MAP Quality Control Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 13 records and has since drifted back toward mid-decade levels, suggesting the core inspection methods are largely staked out rather than still being opened up.
- G01M testing-machine claims dominate the corpus appearing in 85 of 90 records, while adjacent measurement classes like G01P, G01D and G01C each cover a much smaller slice — a sign of where secondary claim space sits.
- The United States receives nearly half of all filings 43 of the tracked records, well ahead of PCT, China, Europe, Canada and the UK combined, which concentrates freedom-to-operate risk in one jurisdiction.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of modified atmosphere packaging and quality-control instrumentation: headspace gas QC, seal integrity QC, leak detection and in-line inspection systems classified under B65D81/20, G01N33/00 and G01M3. It draws on 90 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
The dataset sits closer to general leak-detection and gas-sensing instrumentation than to food-packaging design proper, which shows up clearly in the IPC mix: testing and measurement classes dominate, while packaging-specific classification is a filtering criterion rather than the bulk of the claim language.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 90-family dataset: filings by year, and how those filings distribute across IPC subclasses.
A peak in 2020, then a plateau
Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 13 in 2020, then settled near 5 at the 2022 midpoint. That pattern reads as flat-to-declining rather than an emerging technology still accelerating, though the 2025-2026 figures are understated by publication lag.
Testing and measurement classes dominate
G01M (testing machines and structures) appears in 85 of 90 records, making it the near-universal classification for this corpus. G01N (material analysis), G01P (velocity/acceleration sensing), G01D (general measurement) and G01C (distance/navigation) trail well behind, each covering a minority of filings and marking narrower, more specialized claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 90 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Modified Atmosphere Packaging Quality Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about modified atmosphere packaging quality control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this corpus
US20210215567A1 — Water leak detection system integrated with indoor map
A method is provided for water leak detection that uses radio waves in which an antenna transmits a repeated pattern of radio waves that reflect from wet areas, antennas receive the reflected radio waves, signal analysis is done on the received radio waves to determine the location of the wet areas on an indoor map. Other systems and embodiments of the invention are described and shown.Filed by Ronald Koo, published 2021-07-15.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6331778B1 | Methods for detecting and locating leaks in containment facilities using electrical potential data and electr… | 99 |
| 2 | US9599597B1 | Systems and methods for likelihood-based detection of gas leaks using mobile survey equipment | 72 |
| 3 | US20160146696A1 | Gas Detection Systems and Methods Using Measurement Position Uncertainty Representations | 65 |
| 4 | US20180188129A1 | Remote leak detection system | 62 |
| 5 | US9599529B1 | Systems and methods for likelihood-based mapping of areas surveyed for gas leaks using mobile survey equipment | 57 |
| 6 | US5661406A | Methods for detecting and locating leaks in containment facilities using electrical potential data and electr… | 48 |
| 7 | US20170193790A1 | Gas Leak Detection and Location Determination | 44 |
| 8 | US20190376890A1 | Method and Systems for Remote Emission Detection and Rate Determination | 32 |
| 9 | US10126200B1 | Systems and methods for likelihood-based mapping of areas surveyed for gas leaks using mobile survey equipment | 30 |
| 10 | US9970756B2 | High-sensitivity gas-mapping 3D imager and method of operation | 30 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against each other.
Growth has already crested
The corpus peaked in 2020 and the 2022 midpoint sits at less than half that level. New entrants filing broad method claims in this space are more likely to run into prior art than to find open ground.
One testing class carries the corpus
Nearly every record touches G01M testing-machine classification, meaning the mechanical and procedural aspects of leak and seal testing are heavily claimed. Differentiation is more likely to come from sensing modality than from the test structure itself.
Risk concentrates in one office
The United States accounts for close to half of all receiving-office filings, far ahead of PCT, China, Europe, Canada and the UK. Clearance searches that stop at a home jurisdiction outside the US will miss most of the active claim set.
Influence sits with older filings
The most-cited record in the set is also one of the oldest, consistent with citation counts favoring documents that have simply been in the corpus longer. Newer filings should not be judged as less important solely because their citation counts are lower.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to modified atmosphere packaging quality control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is active, and where momentum has stalled
Recent-year filing data shows a corpus with little forward momentum among the assignees tracked: several show zero filings in the latest year, and more than one has fallen from active filing to none year-over-year.
Several filers have gone quiet
Assignees including Itron, Picarro and Neptune SRL show no filings in the most recent tracked year, which given the 18-month publication lag may partly reflect timing rather than a full stop in R&D.
Sharpest year-over-year drops
Bridger Photonics and QLM Technologies both moved from active filing to zero in the latest year, a pattern worth checking against company-level activity before reading it as market exit.
Co-assignment is rare and clustered
Only three co-assignee pairs appear across 90 families, and all three involve Schlumberger-affiliated entities, suggesting joint filing is an exception tied to one corporate group's internal structure rather than a broader industry practice.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Itron, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Picarro, Inc. | 0 | — |
| NEPTUNE SRL | 0 | — |
| BRIDGER PHOTONICS INC | 0 | -100% |
| QLM Technology Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| LEAK LOCATION SERVICES INC | 0 | — |
| Bower Aerospace Technology Company | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature core and a thinner set of adjacent branches. Two directions follow from that.
Map claim boundaries in G01M testing methods
With 85 of 90 records touching this class, a freedom-to-operate review should start here rather than treat it as background classification.
Explore the technology in EurekaTrack the Schlumberger-affiliated filing cluster
The only repeated co-assignee pairs in this corpus involve related Schlumberger entities, which is useful context for understanding how leak-detection IP is held internally within larger filers.
Review assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
It covers technology used to verify that a modified atmosphere package has the correct gas composition and an intact seal, including headspace gas QC, seal integrity QC, leak detection and in-line inspection systems. The search combines packaging classification (B65D81/20) with testing and measurement classes (G01N33/00, G01M3), so records must touch both the packaging context and an actual measurement or testing method. This excludes packaging design patents that do not address quality verification.
Ninety families across more than a decade is a small but real corpus, consistent with a narrow, cross-disciplinary niche rather than a broad packaging category. The IPC mix shows most of these records are classified primarily under general testing and measurement codes like G01M, meaning many were filed by instrumentation companies rather than packaging companies specifically. The recent-year counts are also understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months.
The assignee ranking (rendered separately on this page) shows filing activity concentrated among a mix of instrumentation and industrial gas-detection specialists, with several showing no filings in the most recent tracked year. Rather than a single dominant leader, the corpus shows activity spread across a number of filers with modest family counts each. Recent-year momentum data suggests some of these filers have slowed or paused rather than continuing to build out their portfolios.
The core testing-machine methods under G01M are heavily claimed, appearing in 85 of 90 records, so broad method claims there face dense prior art. Adjacent branches with fewer filings — such as headspace ratio drift alarms, seal-weld thermal imaging and acoustic seal testing — show up far less often in this corpus and may offer more room for a defensible first claim. Any white-space assessment should be paired with a full freedom-to-operate search rather than relying on filing counts alone.
Citation counts in a searched corpus systematically favor older documents, simply because they have had more time to be cited by later filers. The most-cited record in this dataset is also one of the older ones, which is the expected pattern rather than evidence that newer filings are less significant. Citation counts are best read as a measure of historical influence on subsequent filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Research Modified Atmosphere Packaging Quality Control in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole modified atmosphere packaging quality control corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.