Greenhouse Covering Materials Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Top-heavy but not locked down. the leading assignee holds 31 records and the top 5 combined account for 39.4% of all 241 records in scope — concentrated, but well short of a lockout.
- Filing growth is real, not flat. complete-year filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +50% increase, even as the two most recent years are still filling in under publication lag.
- Claims cluster around one class. A01G horticulture appears in 72.6% of the 241 records, while polymer processing (C08J, 12.0%) and additive use (C08K, 8.7%) are comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 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 241 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent set covers
Greenhouse covering material patents span two overlapping worlds: the horticultural structures the film covers, and the polymer science that makes the film survive years of UV exposure, thermal cycling and condensation. This dataset pulls 241 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine claims on greenhouse covering material or greenhouse film with at least one of light diffusion, anti-drip coating, thermal insulation, ultraviolet stability, service lifetime or recyclable film. That combination is deliberate: it separates general agricultural-plastics filings from records that specifically address the durability and optical performance properties growers and film converters actually care about.
The picture that emerges is a field led by a small group of polymer and film specialists, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — mostly growers, regional plastics manufacturers and agricultural cooperatives patenting incremental structural or formulation improvements. Filing activity peaked in 2018 and has since settled into a lower but still-growing rhythm, with the most recent complete year showing continued expansion.
Filing trends and technology composition
The trend line and the class breakdown below are drawn from the same 241-record set. Read the most recent one or two years as directional only — publication lag means they will keep filling in.
A growth phase after a mid-cycle peak
Filings ran from 21 in 2017 up to a peak of 36 in 2018, cooled through the early 2020s, then began climbing again: complete-year filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +50% increase over that three-year span. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as understated until later publications catch up.
One dominant class, several open ones
A01G (horticulture and forestry) touches 72.6% of the 241 records, confirming that most filings frame the covering material inside a structural or cultivation context rather than as a standalone polymer claim. B32B (layered products, 36.5%) and C08L (polymer compositions, 21.6%) are the next-heaviest classes. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add to more than 100% — that overlap itself is informative: it shows how tightly structural and materials claims are intertwined in this field.
Shares are the percentage of the 241 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Greenhouse Covering Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about greenhouse covering materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings cite most
AU2021101859A4 — Solar Greenhouse with a Duality of Excellent Thermal Insulation and Energy Conservation
Filed by Northeast Agricultural University, this record covers a solar greenhouse structure combining a front curved skeleton covered with greenhouse films and a rear straight skeleton with a backhouse roof tied to a back wall that doubles as a house wall. The film area includes both a top and a lower ventilation zone, with a steel mesh support structure integrated into the design.Structural integration of the covering film with the ventilation and thermal-mass design is the claim's centre of gravity, not the film chemistry itself.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5914381A | Degradable polymer and preparation process of the same | 57 |
| 2 | US6131363A | Greenhouse roof glazing system | 54 |
| 3 | CN103059371A | 一种改性聚乙烯薄膜材料及其制备方法 | 39 |
| 4 | EP0829503A2 | Degradable polymer and preparation process of the same | 25 |
| 5 | CN103042782A | 五层共挤高保温消雾无滴农用大棚塑料薄膜 | 22 |
| 6 | CN102369854A | 高性能PE/EVA复合多功能棚膜 | 22 |
| 7 | CN104303893A | 一种组装式保温大棚 | 19 |
| 8 | US8642159B2 | Film and method of manufacturing the same, laminated film or sheet, and laminated body | 18 |
| 9 | US5585418A | Greenhouse film having variable light diffusion properties | 18 |
| 10 | CN2379542Y | 隔热保温农用大棚复合膜 | 17 |
Citation counts are pulled from a searched corpus and favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence, not of present-day 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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Three patterns stand out once the assignee ranking, the IPC split and the filing trend are read together.
The top of the field is real but not exclusive
A leader with 31 records and a top-5 group covering 39.4% of all 241 records signals genuine concentration among a handful of polymer and film specialists. But 60.6% of records sit outside that group, spread across a long tail of growers, converters and cooperatives — there is clearly room to file without walking directly into an incumbent's claim set.
