Zoned Namespace SSD Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (12 records) with 2024 (7) — 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 54 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the Zoned Namespace SSD patent record shows
Zoned Namespace (ZNS) SSD technology restructures how a solid-state drive exposes its address space to the host, aligning logical zones with physical media so that write patterns, garbage collection and endurance management can be handled with far less overhead than in a conventional flash translation layer. The patent record for this specific mechanism is small and young: 54 published records since 2015, concentrated almost entirely in a single IPC subclass. That narrowness is itself informative — this is not yet a technology with distinct competing architectural camps visible in the classification data, but one where a handful of storage and systems vendors are filing around the same zone-mapping and I/O-translation core.
Filing activity rose through the second half of the 2010s, peaked in 2020, and has since declined — a pattern that, given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, likely understates activity in the most recent two years shown. Ownership of that activity is unusually tight: five companies already cover the large majority of records, and the full ranked set of seven accounts for all of them.
Filing trend and technology composition
The figures below are drawn directly from the 54 published records in scope, spanning receiving offices in the United States, Europe, Germany, Japan, South Korea and via the WIPO PCT route.
A short, front-loaded filing history
Filing volume climbed from zero in the earliest tracked years to a peak of 12 records in 2020, then eased to 7 by 2024 — a 42% decline over that three-year span. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the years closest to the data cut-off should be read as incomplete rather than as evidence the field is cooling.
One IPC subclass dominates
G06F (electric digital data processing) appears on 96.3% of the 54 records in scope, with only small spillover into B60W (3.7%) and H03M (1.9%). Because a single record can carry more than one IPC code, these shares sum to over 100% — but the picture is unambiguous: almost all inventive activity here is being classified as core digital-data-processing work rather than being pulled into adjacent domains.
Shares are the percentage of the 54 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on High-Performance Storage: Zoned Namespace SSD Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe most-cited records in the ZNS SSD field
US11860791B2 — Methods for managing input-output operations in zone translation layer architecture and devices thereof
The disclosed technology relates to determining physical zone data within a zoned namespace solid state drive (SSD), associated with logical zone data included in a first received input-output operation based on a mapping data structure within a namespace of the zoned namespace SSD. A second input-output operation specific to the determined physical zone data is generated wherein the second input-output operation and the received input-output operation is of a same type. The generated second input-output operation is completed using the determined physical zone data within the zoned namespace SSD.Granted to NetApp, Inc. on 2024-01-02, this filing sits squarely in the zone-translation-layer core that most other records in this dataset also occupy.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20210132827A1 | Applying Endurance Groups To Zoned Namespaces | 71 |
| 2 | US20210406174A1 | Methods for managing storage operations for multiple hosts coupled to dual-port solid-state disks and devices… | 29 |
| 3 | US20210334215A1 | Methods for managing input-output operations in zone translation layer architecture and devices thereof | 16 |
| 4 | US20220398201A1 | Information processing apparatus and method | 14 |
| 5 | US20220197553A1 | Managing write removal for solid-state drives | 14 |
| 6 | US20210334216A1 | Methods for managing storage systems with dual-port solid-state disks accessible by multiple hosts and device… | 8 |
| 7 | US11803329B2 | Methods and systems for processing write requests in a storage system | 6 |
| 8 | US11386015B2 | Methods for managing storage systems with dualport solid-state disks accessible by multiple hosts and devices… | 6 |
| 9 | US20220292031A1 | Methods for managing storage systems with dual-port solid-state disks accessible by multiple hosts and device… | 5 |
| 10 | US11797377B2 | Efficient parity determination in zoned solid-state drives of a storage system | 5 |
Citation counts are drawn from the searched corpus and favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of present-day importance.
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Three figures matter more than the rest for anyone deciding where to file or where to look for freedom to operate.
Five companies already cover almost the whole field
The top five assignees combined hold 94.4% of the 54 records in scope, and the full ranked set of seven accounts for 100% of them. There is effectively no long tail of small independent filers here — anyone entering this space is filing directly against a small, identifiable set of incumbents rather than into open ground.
Activity has pulled back from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 12 records in 2020 and fell 42% from 2021 to 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete given publication lag. That does not necessarily mean interest is fading — it may mean the core mapping and translation-layer claims are already staked out, pushing new work toward adjacent implementation details not yet visible in this narrow search.
Almost everything is classified as core digital processing
G06F covers 96.3% of the 54 records, with only marginal presence in B60W and H03M. A field this classification-narrow suggests the inventive contest is happening within one crowded subclass rather than across a broad technology front, which raises the odds that new filings collide directly with existing claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high-performance storage: zoned namespace ssd patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a tightly held, narrowly classified field — the next steps depend on whether you are filing, defending, or scouting for space to build.
Map claims against the ranked leaders
With seven companies covering all 54 records, a freedom-to-operate check should start with the claim scope held by the top five before drafting anything new in zone-translation or endurance-group management.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the post-2020 filing pattern
The drop from 12 filings in 2021 to 7 in 2024 is worth watching as 2025–2026 data fills in — a rebound would signal renewed investment in the core mechanism rather than a shift to adjacent architectures.
Set up a filing trend alert in EurekaLook past G06F for early movement
The small B60W and H03M presence may be early signals of ZNS concepts migrating into vehicle control and coding-layer applications — worth monitoring even though the numbers are currently thin.
Search adjacent IPC classes in EurekaCommon questions about Zoned Namespace SSD patents
The assignee ranking for this dataset returns seven companies that together account for every one of the 54 published records in scope. The top five of those combined hold 94.4% of all records, which means ownership of this specific technology is heavily concentrated rather than spread across a broad field of filers. Anyone assessing competitive position in ZNS SSD storage should treat this as a small, well-defined set of incumbents rather than a fragmented market.
Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 12 records and declined 42% by 2024, which is the most recent year in this dataset that can be treated as complete. Publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the years immediately before the 2026 data cut-off are understated and should not be read as a real slowdown yet. Based on the confirmed 2021–2024 window, however, activity has genuinely cooled from its early-2020s peak.
Almost all of the activity, 96.3% of the 54 records in scope, is classified under G06F, the electric digital data processing subclass, reflecting that ZNS SSD innovation is centred on core data-management mechanisms rather than a specific hardware form factor. Small numbers of records also touch B60W (hybrid or joint vehicle control) and H03M (coding and code conversion), each under 4% of records. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares are not mutually exclusive and add to more than 100%.
US11860791B2, assigned to NetApp, Inc. and granted in January 2024, covers a method for translating a received input-output operation on logical zone data into a corresponding operation on the physical zone data of a zoned namespace SSD, using a mapping data structure within the drive's namespace. In practice this is a zone-translation-layer mechanism: it generates a second I/O operation of the same type targeted at the resolved physical zone. It sits in the same technical core — zone mapping and I/O translation — that a large share of the other records in this dataset also occupy, making it a useful reference point for freedom-to-operate review in this space.
The classification data shows almost the entire field sitting inside G06F, with only marginal filings touching vehicle control (B60W) and coding/code conversion (H03M) — branches that are barely claimed relative to the core. That imbalance suggests any meaningfully open ground lies in applying ZNS-style zone mapping to those adjacent domains, or in implementation details not yet distinguished in this narrow search, rather than in the core translation-layer mechanism itself, which the top five assignees already cover heavily.
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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.