Machining and tooling patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 50.0% of all 124 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 68.5% — a narrow group has shaped most of the enforceable claim space. Filings rose to a peak of 20 in 2019, then declined; the 2021-to-2024 span alone dropped from 13 to 1, a -92% change over that three-year window. 2024 is the last year that can be read as complete — 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as publications catch up, so this decline should be read as of 2024, not as an ongoing trend into the present.
- 1RELATIVITY SPACE INC26
- 2MELD MANUFACTURING CORP11
- 3SANDVIK INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AB9
- 4ETHICON INC8
- 5THE BOEING CO8
See the full machining & tooling patent landscape 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 this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in machining and tooling technology?
The dataset ranks 55 assignees, with a single leader holding 26 of the 124 records in scope. The top 5 assignees combined account for 50.0% of all records, and the top 10 account for 68.5%, showing a steep concentration at the top rather than an even spread. Below the top 10 the ranking thins into a long tail of companies and individual inventors filing only a handful of records each, so a full freedom-to-operate check should focus first on the leader and the next four ranked assignees.
Is patent filing in machining and tooling growing or shrinking?
Filings peaked at 20 in 2019 and have declined since, with the last complete comparison years showing a drop from 13 filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024 — a -92% change. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any chart are still incomplete and should not yet be read as confirming a continued decline. Treat 2024 as the most recent reliable data point when assessing momentum.
Which technology areas dominate machining and tooling patent claims?
Control and regulating systems (IPC class G05B) lead at 29.0% of the 124 records, closely followed by additive manufacturing (B33Y) at 27.4% and plastics shaping (B29C) at 25.8%. AI-based computing methods (G06N) appear in 21.0% of records, indicating that machine-learning-driven process control is now a mainstream claim element rather than a niche addition. These shares overlap because a single record can carry several IPC classes, so they should be read as areas of density, not as a breakdown of the whole field.
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 Machining & Tooling Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. 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.