Nature-Based Environmental Solutions Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Concentrated but shallow. the top 5 assignees hold 28.6% of all 21 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 52.4% — a lead group with no dominant single filer.
- Filing has cooled from its 2020 peak. activity peaked at 4 records in 2020 and fell from 4 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, a -75% swing across that span.
- Water treatment dominates the claim map. C02F covers 90.5% of all 21 records, while horticulture, separation and hydraulic engineering classes each sit near 9.5% or below.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 21 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks patent filings at the intersection of ecosystem-based remediation and conventional environmental engineering — systems that pair natural infrastructure, such as constructed wetlands or ecological restoration works, with measurable treatment functions like pollutant removal, water treatment or contaminant sampling. The scope is narrow by design: it excludes pure landscaping or afforestation filings that make no treatment claim, and it excludes generic water-treatment equipment that makes no ecological-restoration claim.
The 21 records in scope come entirely from Chinese receiving offices, which sets the frame for reading this landscape: it reflects domestic Chinese R&D and utility-model practice more than global corporate patent strategy. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so any apparent softening in the most recent one or two years understates real filing activity rather than confirming a slowdown.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 21 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 4 records in 2020, held at 4 in 2021, then declined to 1 by 2024 — a -75% move over that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag and should not be read as a continued drop.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C02F (water and wastewater treatment) appears in 90.5% of the 21 records, confirming this field is built around treatment performance rather than ecological design alone. A01G, B01D and E02B each cover 9.5% of records, with A01B, A01K, B01F and B28B each at a single-digit record count — evidence of narrow, exploratory claims rather than an established sub-field.
Shares are the percentage of the 21 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Nature-Based Environmental Solutions Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
CN120117677A — Photovoltaic-storage integrated water treatment and mine ecological restoration system
The filing combines a water treatment unit with a photovoltaic power unit so that solar energy collected on site drives the water treatment equipment used in mine ecological restoration. The stated aim is to remove dependence on grid connections at remote mine sites, where connection fees and ongoing maintenance costs are otherwise high, by storing and releasing solar energy as needed to power water treatment and routine upkeep.Filed 2025-06-10 by Zhongye Nanfang Metropolis Environmental Protection Engineering Technology Co., Ltd.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN109574432A | 一种湖水生态修复系统 | 6 |
| 2 | CN212581587U | 一种膨化SiO<sub>2</sub>生物笼 | 4 |
| 3 | CN119430588A | 一种水生态修复系统及修复方法 | 3 |
| 4 | CN105439376A | 一种用于重度有机污染地表水的修复系统及其修复方法 | 3 |
| 5 | CN216236269U | 用于治理农业面源对河道污染的组合式生态修复系统 | 2 |
| 6 | CN212581671U | 一种恢复水生态系统的治理与修复装置 | 2 |
| 7 | CN211770856U | 一种改善河道黑臭水体的生态修复系统 | 2 |
| 8 | CN109081521A | 一种用于治理农村面源污染的生态修复系统 | 2 |
| 9 | CN219546812U | 一种用于微污染水体处理的生态修复系统 | 1 |
| 10 | CN214990581U | 一种针对点源污染的生态修复系统 | 1 |
Citation counts reflect an older-record bias inherent to citation analysis within a bounded corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three readings of the same dataset, framed around where to file, who to watch, and what remains genuinely open.
A lead group, not a dominant player
The top 5 assignees account for 28.6% of all 21 records and the top 10 for 52.4%, with the leader holding only 2 records. That spread means no single organisation has locked up core claim space — a new entrant is competing against a scattered field rather than one entrenched incumbent.
Activity has cooled from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 4 records in 2020, held through 2021, then fell to 1 by 2024 — a -75% move over that span. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence the field has stopped moving.
Water treatment is the anchor claim
Nearly all activity in this landscape ties back to C02F water and wastewater treatment claims, with horticulture (A01G), separation (B01D) and hydraulic engineering (E02B) each present in under 10% of records. That imbalance suggests treatment performance, not ecological design mechanics, is where applicants currently stake their claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nature-based environmental solutions patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where they are not
The ranked leaders are drawn entirely from Chinese applicants — research institutes, engineering groups and specialist environmental firms — filed almost exclusively through Chinese receiving offices.
No single dominant filer
The top-ranked assignee holds only 2 of the 21 records in scope, and fifth place already drops to 1. This is a fragmented field of research institutes, municipal construction groups and specialist environmental engineering firms rather than one built around a patent-heavy incumbent.
Very little joint filing
The dataset shows only one recurring co-assignee pairing, a water-treatment engineering firm alongside a vocational technical college. Co-filing is not yet a norm in this space, which points to mostly single-organisation R&D rather than formal industry-academia patent partnerships.
Momentum has stalled across the named leaders
Several of the assignees with the strongest historical counts show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Combined with publication lag, this makes recent-year momentum an unreliable basis for ranking current leadership — the 2020-2021 filers, not the newest ones, still define the field's core claims.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Beijing Gaoneng Times Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Chongqing Dafang Ecological Environment Treatment Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Zhao Yu | 0 | — |
| Fuzhou Yingke Water Treatment Engineering Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection | 0 | — |
| Hunan Longjie Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Zhejiang Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Yuansheng Water Affairs Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio positioning or identifying a first-filer opportunity.
Check freedom-to-operate around C02F claims
With 90.5% of records touching water and wastewater treatment classes, any new filing that combines ecological restoration with a treatment step should be checked against this dense claim space before drafting.
Explore the C02F landscape in Eureka →Track the fragmented leader group
No single assignee holds more than 2 records, so competitive monitoring should follow the group of ranked leaders collectively rather than a single incumbent.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Scope a first claim in an under-claimed branch
Sub-areas like solar-powered remediation power units or restoration sampling sensors carry only a handful of records each, leaving room to define the category rather than design around it.
Draft and search a new claim in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
This landscape identifies 21 published records matching the ecosystem-based remediation and natural infrastructure search criteria, all filed through Chinese receiving offices between 2015 and 2026. That is a narrow, specific slice of the broader environmental technology field, not a count of every wetland or green-infrastructure patent globally. Because it is family-based, the figure is a fairer measure of distinct inventions than a raw document count would be.
The field is fragmented: across a ranking of 22 assignees, the leader holds only 2 records, and the top 5 combined account for 28.6% of all 21 records in scope. The top 10 assignees together reach 52.4% of records. This means no single organisation currently controls the core claim space, so competitive tracking should follow the group of leaders rather than one incumbent.
Filings peaked at 4 records in 2020, stayed at 4 in 2021, then fell to 1 by 2024 — a -75% change over that three-year window. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as confirmation the field has stalled. 2024 is the most recent year that can reasonably be treated as a complete data point.
Water and wastewater treatment, IPC class C02F, appears in 90.5% of the 21 records in scope, making it by far the dominant claim area. Horticulture and forestry (A01G), separation processes (B01D) and hydraulic engineering (E02B) each appear in about 9.5% of records, with several other classes appearing in only a single record. This distribution shows the field is currently anchored in treatment performance claims rather than in ecological design mechanics.
Sub-areas such as solar-powered remediation power units, combined agricultural-runoff and river restoration systems, and ecological restoration sampling sensors each show only a small number of records in this dataset. These branches sit adjacent to the dominant water-treatment claims but are not yet densely claimed, which gives a well-drafted first filing more room to define rather than design around existing rights. Any filing strategy here should still be checked against the C02F-heavy core of the landscape for overlap.
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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.