Growth is picking back up after the 2018 peak
The field peaked at 36 filings in 2018 and cooled through the early 2020s before turning upward again — complete-year filings grew from 4 in 2021 to 6 in 2024. That is a small base, so the percentage move matters more as a direction signal than as a scale indicator.
Structural framing dominates claim language
Most filings anchor their claims in the greenhouse structure itself (A01G) rather than the film as an isolated material — B32B layered-product claims (36.5%) and C08L polymer-composition claims (21.6%) usually ride alongside, not instead of, a structural claim.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to greenhouse covering materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
The ranked list covers 100 companies across the 241 records in scope — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranking the dataset returns. A small cluster of polymer and film manufacturers sits at the top; most of the ranking is single- or few-filing entrants.
One clear filing leader
The top-ranked assignee holds 31 of the 241 records, well ahead of fifth place at 11 and tenth place at 6 — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-field structure rather than an even spread.
A few tight co-filing partnerships
Only eight co-assignee pairs appear in the data, but two of them are strong (9 shared records each) — both linking a major polymer producer with an affiliated chemicals or materials entity, consistent with joint IP strategies inside the same corporate group.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet at the top
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year, including a -100% YoY reading for one major filer. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as data still filling in rather than the leaders stepping back.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Plastika Kritis | 0 | — |
| Ludvig Svensson International | 0 | — |
| Dow Global Technologies LLC | 0 | -100% |
| AT PLASTICS | 0 | — |
| Abu Dhabi Polymers Co Ltd (Borouge) | 0 | — |
| Rohm and Haas Company | 0 | — |
| Borealis AG | 0 | — |
| 日本合成化学工业株式会社 | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to specific next moves depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or tracking a competitor.
Map claims against the top 5 concentration
With 39.4% of 241 records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate check should start there before widening to the long tail.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest a filing in an under-claimed class
C08J polymer processing (12.0% of records) and C08K additive use (8.7%) carry far less density than A01G or B32B, and may offer cleaner claim space.
Run a white-space search in EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 data catch-up
Recent-year filings will keep revising upward as publication lag resolves; re-check momentum figures in a few months rather than reading zero as a trend now.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaCommon questions on greenhouse covering material patents
The dataset's leading assignee holds 31 of the 241 records in scope, with the top five assignees together accounting for 39.4% of all records. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of regional plastics manufacturers, agricultural cooperatives and individual inventors. The concentration is real at the top but not exclusive, so new entrants are not necessarily filing into a locked field.
Filings peaked in 2018 at 36 records, cooled through the early 2020s, and then picked back up, with complete-year filings rising from 4 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a +50% increase. The two most recent years in the dataset show low counts, but that reflects the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication rather than an actual slowdown. Treat the growth signal from 2021-2024 as the reliable read.
A01G (horticulture and forestry) is the dominant class, present in 72.6% of the 241 records, because most filings frame the covering material inside a structural or growing-system context. B32B (layered products and laminates) appears in 36.5% of records and C08L (polymer compositions) in 21.6%, reflecting the multilayer-film and formulation work behind the durability claims. Records often carry several of these classes at once, which is why the shares add to more than 100%.
The comparatively lighter classes in this dataset are C08J (polymer processing, 12.0% of records), C08K (polymer additives, 8.7%) and D03D (woven fabrics, 3.7%), all well below the 72.6% density of the dominant A01G class. These are candidate areas for new claims, particularly around additive-driven anti-drip or light-diffusion formulations and woven-substrate covering structures, which sit outside the heavily filed structural cluster.
It is moderately concentrated: the top five assignees hold 39.4% of the 241 records and the top ten hold 53.5%, with a steep drop from the leader's 31 records to 11 at fifth place and 6 at tenth. That leaves close to half the field distributed among assignees outside the ranked top ten, indicating meaningful room for new filers even in a field with an identifiable leadership group.
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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.