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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/meltblown-nonwoven-protective-textile-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Textiles & FibersMeltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile Patent Landscape 2026
- Eleven families total, and filing is still climbing. the midpoint year sits at zero, meaning the trend has not yet plateaued going into the most recent filings.
- D04H covers every record in the set. but B32B (7) and A61F (6) overlap it heavily, showing barrier claims are being built as layered, implantable-adjacent constructions, not bare webs.
- Citation weight sits on two documents. a breathable meltblown method cited 127 times and its barrier variant cited 82 times dominate influence, well ahead of the rest of the corpus.
11
Published Records
US
Leading Jurisdiction
15
Active Filers Ranked
2020
Peak Filing Year
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
The dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of meltblown nonwoven manufacture and protective or filtration end-use — filing text and claims naming filtration media, protective fabric, barrier fabric or face mask media, restricted to IPC classes covering nonwoven felts, filtration membranes and protective garments. This is a narrow, purpose-built slice: eleven published families in total, not a general nonwovens dataset.
Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the most recent filing year in this set is understated relative to what has actually been filed but not yet published. Treat the tail of the trend line as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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
The Data
Filing trend and technical composition
Two views of the same eleven families: how filing has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filing was flat at zero in 2017, rose to a peak of one family in 2020, and shows zero again at the 2022 midpoint — consistent with a small, sporadic filing pattern rather than a sustained ramp. The 2026 figure of one is partial and will revise upward as later filings publish.
IPC subclass distribution
D04H (nonwovens and felts) touches all eleven records, confirming the search scope. The heavy overlap with B32B (layered products, 7) and A61F (implants and prostheses, 6) indicates most claims describe laminated barrier constructions or medical-adjacent uses rather than single-layer filtration webs, with smaller footprints in filament spinning, mechanical finishing, coated fabrics, garments and rescue equipment.
Shares are the percentage of the 11 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 Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about meltblown nonwoven protective textile and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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The most-cited records in this set
Representative Record
Cross-directionally stretched barrier fabrics and methods of making same
PRECISION FABRICS GROUP, INC.
Methods of making a barrier fabric include providing a web of nonwoven material that includes at least one meltblown nonwoven layer, applying a barrier finish to the web such that the web serves as a barrier to liquids, stretching the web in a widthwise or cross machine direction without hindering barrier properties of the web, and subjecting the web to conditions sufficient to cure the barrier material.Filed by Precision Fabrics Group; number and date are rendered alongside this record.
Highest-citation documents
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6176952B1 | Method of making a breathable, meltblown nonwoven | 127 |
| 2 | WO1999057355A1 | Method of making a breathable, barrier meltblown nonwoven | 82 |
| 3 | US20060084341A1 | Meltblown nonwoven webs including nanofibers and apparatus and method for forming such meltblown nonwoven webs | 44 |
| 4 | US20040235380A1 | Cross-directionally stretched barrier fabrics and methods of making same | 16 |
| 5 | WO2006044141A1 | Meltblown nonwoven WEBS including nanofibers and apparatus and method for forming such meltblown nonwoven webs | 3 |
| 6 | EP1082479B1 | Method of making a breathable, barrier meltblown nonwoven | 2 |
| 7 | EP1082479A1 | Method of making a breathable, barrier meltblown nonwoven | 1 |
Citation counts inside this corpus skew toward older filings by construction — a high count signals influence on later drafting, not that the claim is still the best available route.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (7 of 7 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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 numbers say about this field
Read together, the trend, the IPC spread and the citation table point to a small, still-forming field where claim scope is not yet locked down.
Filing pace
0 → 1 (2017–2026)
families per year, peak 1 in 2020
Sporadic, not yet a curve
Eleven families across an eleven-year window is a low, irregular filing rate. The 2022 midpoint reading of zero shows this is not a steady ramp but a field with gaps — filers are testing the space rather than committing to it in volume.
Expect the 2025–2026 count to rise once pending filings publish.
Claim overlap
D04H 11 · B32B 7 · A61F 6
records touching each subclass
Barrier claims are laminate claims
Nearly two-thirds of the set also sits in B32B and over half in A61F, meaning most protective-textile claims here are drafted as multi-layer constructions with medical-adjacent framing, not as isolated meltblown-web chemistry.
A claim confined to D04H alone is now the exception, not the rule.
Citation concentration
127 and 82 citations
top two documents' citation counts
Influence sits with two early filings
The breathable meltblown method and its barrier variant carry far more citations than anything else in the table, meaning later filers are drafting around — or on top of — those two documents specifically.
Citation weight favours older records; check filing date before assuming continued relevance.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to meltblown nonwoven protective textile, with the prior art for and against each one.
