Membrane Filtration and Desalination Patents: Who Holds the Claim Space
Filing has cooled sharply since its 2017 peak. 143 filings that year fell to 51 by the midpoint of 2022 and 14 in the most recent (partial) year — a declining trend, not a growing one. Filings ran at 143 in 2017, roughly a third of that by 2022 at 51, and down to 14 in the most recent partial year. Read against the publication lag, the true recent-year figure is higher than shown, but the multi-year direction from 143 to 51 is a genuine decline, not a data artefact.
- 1TORAY INDUSTRIES INC8.2%
- 2EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIES LLC3.2%
- 3KOBELCO ECO SOLUTIONS CO LTD2.0%
- 4KK TOSHIBA1.8%
- 5KURITA WATER INDUSTRIES LTD1.7%
See the full membrane filtration and desalination 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 membrane filtration patents
Is membrane filtration and desalination patent filing still growing?
No. Filing peaked in 2017 at 143 records in this dataset and has declined since, falling to roughly a third of that by 2022 and to 14 in the most recent partial year. Publication lag of about 18 months means the very latest year is understated, but the multi-year trend from 2017 through 2022 is a genuine decline rather than a data artefact. This points to a field where core claim territory was staked out earlier in the period.
Which companies lead in membrane filtration patents?
The dataset tracks recent-year momentum across a set of assignees including Vito Co., Ltd., Toray Industries, Inc., Evoqua Water Technologies LLC and others, and only one of them shows a positive filing count in the latest year. Most tracked assignees, including historically active filers like Toray Industries, Inc., show zero filings in the most recent year — a -100% year-over-year change in that case. This suggests the leadership picture is less about one dominant filer accelerating and more about a field where activity is broadly slowing across established names.
What patent classifications cover reverse osmosis desalination technology?
This landscape is scoped to IPC classes B01D61, B01D71 and C02F1, covering separation processes and water/wastewater treatment. In the underlying record set, B01D accounts for 1,836 of 2,145 records and C02F for 1,398, confirming these two subclasses carry almost all of the claim weight. Smaller overlaps appear in catalysis (B01J), food (A23L) and sugar/fermentation classes (C13K, C07C, C12P, C13B), reflecting adjacent industrial uses of membrane separation rather than core desalination activity.
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 Membrane Filtration and Desalination 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.