Hydroponic Nutrient Solution Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 23.4% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 127 of 542 records in scope — a real lead, but not a lockout, since 76.6% of filings sit outside that group.
- Filings grew 93% from 2021 to 2024. Activity climbed from 28 to 54 records over that span, the clearest complete-year growth signal in the dataset.
- A01G dominates at 76.9% of records. Horticulture and forestry claims cover most of the field, while adjacent classes like G06Q (3.7%) and A01H (4.8%) remain comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (28 records) with 2024 (54) — 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 542 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Hydroponic nutrient solution management sits at the intersection of horticulture engineering and process control: dosing electrical conductivity, sensing ion concentration, managing root zone oxygen, disinfecting recirculated solution, and controlling recirculation ratios to limit nutrient drift. The 542 records in scope span filings from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from a search string that ties classic nutrient film technique language to specific control problems rather than to hydroponics generally. That framing matters: it separates equipment patents describing generic growing trays from patents actually claiming how a nutrient solution is measured, dosed or cleaned.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real activity. The 2024 figures are the last that can be read as a complete picture of filing behaviour; years after that are still filling in.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 542 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims. Both use the full record set as the denominator, so class shares sum to more than 100% because a single record can carry several classes.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 68 in 2019, then continued in cycles; the clean recent signal is the rise from 28 records in 2021 to 54 in 2024, a 93% increase over three complete years. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
IPC subclass composition
A01G (horticulture and forestry) covers 76.9% of the 542 records, confirming that most claims are framed as growing-system engineering rather than as chemistry or software. C05G (fertiliser mixtures) at 11.6% and A01N (biocides/agrochemicals) at 8.7% are the next densest classes, while G06Q (business/data processing) at 3.7% and A01H (plant breeding) at 4.8% show comparatively light claim coverage.
Shares are the percentage of the 542 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydroponic Nutrient Solution Management with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hydroponic nutrient solution management and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US10015935B2 — Method of reducing nitrate content in a plant
The patent describes supplementing a hydroponic nutrient solution with Rhodopseudomonas palustris DSM 29314 to reduce nitrate content in a plant. The method reduces nitrate content by 50% to 88% and requires only half the usual nutrient solution concentration, while increasing fresh and dry weight by 17% to 44%.Filed by National Taiwan University, granted 2018-07-10 — an example of a biological-agent claim layered onto standard nutrient solution practice rather than a hardware or sensing claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190259108A1 | Controlled Agricultural Systems and Methods of Managing Agricultural Systems | 332 |
| 2 | US20200184153A1 | Controlled Agricultural Systems and Methods of Managing Agricultural Systems | 172 |
| 3 | US20170013810A1 | Portable agrarian biosystem | 113 |
| 4 | US20170064912A1 | Growing Vegetables Within a Closed Agricultural Environment | 78 |
| 5 | US20160050862A1 | Control system for a hydroponic greenhouse growing environment | 78 |
| 6 | WO2020041784A1 | Methods for manufacturing plant messenger packs | 75 |
| 7 | WO2016138075A1 | Method and system for hydroculture | 74 |
| 8 | US6065245A | Integrated aquaculture-hydroponics systems: nutrient dynamics and designer diet development | 74 |
| 9 | WO2010142004A2 | Controlled biosecure aquatic farming system in a confined environment | 73 |
| 10 | US20150237807A1 | Continuous bioprocess for organic greenhouse agriculture | 64 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a signal of prior-art density, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, citation weight and class composition are read together.
A lead group, not a lockout
The top five assignees combine for 127 of 542 records, 23.4% of the field. That is a meaningful lead but leaves more than three-quarters of filings distributed among the remaining ranked companies and unranked entrants, which keeps the field open to new filers who target a specific control problem rather than the whole system.
Momentum is recent and real
Filings rose from 28 records in 2021 to 54 in 2024, the strongest complete-year growth window in the dataset. That growth followed the 2019 peak of 68 records, meaning current activity is rebuilding rather than simply extending an earlier high.
