Mud Pumps Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Mud Pumps and Circulating Systems Patents: Leaders, Filing Trends and Open Claim Space
43.0% of all 1,171 records sit with just five assignees, and the top ten hold 66.5% — a field concentrated at the top with a long tail behind it. Filings ran from 49 in 2017 to a peak of 101 in 2020, then declined to 65 in 2021 and 28 in 2024 — a 57% fall over that three-year span. That is the last window the data treats as complete; years after 2024 are still accumulating publications.
- 1HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC135
- 2PERFORMANCE PULSATION CONTROL INC124
- 3SCHLUMBERGER TECH CORP88
- 4CABOT CORP83
- 5SPM OIL & GAS INC74
See the full mud pumps and circulating systems 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 mud pump patents
Who holds the most patents on mud pumps and circulating systems?
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company with 135 of the 1,171 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 74. The top five assignees together hold 43.0% of all records, and the top ten hold 66.5%, so filing activity is concentrated among a small group of established oilfield-services companies rather than spread evenly. Beyond the top ten there is a long tail of assignees with only a handful of filings each, which is typical for a mature mechanical field with a few dominant incumbents.
Is patent filing in mud pump technology growing or slowing down?
Filings peaked in 2020 at 101 and then declined to 65 in 2021 and 28 in 2024, a 57% drop over that three-year window, which is the most recent span the data treats as complete. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are still being filled in and should not be read as an active decline. Based on the complete years, though, the field has genuinely cooled from its 2020 high.
What technology areas dominate mud pump patent claims?
Positive-displacement pump mechanics (IPC class F04B) appear on 55.1% of the 1,171 records, and earth/rock drilling context (E21B) appears on 43.0%, making this primarily a mechanical pump field set within a drilling-systems frame. Supporting areas like pipe fittings (F16L, 13.4%), valves (F16K, 5.9%) and polymer chemistry for seals and liners (C08K, C08J, C08L, each roughly 5-7%) are present but far less densely claimed. That gap suggests chemistry-adjacent and valve-specific claims may face less crowded prior art than core pump-mechanics claims.
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 Mud Pumps and Circulating Systems 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.