Glass Processing Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 24.6% sits with a handful of filers. The top 5 assignees combined account for 3,974 of the 16,181 records in scope, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- Filing has pulled back from its 2019 peak. Filings ran from 566 in 2019 down to 345 in 2024, a -29% move between 2021 and 2024 — though the two most recent years are still filling in as publication catches up with filing.
- Composition claims dominate the classification mix. C03C glass and enamel compositions cover 45.6% of all 16,181 records, well ahead of C03B glass manufacture and shaping at 36.9%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (485 records) with 2024 (345) — 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 16,181 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the glass processing patent record shows
Glass processing spans raw material batching, melting and forming, and the compositional chemistry that determines strength, optical behaviour and thermal performance. The search behind this page pulls together 16,181 published records filed against terms spanning glass forming, glass melting, firing process and related material-science language such as compressive strength and hydration reaction. That combination captures both the process side of the field — how batches are charged, melted and shaped — and the compositional side, where mineral and raw-material formulation claims sit.
Filing has been broad rather than narrow: eight IPC subclasses each carry meaningful record counts, and no single assignee holds more than a modest share of the whole. That pattern points to a field where process know-how and composition chemistry are patented separately, and where a new filer's exposure depends heavily on which of those two axes they are working on.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The following two views cover the same 16,181 records: one tracks filings by year, the other breaks the corpus down by IPC subclass. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the subclass shares add to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran at 559 in 2017, rose to a peak of 566 in 2019, and have since eased to 345 by 2024 — a -29% move from 2021's 485. The 2025 and 2026 figures are still climbing as publications catch up with filing dates, so they should not be read as a continuing decline.
IPC subclass composition
C03C (glass and enamel compositions) and C03B (glass manufacture and shaping) together account for the bulk of classified activity, at 45.6% and 36.9% of all records respectively. C04B (ceramics, cement and refractories) sits at 12.0%, with optical, semiconductor, laminate, printed-circuit and medicinal-preparation classes each holding single-digit shares — evidence that glass processing claims regularly cross into adjacent material and device domains.
Shares are the percentage of the 16,181 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Glass Processing Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about glass processing patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Method for charging a glass melting plant with bulk material made up of shards and raw material batch
A method and device for charging glass melting plants with bulk materials comprising shards and primary raw materials. The bulk material is stocked in a silo with two separate supply containers — one for shards, one for raw material batch — and a dosing device force-conveys the raw material batch into the shard container so the two streams exit the outlet mixed together before reaching the melting plant.Filed by Beteiligungen Sorg GmbH & Co. KG, published 2016-01-28.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140373909A1 | Fire Through Aluminum Paste for SiNx And Better BSF Formation | 724 |
| 2 | US3365315A | Glass bubbles prepared by reheating solid glass partiles | 547 |
| 3 | US6372538B1 | Fabrication of thin-film, flexible photovoltaic module | 460 |
| 4 | US6310281B1 | Thin-film, flexible photovoltaic module | 364 |
| 5 | US20020086039A1 | New cosmetic, personal care, cleaning agent, and nutritional supplement compositions and methods of making an… | 342 |
| 6 | US4564556A | Transparent non-vitreous ceramic particulate | 339 |
| 7 | US20090197088A1 | Tempered glass substrate and method of producing the same | 330 |
| 8 | US5785726A | Method of reducing bubbles at the vessel/glass interface in a glass manufacturing system | 330 |
| 9 | US20110160104A1 | Ceramic Particles With Controlled Pore and/or Microsphere Placement and/or Size and Method Of Making Same | 299 |
| 10 | US4758469A | Pavement markings containing transparent non-vitreous ceramic microspheres | 290 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filer
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the classification mix are read together.
The top of the field is thin, not dominant
The leading assignee holds 1,590 records, and the fifth-ranked holds 360 — a steep drop-off that flattens quickly. Combined, the top 5 account for 24.6% of all 16,181 records in scope, and the top 10 for 31.6%. That leaves roughly two-thirds of the corpus spread across a long tail of smaller filers, which is where freedom-to-operate analysis needs the most care because no single competitor's portfolio maps the whole space.
Volume has cooled from its 2019 high
Filings peaked at 566 in 2019 and had fallen to 345 by 2024, a -29% move over that three-year span. Several of the most active historical filers show sharp year-on-year drops in the latest complete year, which is consistent with a field where the core process patents were filed earlier and current activity is shifting toward composition refinement.
