Geothermal Heating & Cooling Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 21.3% of all 1,292 records sit with just five assignees, yet the ranked leader holds 76 records against a fifth-place figure of 41 — a sharp drop-off rather than a plateau.
- F25B refrigeration and heat-pump claims cover 26.1% of records, more than any other IPC subclass, ahead of domestic heating systems (F24D) at 20.4%.
- Filing rose 10% from 2021 to 2024 (40 to 44 records), with 2019 standing as the peak filing year at 121 so far in this dataset.
Filing growth compares 2021 (40 records) with 2024 (44) — 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 1,292 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the geothermal heating and cooling patent record shows
Geothermal heating and cooling patenting spans ground-source heat pumps, borehole and well drilling equipment, working-fluid thermal cycles and the heat-exchanger hardware that ties a subsurface resource to a building’s air or water loop. The dataset behind this page covers 1,292 published records filed or published between 2015 and 2026, indexed against IPC subclasses that range from refrigeration (F25B) to earth and rock drilling (E21B). Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one or two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
Patent families, not raw document counts, are the fairer unit for judging how crowded a sub-area is, because families strip out the effect of continuations and multi-jurisdiction refiling. The assignee ranking here is built on family counts across the full 1,292-record set, and it shows concentration at the very top giving way quickly to a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,292-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC class, the composition shares add up to well over 100% of the record total.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Annual filings ran from 13 in 2017 to a peak of 121 in 2019, then settled into a range where 2021 (40 records) grew to 44 records by 2024 — a 10% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures (2026 sits at 9 so far) are undercounts still catching up to their true filing volume because of publication lag, not evidence of a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Refrigeration and heat-pump hardware (F25B) leads at 26.1% of the 1,292 records, with domestic heating systems (F24D) close behind at 20.4%. Air conditioning and ventilation (F24F), thermal collector hardware (F24J) and dedicated geothermal systems (F24T) each hold a meaningful but smaller share, while earth and rock drilling (E21B), heat-exchanger details (F28F) and steam and thermal power plants (F01K) each sit around 7.7-7.9% — evidence that well-construction and power-cycle claims are a real but secondary part of this field relative to the heat-pump and building-heating core.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,292 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Geothermal Heating & Cooling Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about geothermal heating & cooling patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Energy-conversion apparatus and process (US20080127648A1)
The filing describes an energy-conversion apparatus built around two pressure-holding containers, each with its own heat-transfer component, feeding an energy converter that performs work in response to a fluid flow driven by pressure changes in either container — achieved without needing heat conduction through an exterior surface.Filed by Corcoran, Craig Curtis; published 2008-06-05.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20030066638A1 | Devices using a medium having a high heat transfer rate | 428 |
| 2 | US6327994B1 | Scavenger energy converter system its new applications and its control systems | 421 |
| 3 | US20110223450A1 | Cascade Redox Flow Battery Systems | 227 |
| 4 | US20100003545A1 | Redox Flow Battery System for Distributed Energy Storage | 205 |
| 5 | US20150300327A1 | Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Methods | 179 |
| 6 | US5758514A | Geothermal heat pump system | 178 |
| 7 | US7220365B2 | Devices using a medium having a high heat transfer rate | 176 |
| 8 | US7234314B1 | Geothermal heating and cooling system with solar heating | 160 |
| 9 | US20140130498A1 | Carbon dioxide-based geothermal energy generation systems and methods related thereto | 148 |
| 10 | US20100205960A1 | Systems and Methods for Combined Thermal and Compressed Gas Energy Conversion Systems | 135 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
The concentration, technology mix and receiving-office spread each point to a different practical decision: where competitive claim density is highest, which sub-areas still have room, and where applicants are actually seeking protection.
The top of the field is narrow, the middle is not
Five assignees hold 21.3% of all 1,292 records, and the leader's 76 records is nearly double the fifth-place figure of 41. Past the top ten combined (33.4% of records), share drops off quickly into a long tail of smaller filers.
Heat-pump hardware carries the densest claim space
Refrigeration and heat-pump claims (F25B) and domestic heating systems (F24D) together account for the largest shares of the record set, meaning new hardware-level filings in these classes are more likely to run into existing claim coverage than filings in drilling or power-cycle categories.
