Spherical Agglomeration Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
A patent landscape review of spherical agglomeration in industrial crystallization: filing trends, leading assignees, technology composition and where the claim space is still open, based on 57 records to 2026.
Filing growth = 2021 (1 records) → 2024 (4); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 57 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Spherical agglomeration and spherical crystallization sit at the intersection of particle engineering and pharmaceutical formulation: the technique converts fine crystals into dense, free-flowing spherical particles, often to improve compressibility, flow and dosing in solid dosage forms, or to simplify downstream separation in industrial precipitation. The dataset behind this page spans 57 published records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, captured through claims and title/abstract language tied to spherical agglomeration, crystal agglomeration and spherical crystallization, cross-referenced against crystallization-specific separation-process classification.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real activity — a filing made in 2025 may not appear in the public record until well into 2026 or later.
Filing trend, technology mix and geography
Three views of the same 57-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, which IPC subclasses carry the claims, and where applicants are filing first.
Filing trend: 2017–2026
Annual filings moved from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 4 in 2023, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing the sharpest rise — a +300% increase from 1 filing to 4. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61K (medicinal preparations) appears in 49.1% of the 57 records, ahead of B01D (separation processes) at 33.3%. Smaller but recurring clusters sit in C07C, C01B, A61C, B01J, C02F and C07D — each between 7% and 14% of records — pointing to secondary claim activity in dentistry, water treatment and catalysis around the same core crystallization mechanics.
Shares are the percentage of the 57 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
Radial spherical crystallization product and process for producing it
A radial spherical crystallization product having multiple needle-shaped projections radially extending outward from a core portion, produced by contacting a supercritical fluid mixed with a modifier and a solution containing a sample component at the point of emission into a crystallization vessel. The product is positioned as a drug delivery carrier or fine stock drug, including for transmucosal or transpulmonary administration and dry powder preparations.Filed by Taisho Pharmaceutical, this record anchors the pharmaceutical branch of the landscape rather than the pure separation-process branch.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN101269840A | 一种球形碳酸锰及其制备方法 | 27 |
| 2 | JP2011111429A | Method for producing medicament-containing NANO particle | 19 |
| 3 | CN103315960A | 基于球晶技术固体自微乳及其制备方法 | 15 |
| 4 | JP1999021646A | Aluminum foil excellent in pair rolling surface roughness | 14 |
| 5 | CN107235564A | 一种高效自发结晶的电化学脱盐软化水处理方法及其装置 | 13 |
| 6 | JP4856752B2 | 薬物含有ナノ粒子の製造方法 | 12 |
| 7 | JP3929065B1 | 破断開口容易な容器の製造方法 | 10 |
| 8 | CN106588709A | 一种脂肪酰基甲基牛磺酸钠的制备方法 | 9 |
| 9 | JP1999049677A | Ascorbic acid bulk particle for direct tableting by spherical crystallization technique, its production and t… | 8 |
| 10 | US20060275219A1 | Radial spherical crystallization product, process for producing the same, and dry powder preparation containi… | 6 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older records; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
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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Four read-throughs from the filing trend, assignee concentration and technology mix, aimed at where to look before filing or licensing.
Claim space is top-heavy
With the leading assignee at 10 records and the fifth-place holder at 3, a handful of portfolios cover nearly half of everything published in scope. Any new filing in this space should be checked against those portfolios first, since a broad landscape scan is less efficient than a targeted review of the concentrated leaders.
Renewed activity, not a mature plateau
Filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 4 in 2024, the fastest complete three-year climb in the trend. High recent filing density means the claim space is being actively occupied, not that the underlying technology has stopped evolving.
Pharma formulation outweighs pure process claims
Medicinal-preparation claims (A61K) appear in roughly half of records, well ahead of separation-process claims (B01D) at a third. That split suggests the strongest near-term commercial value is being captured through dosage-form and drug-delivery claims rather than through crystallizer or separation-equipment design alone.
China and Japan anchor filing activity
China accounts for the largest single share of receiving-office filings, with Japan second and the US, EPO, India and WIPO PCT trailing behind. A defensive filing strategy that ignores Chinese-office activity would miss the largest single filing venue in this dataset.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to industrial crystallization: spherical agglomeration patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Turning this landscape into a filing decision
The numbers above answer where activity is; the next step is testing a specific claim idea or freedom-to-operate question against the underlying records.
Stress-test a claim against the leaders
Run a candidate claim against the portfolios of the top 5 assignees before drafting further, since they already cover close to half of all records in scope.
Explore claim comparison in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
C01B, A61C, B01J, C02F and C07D each sit at 7-14% of records — worth monitoring for gaps before a competitor closes them.
Set up a watch in EurekaRead the representative filing in full
The Taisho Pharmaceutical radial spherical crystallization record is a useful template for how pharmaceutical claims frame the same core mechanics as the separation-process filings.
Open the full record in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Spherical agglomeration is a particle-engineering technique that converts fine, irregular crystals into dense, roughly spherical particles, usually during or immediately after precipitation. It is used because spherical particles flow better, pack more predictably and compress more consistently than needle- or plate-shaped crystals, which matters for tableting and for downstream filtration or drying. In this dataset it appears both as a pharmaceutical formulation technique and as an industrial separation-process step, which is why the technology composition splits across medicinal-preparation and separation-process classifications.
The ranked assignee list contains 42 companies across the 57 records in scope, with the leading assignee holding 10 records and the fifth-place holder at 3. The top 5 assignees together account for 47.4% of all records, and the top 10 account for 64.9%, so activity is concentrated among a relatively small group rather than spread evenly. A freedom-to-operate check should prioritise those leading portfolios before widening the search.
Yes, based on complete years: filings rose from 1 record in 2021 to 4 in 2024, a +300% increase over that span, with 2023 as the peak year so far at 4 records. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent tail-off in the most recent years should not be read as a real slowdown. The underlying trend through 2024 points to renewed rather than declining interest.
Medicinal preparations (IPC class A61K) appear in 49.1% of the 57 records, making pharmaceutical formulation the largest single claim area, ahead of separation processes (B01D) at 33.3%. Smaller clusters sit in acyclic and carbocyclic compounds (C07C), inorganic compounds (C01B), dentistry (A61C), catalysis (B01J), water treatment (C02F) and heterocyclic compounds (C07D), each between 7% and 14% of records. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping claim areas rather than a strict breakdown.
The smaller IPC clusters — C01B, A61C, B01J, C02F and C07D, each in the 7-14% range of the 57 records — carry far less filing density than the dominant A61K and B01D areas, which suggests less-crowded claim space around inorganic, dental, catalytic and water-treatment applications of the same crystallization mechanics. That said, low density can also mean the application is less commercially proven, so any white-space claim should be checked against the most-cited prior art in the field before committing resources. Combining a search of these secondary classes with a check against the top assignees' existing filings gives the clearest picture of what is genuinely open.
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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.