This dataset contains 829 published records matching intumescent flame retardant coating language and technical markers such as expansion ratio, char strength and acid source, filed between 2015 and mid-2026. The figure counts patent families rather than raw documents, which avoids inflating the total with continuation filings or duplicate national filings of the same invention. Coverage spans major receiving offices including China, the United States, Europe, WIPO/PCT, Canada and Australia, so the total reflects a cross-jurisdictional view rather than a single country's filings.

The assignee ranking returned by the underlying dataset covers 100 companies counted by patent family, with the leading assignee holding 89 records against 26 at fifth place and 17 at tenth. That gap between first and fifth place indicates one applicant's portfolio is doing much of the work at the top rather than a tightly bunched leading group. Below the ranked leaders sits a long tail of companies with only one or a few filings each, which is typical of a field where formulation know-how is still being established by many smaller players.

Filing activity peaked at 73 in 2017, and after a dip, rebuilt from 40 filings in 2021 to 63 in 2024 — a 57% increase over that three-year span, which is the most recent period that can be treated as complete. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw trend line, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual slowdown, since recently filed applications have not all published yet. Anyone reading the trend chart should treat the last one to two years as provisional and look to the 2021-2024 window for the real growth signal.

IPC subclass C09D, covering coatings, paints and inks, appears in 63.9% of the 829 records in scope, making it by far the most claimed technology area. C08K, covering use of additives in polymers, follows at 25.6%, and C08L polymer compositions at 20.3%. Because a single patent record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record base, and the pattern shows most protection is written around the coating formulation itself rather than around the underlying additive or polymer chemistry.

Class density figures point to lower coverage in areas like B32B layered products and laminates at 5.1% of records and C07F organo-metallic compounds at 4.7%, compared with 63.9% for core coating claims under C09D. This suggests more open claim space around substrate-bonding architectures, non-halogen organo-metallic acid sources, and test-methodology claims such as adhesion-after-fire or weathering durability, which are named as technical search markers but do not dominate any single IPC class. A freedom-to-operate and white-space review should map claim language in these narrower branches before assuming the coating-formulation space is the only viable filing target.