Glass-Ceramics Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 945 records, then fell 54% to 431 by 2024 — the last year the data can be read as complete.
- The top 5 assignees hold 21.6% of all 21,419 records, but the ranking runs a full 100 companies deep with a long tail below them.
- C03C glass and enamel compositions cover 28.8% of records, while battery-related H01M filings sit at 11.3% — a sign glass-ceramics claims are spreading into energy storage.
Filing growth compares 2021 (945 records) with 2024 (431) — 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 21,419 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the glass-ceramics patent record shows
Glass-ceramics sit at the intersection of materials science and manufacturing process engineering: a family defined as much by firing temperature and crystallinity control as by final composition. The 21,419 records in scope span classic compositions for consumer and optical glass through to substrates for batteries, semiconductor packaging and medical devices, reflecting how the same crystallized-glass chemistry gets re-claimed across very different end uses. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years in this dataset are understated rather than genuinely quiet.
Reading the landscape by patent family rather than raw document count matters here, because continuation practice and multi-jurisdiction filing can inflate document totals without adding new technical ground. The assignee concentration, IPC spread and receiving-office mix below are all built on the same 21,419-record base so the shares are directly comparable.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 21,419-record base: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those records split across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below add up to more than 100% of the record total — that is expected, not an error.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 657 in 2017 to a peak of 945 in 2021, then declined to 431 by 2024, a 54% drop over that three-year span. The 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, so they should not be read as a continued fall.
IPC subclass distribution
C03C (glass and enamel compositions) is the largest single class at 28.8% of records, well ahead of C04B (ceramics, cement and refractories) at 10.1% and C03B (glass manufacture and shaping) at 8.9%. The presence of H01M (batteries), H01L (semiconductors) and G11B (information storage) among the top classes shows glass-ceramics claims extending well past traditional glass and ceramics use cases.
Shares are the percentage of the 21,419 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Glass-Ceramics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about glass-ceramics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Crystallized glass raw material, preparation method therefor and use thereof
A crystallized glass raw material with a thickness of 0.02-5 mm and crystallinity of 5-90 wt%, produced by a method the applicant describes as lower in processing difficulty and cost, and as saving time and heat-treatment energy compared with prior approaches.Filed by Chongqing Aureavia Hi-Tech Glass Co., Ltd, published 2024-09-26 as US20240317636A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5711960A | Biocompatible implant material comprising a tri-axial or more three-dimensional fabric | 1,032 |
| 2 | US5458643A | Artificial intervertebral disc | 941 |
| 3 | US6696073B2 | Shaped load-bearing osteoimplant and methods of making same | 887 |
| 4 | US20040072278A1 | Microfluidic particle-analysis systems | 874 |
| 5 | US6283961B1 | Apparatus for electrosurgical spine surgery | 684 |
| 6 | US6294187B1 | Load-bearing osteoimplant, method for its manufacture and method of repairing bone using same | 647 |
| 7 | US5854123A | Method for producing semiconductor substrate | 645 |
| 8 | US4968317A | Surgical materials and devices | 612 |
| 9 | US5084051A | Layered surgical biocomposite material | 594 |
| 10 | US5314478A | Artificial bone connection prosthesis | 593 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The composition and citation data point to a field where the core chemistry is heavily claimed but adjacent application layers are still being staked out.
Leadership is real but not dominant
The five leading assignees together hold 21.6% of all 21,419 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 33.3%. That leaves two-thirds of filings spread across a ranked list that runs a full 100 companies deep, with a long tail of smaller and single-filing entrants below it.
Post-peak decline, not a stalled field
Filings peaked in 2021 at 945 and fell to 431 by 2024, a 54% decline over three years. Several leading assignees show similar double-digit percentage drops in their latest recorded year, but recent years are still incomplete in the data and should not be read as the field cooling.
Core glass chemistry still dominates, but not alone
C03C glass and enamel compositions remain the largest single class, but H01M battery-related filings sit at 11.3% and H01L semiconductor-device filings at 10.2%, both ahead of traditional C03B glass manufacture at 8.9%. That ordering signals glass-ceramics is being re-claimed for energy storage and electronics substrates as much as for its original applications.
