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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/liner-hangers-and-cementing-accessories-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Casing & CementingLiner Hanger and Cementing Accessory Patents: Filing Concentration and Open Claim Space
- 56.8% of all 2,544 records sit with just five assignees, and the top ten combined reach 69.9% — this is a field where a handful of oilfield service majors hold the bulk of the claim space.
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 109 records and 2021-to-2024 activity fell 59%, from 78 to 32 records — though 2025 onward is still filling in under the usual 18-month publication lag.
- E21B dominates at 94.2% of records while adjacent classes like F16L pipe fittings (1.7%) and C22C alloys (1.0%) show comparatively little claim density despite clear technical overlap.
2,544
Published Records
57%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-59%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (78 records) with 2024 (32) — 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 2,544 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··8 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Liner hangers, liner top packers, centralizers and the accessories that set and cement them — running tools, polished bore receptacles, stage cementing collars, cement baskets and hydraulic setting sleeves — form a mechanically dense corner of well construction patenting. The search scope pairs a hanger/packer/centralizer term with a specific setting, release or cementing-accessory mechanism, so the 2,544 records in scope are records that combine a load-bearing or sealing component with a defined actuation or cementing function, not every wellbore hardware patent in general.
Because a single liner hanger system is often filed across several jurisdictions and continuation applications, family-level counting is the fairer way to read concentration here. The receiving-office spread — heaviest in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, with meaningful PCT and EPO filing — points to a technology whose commercial deployment is concentrated in a small number of drilling markets rather than filed broadly worldwide.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below use the same 2,544-record scope: one tracks when filings were made, the other shows which IPC subclasses those filings touch. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC class, the composition shares add up to more than 100% — that is expected, not an error.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filing peaked at 109 records in 2017. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent span that can be read as complete, shows a 59% drop from 78 to 32 records. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so recent-year counts will rise as more applications publish.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
E21B (earth and rock drilling for wells) covers 94.2% of the 2,544 records, confirming this is fundamentally a wellbore hardware field. The next largest classes — F16L pipe fittings, H02J power supply, E21C mining, C22C alloys, B21D and B21C metalworking, and B01D separation — each sit under 2% of records, marking them as adjacent but comparatively under-claimed branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,544 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative and most-cited filings
Representative Filing
US6739398B1 — Liner hanger running tool and method
INNOVEX INTERNATIONAL, INC.
The liner hanger running tool includes improvements to the running tool release mechanism, the packoff bushing, and the packer setting assembly. The release mechanism may be operated hydraulically in response to fluid pressure, or released mechanically by right-hand rotation of the running string. A C-shaped lock ring in the packoff bushing allows repeated restabbing into the top of the liner hanger, while a C-shaped ring in the packer setting assembly applies set-down weight to a setting sleeve with pressure assist.Filed by Innovex International, Inc.; a useful worked example of how running-tool release, packoff and setting-sleeve claims are typically combined in a single filing.
Most-cited records in this scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5388648A | Method and apparatus for sealing the juncture between a vertical well and one or more horizontal wells using … | 644 |
| 2 | US6015015A | Insulated and/or concentric coiled tubing | 636 |
| 3 | US20060124310A1 | System for Completing Multiple Well Intervals | 605 |
| 4 | US7387165B2 | System for completing multiple well intervals | 486 |
| 5 | US3547193A | Method and apparatus for recovery of minerals from sub-surface formations using electricity | 439 |
| 6 | US5318122A | Method and apparatus for sealing the juncture between a vertical well and one or more horizontal wells using … | 378 |
| 7 | US6135208A | Expandable wellbore junction | 360 |
| 8 | US20090308588A1 | Method and Apparatus for Exposing a Servicing Apparatus to Multiple Formation Zones | 338 |
| 9 | US6189616B1 | Expandable wellbore junction | 332 |
| 10 | US20070272411A1 | System for completing multiple well intervals | 320 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data says
Three patterns stand out once the records are broken down by assignee, filing year and IPC class: heavy concentration among a small set of service companies, a filing decline that predates the most recent, still-incomplete years, and a technology base that is overwhelmingly classified in a single subclass.
Concentration
56.8%
of 2,544 records held by top 5 assignees
Filing sits with a small group of majors
The leading assignee alone accounts for 703 records, and the top five combined reach 1,444 records, or 56.8% of all records in scope. The top ten extend that to 69.9%. Below the top ten, filing counts drop quickly toward a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Based on the full 100-company ranking returned by the dataset.
Momentum
-59%
change in filings, 2021 to 2024
Filing activity has cooled since its 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 109 records in 2017 and had fallen to 32 by 2024, a 59% decline over the 2021-to-2024 window. Several leading assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year, though this partly reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a hard stop in activity.
2025–2026 figures will revise upward as pending applications publish.