Composition claims outweigh process claims
Glass and enamel composition claims (C03C) cover more of the corpus than manufacture-and-shaping claims (C03B), and C04B ceramics/cement claims add a further 12.0%. A filer targeting a narrow process improvement is working in a smaller, more open slice of the classification map than one targeting a new composition.
US and Japan anchor the filing geography
The United States and Japan are the two largest receiving offices by a clear margin, with Europe (EPO), WIPO/PCT, Australia and India following. That spread suggests glass processing IP strategy is still built around national and regional filings more than a single global PCT-first approach.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to glass processing patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum is fading
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies drawn from the full 16,181-record corpus. Momentum data for the most active historical filers points to a field that has passed its filing peak, not one where a new entrant faces an accelerating incumbent.
A clear leader, but not a majority holder
The top-ranked assignee holds 1,590 of the 16,181 records — the largest single share in the field, yet still well short of dominating it. That leaves substantial room for competitors and new entrants to build defensible positions in adjacent composition or process niches.
Share drops fast after the leader
Fifth place holds 360 records and tenth place 196 — roughly a fourfold drop from the leader across just ten positions. That steep gradient signals a fragmented competitive set below the top handful, rather than a tight oligopoly.
Historical leaders are filing far less
Several of the most historically active assignees show steep year-on-year declines in the latest year — from a -58% drop at one long-standing filer to several assignees recording zero filings. This is consistent with publication lag understating the newest years, but it also suggests the earlier wave of core process patents is largely complete.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc | 5 | -58% |
| Corning Inc | 3 | -89% |
| AGC Inc (Asahi Glass Co Ltd) | 3 | -90% |
| Nippon Electric Glass Co Ltd | 1 | -80% |
| Nippon Sheet Glass Co Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co | 0 | -100% |
| Hoya Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion.
Map the white space claims precisely
The under-claimed branches flagged here are directional signals from classification density, not a freedom-to-operate opinion. A claim-by-claim read of the nearest granted patents in those subclasses is the next step before drafting.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the long tail, not just the leader
With 24.6% of records held by the top 5 and the rest spread across a long tail, competitive risk is more likely to come from a cluster of smaller filers than from the top-ranked assignee alone.
Run a competitor scan in EurekaRe-check the trend once 2025–2026 fill in
Publication lag means the last two years of filing data will keep rising for months. Any conclusion about the field slowing should rest on 2024 and earlier, not on the partial recent years.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on the glass processing patent landscape
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies drawn from 16,181 records in scope, and the leading assignee alone holds 1,590 of them. That said, the top 5 combined account for only 24.6% of all records, and the top 10 for 31.6%, so no single company or small group controls a majority of the field. A freedom-to-operate check should look well beyond the top-ranked names given how much of the corpus sits with smaller filers.
Filing peaked at 566 records in 2019 and had eased to 345 by 2024, a -29% change over the 2021-to-2024 span. The 2025 and 2026 figures look lower still, but that is largely an artefact of publication lag — patents filed in the last 18 months typically have not published yet — so the field should not be described as actively shrinking based on those two years alone. 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a complete picture.
Glass and enamel composition claims (IPC class C03C) cover 45.6% of the 16,181 records in scope, ahead of glass manufacture and shaping claims (C03B) at 36.9%. Ceramics, cement and refractories (C04B) add a further 12.0%, with optical, semiconductor, laminate, printed-circuit and medicinal-preparation classes each in single digits. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these figures add to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping coverage rather than a strict breakdown.
The classification data shows composition and manufacture-and-shaping claims are the densest, so a narrow process improvement is likely to face less crowded prior art than a broad new-composition claim. Sub-areas that cross into adjacent domains — glass integration with semiconductor packaging, layered glass-ceramic structures, or hydration-reaction hybrid compositions — show comparatively thinner density in this corpus. Any specific white-space claim should still be checked against the nearest granted patents before drafting, since classification density is a directional signal, not a legal clearance.
The United States leads with 4,490 filings, followed by Japan at 3,420, then Europe (EPO) at 2,571, WIPO/PCT at 990, Australia at 500 and India at 496. This spread indicates the field is still filed largely on a national or regional basis rather than funnelled primarily through a single global PCT track, which matters for anyone budgeting a multi-jurisdiction filing strategy.
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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.