | Method and apparatus for detection of leaks in seals of packages | 35 |
| 7 | US5563578A | Detection of hazardous gas leakage | 27 |
| 8 | KR1020160093580A | Public water landfill of fisheries development apparatus even the ocean with a tunnel of traffic equipment | 23 |
| 9 | WO1997020167A1 | Infrared gas detection method and apparatus | 23 |
| 10 | US2356990A | Fire extinguishing system | 20 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
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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Four read-outs from the ranking, the trend, and the class composition that change how a practitioner should approach this space.
The top of the field is thin, not dominant
The top 5 assignees combined hold 38 of the 133 records in scope — 28.6% of the field. The top 10 combined reach 47.4%. That is meaningful concentration without a single controlling player: the leader alone holds only 10 records.
Growth is real but modest, and recent years understate it
Filing peaked in 2022 at 17 records, well above the steadier single-digit years either side. The 2021-to-2024 window shows +20% growth. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts will rise as more records surface — they should not be read as a falloff.
Instrumentation claims outweigh geophysical modelling claims
G01M (testing machine and structure balance) touches 27.8% of the 133 records, more than double G01V (geophysics and gravity surveying) at 7.5%. Detection hardware and method claims are where the density sits, not subsurface interpretation techniques.
Filing is spread across offices with no single dominant venue
The EPO leads with 30 records, followed by China at 22 and the United States at 19; WIPO PCT filings add 14 more. No office holds a majority share, which suggests filers are hedging across jurisdictions rather than concentrating protection in one market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to geological carbon storage: leakage path detection patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The numbers above frame the field; the next step is usually narrowing to a specific claim or assignee before committing engineering or legal time.
Map a specific assignee's full portfolio
The ranking here covers 70 companies at the record level. Pulling a single assignee's complete filing history, including non-English filings, is the natural next step before any FTO opinion.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaCheck a candidate claim against the cited prior art
The most-cited records in this dataset date back decades. Before drafting new claims in gas or leakage detection, run a citation-aware search against that older art.
Run a prior-art search in EurekaTrack the 2025–2026 filing wave as it publishes
Recent years are undercounted because of publication lag. Setting a monitoring alert on this search string will surface new records as they clear the 18-month lag.
Set up monitoring in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this field
The dataset behind this page contains 133 published records matching leakage path detection in the geological carbon storage context, covering filings from 2017 through a partial 2026. This counts patent families rather than raw documents, which is the fairer unit because it neutralises continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates of the same invention. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true count for 2025 and 2026 will rise as more records clear examination and publish.
The ranking covers 70 assignees at the record level, with the leader holding 10 of the 133 records in scope. The top 5 assignees combined account for 28.6% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 47.4% — meaningful concentration but no single dominant gatekeeper. A practitioner doing freedom-to-operate work should treat this as a cluster of active filers to track individually rather than a single company to clear against.
The two largest IPC subclasses are G01M (testing machine and structure balance), covering 27.8% of the 133 records, and G01N (material analysis and testing) at 13.5%. Geophysics and gravity surveying (G01V) accounts for only 7.5%, notably behind the instrumentation-heavy classes. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as independent measures of claim density, not as parts of a whole.
Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 17 records and the 2021-to-2024 span shows +20% growth, rising from 5 records to 6. That is real but modest growth, not a surge. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower only because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months — they should not be read as evidence of a slowdown until later data confirms it.
US5563578A, filed by Isenstein, Robert J. and issued in 1996, covers a method and apparatus for detecting hazardous gas leakage, including carbon dioxide, using multiple sensing conditions each encoded with a distinct response signature. It is one of the older and more foundational records in this dataset. A new entrant using multi-condition gas sensing with condition-specific encoded outputs should check this record's claim scope directly rather than assume it has lapsed, since detection-encoding schemes of this kind recur across later filings in the same space.
The EPO receives the largest share of filings in this dataset at 30 records, followed by China at 22 and the United States at 19. WIPO PCT filings add 14 more, with South Korea and the United Kingdom each in the 7-to-10 range. The spread across offices, with no single jurisdiction holding a majority, suggests filers are pursuing multi-market protection rather than concentrating on one home market.
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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.