Knowledge Distillation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Knowledge Distillation Patents: Mapping the Field
16.6% concentration at the top. The five most active filers account for 111 of 667 records in scope — a leader well ahead of the field, then a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings ran from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 157 in 2025, with 40 already recorded for 2026. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures will still grow as later filings publish; 2021 to 2024 is the most recent span that can be read as a complete trend, and over it filings rose 32%, from 81 to 107.
- 1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION6.6%
- 2HUAWEI TECH CO LTD3.7%
- 3SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD2.4%
- 4TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) CO LTD2.1%
- 5QUALCOMM INC1.8%
See the full knowledge distillation techniques 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 knowledge distillation patents
How many patents exist for knowledge distillation techniques?
This dataset identifies 667 published records in scope between 2015 and mid-2026, using a search that combines core distillation mechanism terms (knowledge distillation, teacher-student training, logit matching) with technique-specific terms like temperature scaling, soft labels and capacity gap. That figure covers a defined search string rather than every patent that ever mentions distillation in passing, so it should be read as a bounded, reproducible corpus rather than an absolute count. Family-level counting was used for the assignee ranking to avoid inflating totals through continuations or multi-jurisdiction refiling of the same invention.
Who are the leading patent filers in knowledge distillation?
The ranking covers 100 assignees, with one filer clearly ahead of the rest at 44 records against a fifth-place count of 12 and a tenth-place count of 9. The filers behind the leader include large technology companies, chipmakers, and academic and research institutions, with the top 5 combined holding 16.6% of the 667 records in scope and the top 10 combined holding 24.1%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of assignees with only a handful of records each.
Is the knowledge distillation patent field still growing?
Yes, through the last year that can be read as a complete trend. Filings rose from 81 in 2021 to 107 in 2024, a 32% increase over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower or flat by comparison, but that is a publication-lag artefact — patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, so the most recent one to two years will always understate true filing activity until later records catch up.
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 Knowledge Distillation Techniques 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.