Growth is real but modest, not a boom
The three-year comparison that can be treated as complete shows filings rising 10% from 2021 to 2024. 2019's peak of 121 records has not been matched since, suggesting the field has moved from an early surge into steadier, incremental filing.
Filing activity clusters in the US, EPO and PCT route
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 386 records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 181 and the WIPO/PCT route at 152, with Canada, India and Australia forming a second tier. Applicants building a global geothermal HVAC portfolio are following a fairly conventional US-EPO-PCT filing pattern rather than concentrating in any single emerging market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to geothermal heating & cooling patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity is slowing
The ranked leaders span both energy-storage-adjacent specialists and diversified industrial filers, but recent-year momentum data suggests the field's early leaders are filing less, not more, as of the latest tracked year.
One clear leader, then a fast taper
The top-ranked assignee holds 76 records, well ahead of the fifth-place figure of 41 — a gap wide enough that the ranking should be read as one strong leader plus a broad field of comparably sized challengers, not a tight cluster at the top.
Even active filers are pulling back
Assignees still filing in the latest tracked year show year-on-year declines of 50-80%, and several previously active filers show zero records in the latest year. This pattern is consistent with publication lag rather than a genuine collapse in R&D activity, but it means recent-year league tables understate real filing intent.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest of these repeats across multiple filings with the same named inventor — suggesting collaboration in this field tends to run through individual inventor relationships rather than broad multi-company joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SA Armstrong Ltd | 1 | -80% |
| KOLOMA INC | 1 | -50% |
| Sens Geoenergy Storage AB | 0 | — |
| 8 Rivers Capital LLC | 0 | — |
| Earth to Air Systems | 0 | — |
| Neothermal Energy Co | 0 | — |
| Pile Dynamics | 0 | — |
| Manik Ventures Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying open claim space.
Map claim scope inside F25B and F24D
These two IPC subclasses carry the densest filing activity in the dataset. A freedom-to-operate review should start here before extending to drilling or power-cycle claims.
Explore F25B & F24D filings in Eureka →Track the leader's recent filing pace
The top-ranked assignee's 76-record position was built on activity that, like the rest of the field, shows a slower recent pace subject to publication lag — worth revisiting as 2025-2026 data fills in.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Test claims against the under-claimed sub-areas
Working-fluid cycle variants, downhole sensor integration and hybrid HVAC-geothermal control show thinner filing density than the core classes, which may leave room for a first-mover claim.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Common questions about geothermal heating and cooling patents
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 76 of the 1,292 records in scope, which is nearly double the fifth-place assignee's 41 records. Beyond the top ten combined (33.4% of all records), the field spreads into a long tail of assignees with only a handful of filings each. This pattern — one clear leader, then a broad second tier — is typical of a technology area that has an established core but has not yet consolidated around two or three dominant players.
Refrigeration and heat-pump hardware, classified under IPC subclass F25B, appears in 26.1% of the 1,292 records, the largest single share. Domestic heating systems (F24D) follow at 20.4%, with air conditioning and ventilation, thermal collectors and dedicated geothermal systems each covering smaller but still substantial portions. Earth and rock drilling, heat-exchanger details and steam power-cycle claims each sit around 7.7-7.9%, showing that well-construction and power-generation aspects are a secondary but persistent part of the filing record.
Filings grew 10% from 40 records in 2021 to 44 in 2024, the most recent three-year span that can be treated as complete. The field's actual peak so far was 2019 at 121 records, so current activity has not returned to that level. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop in R&D activity — those years will fill in as more records publish.
The United States receives the largest number of filings at 386 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 181 and the WIPO/PCT route at 152. Canada, India and Australia form a second tier of receiving offices with 102, 60 and 58 records respectively. This distribution suggests applicants are pursuing a fairly standard US-first, EPO-and-PCT-follow-on filing strategy rather than concentrating disproportionately in any single emerging jurisdiction.
Sub-areas such as enhanced geothermal working-fluid cycles, downhole temperature-sensor integration, hybrid air-conditioning and geothermal heat-flux control, and distributed resource-flow monitoring for ground loops show comparatively thin filing density relative to the core F25B and F24D classes. That does not guarantee an area is easy to patent in, but it does mean fewer existing claims are likely to block a well-drafted first filing there. A proper freedom-to-operate check against the specific claims in those sub-areas is still the necessary next step before relying on this as white space.
Research Geothermal Heating & Cooling Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole geothermal heating & cooling patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.