Metal Additive Manufacturing Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Metal Additive Manufacturing Patents: Filing Trends and Who Holds the Claims
32.0% of all 1,730 records sit with the five leading assignees, and 43.1% with the top ten — concentrated but not closed. Annual filings ran from 91 records in 2017 up to a peak of 306 in 2020, then to 174 in 2021 and 150 in 2024 — a -14% move across that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 show far fewer records, but that reflects publication lag rather than a genuine drop-off in filing.
- 1HALDOR TOPSOE AS10.6%
- 2ALIGN TECHNOLOGY INC9.1%
- 3HRL LAB5.8%
- 4DIVERGENT TECHNOLOGIES INC3.6%
- 5APPLIED MATERIALS INC2.8%
See the full metal additive manufacturing 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
Frequently asked questions
Who are the leading patent holders in metal additive manufacturing?
The corpus of 1,730 records is led by a single assignee with 183 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 49 and the tenth at 32. Together the top five hold 32.0% of all records and the top ten hold 43.1%, so leadership is real but not absolute. Below that tier the ranking runs to 100 companies, most with only a handful of filings, which means the field still has room for new entrants to build a position.
Is metal additive manufacturing patent filing growing or slowing down?
Filing peaked in 2020 at 306 records and eased to 150 by 2024, a -14% move from the 174 filed in 2021. That is a genuine cooling over that three-year window, but the very latest years in any dataset always look lower than they will eventually turn out to be, because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months. Treat 2024 as the most recent year with a reasonably complete count and be cautious reading too much into 2025-2026 figures.
What technology areas dominate metal additive manufacturing patents?
Additive manufacturing itself (IPC class B33Y) appears in 51.3% of the 1,730 records and powder metallurgy (B22F) in 34.6%, making these the two densest claim areas. Plastics shaping and welding/brazing classes also appear frequently, reflecting how much metal AM claiming borders adjacent shaping and joining art. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a strict market breakdown.
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 Metal Additive Manufacturing 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.