Influence sits with system-level claims
The most-cited records in this landscape describe controlled agricultural systems and closed-environment growing methods rather than narrow sensing or dosing mechanisms. That skews toward earlier filings, since citation counts accumulate over time inside a searched corpus, but it marks where foundational system-level claim language originated.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydroponic nutrient solution management, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies across the 542 records in scope. Reading rank alongside recent-year momentum shows which leaders are still active filers and where claim space has gone quiet even for established names.
A single leader well ahead of fifth place
The top-ranked assignee holds 33 records against 21 for the fifth-placed company and 13 for tenth, a steep drop-off that signals one company built a broad filing position early while the rest of the field files more narrowly.
Recent-year activity has cooled among top names
Several of the more established ranked assignees show zero filings in the latest year, some down 100% year over year. That does not mean the leaders have exited the space; it is consistent with publication lag pulling recent filings out of view, but it also means the current filing edge is not automatically held by the historical leaders.
Co-filing is rare and concentrated
Only five co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pair combines for 8 shared records. Co-filing is not how most activity in this field gets structured — most records carry a single assignee, which points to in-house development over joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Oro Agri Inc | 0 | — |
| Multiple Energy Technologies LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Growponics Greenhouse Tech | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
| Green Automation Group Oy | 0 | -100% |
| FUJIFILM Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Flagship Pioneering Innovations VI LLC | 0 | — |
| Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Forderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to concentration at the top, real but recent growth, and light claim coverage in a handful of adjacent branches. Turning that into a filing or licensing decision means going deeper on the specific claims involved.
Map claims against a specific control method
Run the exact dosing, sensing or disinfection method under consideration against the most-cited records to see how close existing claim language sits before drafting.
Explore claim charts in EurekaTrack the leading assignee's recent filings
The steep drop from first to fifth place makes the leader's current filing behaviour worth monitoring directly, independent of the aggregate trend.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaScope the under-claimed branches
Ion-selective sensing and recirculation-ratio software show lighter IPC coverage than the core horticulture class; a targeted prior-art search can confirm how open they really are.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads with 33 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed company at 21. The top five assignees combined hold 127 of the 542 records in scope, or 23.4% of the field, which is a clear lead but leaves the large majority of filings spread across the remaining ranked companies and single-filing entrants. This means no single company controls the field outright, and a freedom-to-operate review still needs to check beyond the top names.
Filings grew from 28 records in 2021 to 54 in 2024, a 93% increase over that three-year span, which is the clearest complete-year growth signal available. Activity had earlier peaked at 68 records in 2019 before dipping, so the current growth phase is a rebuild rather than a continuation of that peak. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not be read as a slowdown.
US10015935B2, assigned to National Taiwan University and granted in 2018, claims a method of reducing nitrate content in a plant by supplementing a hydroponic nutrient solution with the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris DSM 29314. The method is reported to cut nitrate content by 50% to 88% while needing only half the usual nutrient concentration, and to raise fresh and dry plant weight by 17% to 44%. It is a biological-agent method claim tied to a specific bacterial strain and nutrient concentration ratio, not a general claim over nutrient dosing or sensing hardware, so it constrains a fairly narrow slice of the field.
Relative to the dominant A01G horticulture class, which touches 76.9% of the 542 records, classes like G06Q business/data processing (3.7%) and A01H plant breeding (4.8%) show much lighter coverage. Within the sub-areas identified in this dataset, ion-selective nutrient sensing, root zone dissolved-oxygen control, and recirculation-ratio optimisation software stand out as comparatively under-claimed branches. That lighter coverage signals room for a first claim, but it should be confirmed with a targeted prior-art search before drafting.
The United States receives the most filings in this dataset at 147 records, followed by WIPO PCT applications at 68 and the European Patent Office at 65. India, Australia and Japan follow at 56, 44 and 29 records respectively. This spread suggests the technology is being protected across multiple major markets rather than concentrated in a single jurisdiction, which matters for anyone assessing freedom to operate outside the US.
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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.