Microwave & RF Drying Patents: Top Companies, Trends 2026
Microwave and Radio Frequency Drying Patents: Filing Trends and Who Leads
Filings are picking back up. annual filings rose from 12 in 2021 to 21 in 2024, a 75% increase over that span, after peaking at 38 in 2017. Filings peaked at 38 in 2017, cooled through the early 2020s, then climbed from 12 in 2021 to 21 in 2024 — a 75% rise over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publication catches up with filing, so they should not be read as a slowdown.
- 1KIMBERLY CLARK WORLDWIDE INC8.7%
- 2CORNING INC5.8%
- 3DALTON ROBERT C5.4%
- 4EN WAVE CORP3.8%
- 5A CELL ACETYL CELLULOSE2.8%
See the full microwave and radio frequency drying 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 holds the most patents in microwave and RF drying?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 65 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 21 and the tenth-place holder at 15. That said, the top five assignees combined hold only 26.5% of the 744 records in scope, and the top ten hold 38.3%, so leadership at the top does not translate into control of the field. The remaining share is spread across a long tail of smaller filers, which matters for anyone assessing freedom-to-operate risk beyond the single leading portfolio.
Is the microwave and RF drying patent field growing or shrinking?
Filings peaked at 38 in 2017, then declined before recovering: from 12 filings in 2021 to 21 in 2024, a 75% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 counts look lower, but that reflects publication lag rather than an actual drop-off, since publication typically trails filing by around eighteen months. Based on the 2021-2024 window, the field is in a growth phase rather than a decline.
What technology areas dominate microwave and RF drying patents?
By IPC subclass share of the 744 records in scope, H05B (electric heating & lighting circuits) leads at 23.0%, followed by F26B (drying) at 20.0% and B01J (chemical/physical processes and catalysis) at 16.0%. Food-related classes A23L and A23P follow at 13.6% and 8.1%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and they indicate that applicator and circuit-level claims are at least as dense as drying-process claims themselves.
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 Microwave and Radio Frequency Drying 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.