Composition
94.2%
of records classified under E21B
Claim space is almost entirely wellbore hardware
E21B (earth and rock drilling for wells) covers 94.2% of the 2,544 records, leaving every other IPC subclass — pipe fittings, power supply, mining, alloys, metalworking, separation — at 1.7% or below. That gap between the dominant class and everything else is a rough map of where claim density is light.
Shares are of the full 2,544-record scope; a record may carry multiple classes.
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Co-filing patterns
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | Schlumberger Limited | 40 |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | Schlumberger Canada Limited | 21 |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | Schlumberger Canada Limited | 18 |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | Schlumberger Limited | 18 |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | Schlumberger Technology B.V. | 17 |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | Saudi Aramco Services Company | 12 |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | Schlumberger Holdings Limited | 12 |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | Prad Research and Development Ltd. | 11 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairings linking entities within the same corporate family across jurisdictions — a pattern typical of oilfield service majors that file through regional subsidiaries rather than a single filing entity.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Competitive Landscape
Who holds the claim space
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the full 2,544-record scope. It is not a top-50 or top-100 shortlist in the conventional sense — it is the complete ranking the dataset returns, and the drop-off from the leader to the tenth-place holder is steep.
Leader
703 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
One assignee holds close to a third of the field
The leading assignee's 703 records sit well ahead of fifth place at 90 and tenth place at 52, a gap that reflects decades of continuous filing around running tools, packers and setting mechanisms rather than a single breakthrough filing.
Family-level counting reduces but does not eliminate the effect of multi-jurisdiction filing.
Momentum check
0 in latest year
for several top-ranked assignees
Recent-year filings have gone quiet across the leaders
Multiple leading assignees show zero recorded filings in the latest tracked year, some with a -100% year-on-year change. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this understates true recent activity but is still consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 decline.
Momentum figures compare the latest tracked year against the prior year.
Long tail
30.1%
of records held outside the top 10
A wide field of smaller filers beyond the leaders
Outside the top ten combined 69.9% share, filing counts thin quickly into single-digit and single-filing entrants — smaller operators, equipment makers and research entities picking off narrower mechanical variants.
Based on the 100-company ranking; smaller filers are not individually broken out here.
Recent filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Weatherford Lamb, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | -100% |
| DRIL QUIP INC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The numbers above establish where filing is concentrated and where it is thin. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper into specific claim language and specific assignees.
Map the release-mechanism claim families
Running-tool release and packer-setting claims cluster heavily around a small number of assignees. Before drafting in this space, trace how hydraulic-versus-mechanical release is claimed across the leading filers' families.
Explore claim families in EurekaCheck the under-claimed branches for real freedom
Thin IPC representation in classes like C22C or B01D does not guarantee open claim space — it may mean the relevant art is classified elsewhere. Verify with a targeted search before relying on the gap.
Run a targeted search in EurekaTrack the leaders' quiet recent years
Several top assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Confirm whether this reflects a real pullback or simply publication lag before adjusting competitive assumptions.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
Filing in this field is heavily concentrated: the top five assignees together account for 56.8% of the 2,544 records in scope, and the leading single assignee holds 703 records on its own. These are established oilfield service companies with decades of continuous filing around running tools, packers, and setting mechanisms rather than newer entrants. The top ten assignees combined reach 69.9% of all records, leaving a long tail of smaller filers below them.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 109 records and had fallen to 32 records by 2024, a 59% decline over the 2021-to-2024 span. However, patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are understated and should not yet be read as evidence of continued decline. The safest reading is that filing activity cooled meaningfully through the early 2020s, with the most recent trend still to be confirmed.
The core technology, classified under E21B earth and rock drilling for wells, covers 94.2% of the 2,544 records, while adjacent classes such as F16L pipe fittings, H02J power and telemetry systems, C22C alloys, and B01D separation processes each sit at or below 1.7% of records. This gap suggests lighter claim density around materials, power/telemetry integration, and downhole filtration aspects of liner hanger systems, though a targeted search is needed to confirm true freedom to operate before relying on any single class share.
US6739398B1 claims a liner hanger running tool combining a hydraulically or mechanically operable release mechanism, a restabbable packoff bushing using a C-shaped lock ring, and a packer setting assembly that applies set-down weight through a C-shaped ring with pressure assist. It is a useful reference point for how release, packoff, and setting-sleeve functions are commonly claimed together in a single filing, but whether it blocks a specific new design depends on the exact mechanical implementation and requires a full claim-by-claim comparison rather than reading the abstract alone.
Among receiving offices in this dataset, the United States leads with 701 records, followed by the United Kingdom at 324, Canada at 301, the European Patent Office at 271, the WIPO PCT route at 246, and Australia at 236. This spread indicates that liner hanger and cementing accessory technology is filed most heavily in markets tied to major drilling activity, with PCT filings used as a common route into multiple jurisdictions at once.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Liner Hangers and Cementing Accessories covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.