Heavy Lift and Transport Engineering Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
46.5% concentration. The top 5 assignees account for 72 of the 155 records in scope, a leader position that a long tail of single- and low-filing entrants cannot easily contest. Filings climbed from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2023, then fell -65% from 26 in 2021 to 9 in 2024 — the last year in the window that can be treated as complete. 2025 and 2026 values are understated by the normal publication lag and should not be read as a decline in filing intent.
- 1ITREC BV26
- 2HELIX ENERGY SOLUTIONS GROUP INC15
- 3SAIPEM SPA12
- 4MACGREGOR NORWAY11
- 5HORTON WISON DEEPWATER8
See the full heavy lift and transport engineering analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on heavy lift and transport engineering patents
Who holds the most patents in heavy lift crane and transport engineering?
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 26 of the 155 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 8 and the tenth-ranked at 4. The top 5 assignees combined account for 46.5% of all records, and the top 10 reach 64.5% — a clear leader position but not a closed field, since 55 companies appear in the full ranking and over a third of filings sit outside the top 10. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should check the leader's portfolio first, then work down through the ranked list rather than assuming the field is evenly spread.
Is heavy lift crane patent filing growing or slowing down?
Filing activity peaked at 27 records in 2023 after rising from just 7 in 2017, then fell -65% from 26 records in 2021 to 9 in 2024. 2024 is the most recent year the data can treat as complete, because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and understate true activity. Read the recent pullback as a genuine cooling from a 2023 peak rather than evidence the technology area has stalled.
What technology areas overlap most with heavy lift crane patents?
Marine vessel engineering (IPC class B63B) appears in 41.9% of the 155 records, ahead of the core crane and hoist class B66C at 34.2% and wind turbine installation (F03D) at 32.3%. This overlap reflects that much of the current claim activity involves offshore installation work — floating cranes, vessel-mounted lifting systems and wind foundation installation — rather than land-based crane mechanics alone. Specialised structures (E04H) and drilling-related earthworks (E21B) also show meaningful overlap, each above 15% of records.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Heavy Lift and Transport Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.