Co-assignee activity
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| KAPIK RENE | Precision Structure Group Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Nordson Corporation | SINANGIL MEHMET | 1 |
| Nordson Corporation | BODAGHI HASSAN | 1 |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | DR R VISWANATHAN | 1 |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | DR M SASI BHUSHAN | 1 |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | DR K M BAALAMURUGAN | 1 |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | DR A CECIL DONALD | 1 |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | DINESH BABU M | 1 |
Ten co-assignee pairs were found, each appearing once — there is no repeated joint-filing relationship in this set, only isolated collaborations including Nordson-linked (Nordson Corporation) pairings and one Kapik Rene / Precision Structure Group pairing.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
Assignee activity is thin and mostly historical — recent-year momentum data shows almost no filer active in the latest year, which is itself a signal for this field.
Momentum leader
1 in latest year
Toray Industries, Inc. (Toray)
The only filer active most recently
Toray Industries, Inc. is the sole assignee in this set with a filing recorded in the latest year; every other tracked assignee — Dow Chemical Company, KAPIK RENE, Nordson Corporation, Precision Structure Group Co., Ltd. and VIJAY RAMALINGAM — shows zero in that same window.
One active filer among six tracked names is a thin signal, not a trend.
Receiving offices
US 3 · WIPO 3 · EP 2
top filing jurisdictions
Filing is split across US, PCT and Europe
No single office dominates: US and WIPO (PCT) each carry three records, Europe two, India two and Australia one. That spread suggests filers are not yet committing to one primary market for enforcement.
A PCT-heavy pattern like this usually means national-phase decisions are still pending.
Citation anchor
127 citations
top-cited document in the set
One early method patent anchors the field
The most-cited record in this landscape is a method for making a breathable meltblown nonwoven — the document later filers most often cite, and the one worth checking first for freedom-to-operate.
See Key Patents for the full citation table.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toray Industries, Inc. | 1 | — |
| Dow Chemical Company | 0 | — |
| KAPIK RENE | 0 | — |
| Nordson Corporation | 0 | — |
| Precision Structure Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| VIJAY RAMALINGAM | 0 | — |
| SINANGIL MEHMET | 0 | — |
| DR R VISWANATHAN | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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
What's Next
Where to take this
The dataset flags a small, still-open field with concentrated citation weight and thin recent activity — useful starting points for deeper diligence.
Check freedom-to-operate against the two top-cited documents
Before drafting new claims in this space, review the 127- and 82-citation records directly — they anchor most of what later filers had to design around.
Explore citation chains in Eureka →Watch Toray Industries, Inc. for near-term activity
It is the only assignee with a filing in the latest tracked year; a second filing would confirm renewed commercial interest rather than a one-off.
Track assignee activity in Eureka →Probe the under-claimed IPC branches
D01D, D06C, D06N, A41D and A62B each carry only one or two records against eleven in D04H — each is a candidate for a narrowly scoped first filing.
Map white space in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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
This landscape identifies eleven published patent families matching the combined meltblown-manufacture and protective/filtration-use search criteria, covering 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. That is a small, purpose-built dataset rather than a broad nonwovens count, because it is filtered specifically to filtration media, protective fabric, barrier fabric and face mask media claims. Readers should treat this as a focused slice of a much larger general nonwovens patent universe, not the whole field.
The trend is sporadic rather than steadily rising: filing sat at zero in 2017, peaked at one family in 2020, and returned to zero at the 2022 midpoint. Because publication lags filing by around eighteen months, the 2026 figure of one family is partial and will likely revise upward once pending applications publish. On the evidence available, the honest read is that growth has not yet visibly accelerated, though the underlying interest may be understated.
D04H, covering nonwovens and felts, touches every one of the eleven records and defines the core of this landscape. B32B (layered products and laminates) and A61F (implants and prostheses) follow closely, appearing in seven and six records respectively, which shows most claims describe multi-layer barrier constructions with medical-adjacent framing rather than isolated meltblown webs. Smaller footprints in D01D, D06C, D06N, A41D and A62B mark thinner, more open sub-areas.
Assignee activity in this dataset is thin, with tracked names including Toray Industries, Inc. (Toray), Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Nordson Corporation (Nordson), Precision Structure Group Co., Ltd. and individual filers such as KAPIK RENE and VIJAY RAMALINGAM. Of these, only Toray Industries, Inc. shows a filing in the most recent tracked year, while the rest show zero recent momentum. Ten co-assignee pairs exist in the set, each appearing only once, indicating isolated collaborations rather than an established joint-filing pattern.
US20040235380A1, assigned to Precision Fabrics Group, covers methods of making a barrier fabric from a nonwoven web that includes at least one meltblown layer: applying a barrier finish, stretching the web cross-directionally without degrading barrier properties, and curing the barrier material. It matters because cross-directional stretching without loss of barrier performance is a specific, checkable process step — anyone building a stretchable barrier meltblown laminate should confirm whether their process falls inside or outside that claimed sequence. It is one of the more cited records in this landscape, so later filings in the barrier-fabric space have likely been drafted with it in view.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Nonwoven Protective Textile 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.