Meltblown Media Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Meltblown media and filtration efficiency patents: who holds the ground and what's still open
68.1% of all 72 records in scope sit with the five leading assignees, so most freedom-to-operate work reduces quickly to a short list of parties. Filings rose to a peak of 9 in 2023 before falling to 1 in 2024, a 75% drop from the 4 filed in 2021. 2025 and 2026 figures are not yet complete because of the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, so the apparent decline in the newest years should not be read as a slowdown in the technology itself.
- 1AIRFLO EURO29
- 2KURARAY CO LTD6
- 3MITSUI CHEMICALS INC5
- 4WR GRACE & CO CONN5
- 5KIMBERLY CLARK WORLDWIDE INC4
See the full meltblown media and filtration efficiency 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 on meltblown media patents
How concentrated is patent ownership in meltblown filtration media?
It is highly concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together hold 68.1% of all 72 records in scope, and the top ten reach 83.3%. The leading assignee alone holds 29 records, compared with 4 at fifth place and 2 at tenth. Below that sits a long tail of smaller filers, so most competitive analysis in this space can focus on a short list of names rather than the full 28-company ranking.
Is filing activity in meltblown filtration media growing or shrinking?
On the complete-year data, activity peaked at 9 records in 2023 and fell to 1 in 2024, a 75% drop from the 4 filed in 2021. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be treated as proof of a continuing decline. The safest reading is that the field cooled from its 2023 peak, with the most recent trajectory not yet fully visible.
What technology areas dominate meltblown filtration patent claims?
Nonwoven web construction (IPC class D04H) appears in 62.5% of the 72 records, and separation-process claims (B01D) appear in 58.3%, and the two are frequently claimed in the same document. Layered-product claims (B32B) and vacuum-cleaner appliance claims (A47L) form a secondary cluster tied to household filtration hardware. Smaller clusters cover fibre features, acoustic damping and garment integration, each well under 12% of records.
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 Meltblown Media and Filtration Efficiency 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.