Hull Coatings Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Hull Coatings and Biofouling Control Patents: Leaders, Filing Trends and Open Claim Space
Concentrated at the top. Five assignees hold 43.5% of all 1,829 records in scope, and the leading ten hold 53.4% — a narrow group controls most of the claim space. Filings rose to a peak of 101 in 2017, then eased over the following years; the last complete year, 2024, sits at 32 — down from 59 in 2021, a 46% decline. Years after 2024 are still filling in under publication lag and should not be read as a continued fall.
- 1AKZO NOBEL COATINGS INT BV315
- 2JOTUN AS172
- 3HEMPEL AS158
- 4PPG COATINGS EURO BV81
- 5NITTO KASEI CO LTD70
See the full hull coatings and biofouling control 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 about hull coatings patents
Who holds the most patents in hull coatings and biofouling control?
The dataset ranks 100 companies by record count, and filing is heavily concentrated: the leading assignee alone holds 315 of the 1,829 records in scope, more than four times the fifth-placed filer at 70. The leading five assignees together account for 43.5% of all records, and the leading ten account for 53.4%. This level of concentration means most of the core coating chemistry and biocide-release claim space is already occupied by a small number of established marine coatings and chemical companies.
Is patent filing in hull coatings growing or slowing?
Filing activity peaked in 2017 at 101 records and has declined since, falling from 59 in 2021 to 32 in 2024 — a 46% drop over that three-year span. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the very latest years in any chart will look artificially thin and should not be read as evidence of a continuing collapse. Based on the last fully complete year, 2024, the trend through the mid-2020s is a genuine cooling from the 2017 peak rather than steady growth.
What technical areas do most hull coating patents cover?
Coatings, paints and inks classification C09D appears in 77.0% of the 1,829 records in scope, making it by far the dominant technical area. Biocide and agrochemical class A01N appears in 14.5% of records, with polymer-related classes C08F, C08G and C08L each present in roughly 9-14%. Vessel-structure class B63B and coating-process class B05D are present but comparatively thin, at 8.5% and 6.2% respectively, suggesting less patent activity around hull integration and application methodology than around the underlying chemistry.
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 Hull Coatings and Biofouling Control 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.