US and EPO dominate the filing venues
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 8,458 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 4,029 and Japan at 2,353. WIPO PCT filings at 1,090 suggest a meaningful minority of applicants are still pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection strategies rather than filing nationally from the outset.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to glass-ceramics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
Filing leadership sits with established glass and optics manufacturers, but the co-assignee pairs and recent-year momentum both show activity is not static — some leaders are pulling back sharply even as new application areas open up.
A clear leader, well ahead of second place
The top-ranked assignee holds 1,764 records, well clear of fifth place at 623 and tenth place at 461. The gap between first and the rest of the top 10 suggests a genuinely dominant filer rather than a cluster of near-equal competitors.
Corporate-affiliate filing pairs are common
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset shares 36 records, consistent with a parent-subsidiary filing relationship rather than an arm's-length collaboration. Ten such pairs appear in total, mostly linking a parent company to a regional manufacturing or materials subsidiary.
Several leaders are filing markedly less in the latest tracked year
Every leading assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows a year-on-year decline, ranging from roughly a third down to nearly all the way down. Because the latest year is still incomplete in the underlying data, this should be read as a caution against over-reading short-term drops rather than firm evidence of retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC Inc.) | 13 | -64% |
| Corning Inc. | 4 | -83% |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 4 | -50% |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 4 | -43% |
| HOYA Corporation | 2 | -33% |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 1 | -98% |
| 日本电気硝子株式会社 | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Company | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature core chemistry with newer application layers still being staked out. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper than the aggregate view.
Map claim scope inside the leading assignees' portfolios
The top-ranked filers' 1,764 and 623-record portfolios are large enough to contain multiple generations of claim strategy; a subclass-level breakdown of their filings shows which specific compositions and process steps are already blocked.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the shift toward battery and semiconductor applications
H01M and H01L filings already account for a meaningful share of records alongside the core C03C class. Monitoring how that mix moves year over year flags where glass-ceramics claims are migrating next.
Set up a technology-mix alert in EurekaStress-test white-space candidates against full claim text
Chip-level gaps identified from IPC and citation data need to be checked against actual independent claim language before they can be treated as filing opportunities.
Run a claim-level gap analysis in EurekaCommon questions about the glass-ceramics patent landscape
Filing leadership in this dataset is concentrated among established glass, optics and electronics manufacturers, with the top-ranked assignee holding 1,764 records against 461 for the tenth-ranked company. The top 5 assignees combined hold 21.6% of all 21,419 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 33.3%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a ranked list of 100 companies, with a long tail of smaller filers below the leaders.
Filing volume peaked in 2021 at 945 records and had fallen to 431 by 2024, a 54% decline over that three-year span, which is the last period the data can be read as complete. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the dataset are still filling in and should not yet be interpreted as evidence the field is continuing to slow. The 2021 peak coincides with a period of broad electronics and battery-materials investment, which is consistent with the technology-mix data showing spillover into H01M and H01L classifications.
C03C, covering glass and enamel compositions, is the largest single IPC class at 28.8% of the 21,419 records in scope. C04B ceramics and refractories, and C03B glass manufacture and shaping, follow at 10.1% and 8.9% respectively. Notably, battery-related H01M filings sit at 11.3% and semiconductor-device H01L filings at 10.2%, both ahead of traditional glass manufacture, showing the chemistry is being re-claimed for energy storage and electronics as much as for its historical uses.
Relative to the dense core chemistry classes, filing density looks thinner around specific process and application niches such as low-temperature crystallization control, glass-ceramic battery separator substrates, and particle morphology tuned for biomedical composites. These are read from the IPC and classification mix rather than from a claim-by-claim review, so any specific filing decision should be checked against the actual claim language of nearby patents before committing resources. Under-claimed does not mean unclaimed — it means the density is lower than in the core compositional classes.
The United States receiving office accounts for the largest share of filings at 8,458 records, ahead of the European Patent Office at 4,029 and Japan at 2,353. WIPO's PCT route accounts for 1,090 filings, with Canada and Germany further behind at 515 and 472 respectively. This distribution reflects both market size and the historical filing strategies of the leading assignees, several of which are Japanese, European and North American manufacturers.
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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.