The ranked field of 100 companies is led by a single assignee with 169 of the 1,022 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 46 and the tenth at 29. The top five companies combined hold 439 records, or 43.0% of all records in scope, so filing is concentrated at the top with a long tail of smaller filers below it. That said, raw record counts include continuations and multiple jurisdictions for the same invention, so a family-level read gives a fairer picture of who actually controls distinct inventions.

No — filings peaked in 2019 at 97 and have since declined, falling from 90 in 2021 to 46 in 2024, a 49% drop over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the two most recent years will keep filling in as more applications publish. Based on the last fully settled year, 2024, the honest read is a documented pullback from the 2019 peak rather than a technology in early growth.

The search terms behind this dataset target six specific technical routes: refractive index matching, bubble entrapment control, yellowing resistance, reworkability, stress relaxation and curing shrinkage. These map to the practical failure modes of display lamination adhesives — optical mismatch, trapped air during bonding, UV/heat-driven discoloration over service life, the ability to remove and re-bond a panel without scrapping it, and shrinkage stress after cure. C09J (adhesive composition claims) is the single most-touched class at 23.7% of the 1,022 records, ahead of B32B lamination-construction claims at 21.2%.

Start with C09J for adhesive composition claims (23.7% of records) and B32B for layered-product and lamination-process claims (21.2%), since these two classes carry the bulk of the formulation and construction art. Then check G02F and G02B for optical-control and optical-element claims (19.0% and 16.8% respectively), and G06F if the product integrates touch sensing, since 18.1% of records touch that class. Don't skip H01L and H10K if the target device uses OLED or semiconductor-backed displays — they're smaller slices at 11.2% and 11.0% but still active fronts.

Sub-areas that appear thinner relative to the core adhesive and lamination claims include reworkable-OCA removal chemistry, curing-shrinkage compensation layers, stress-relaxation adhesives specifically for foldable displays, bubble-free vacuum-edge lamination methods, and yellowing-resistant UV-cure formulations. These are candidates rather than confirmed gaps — each needs a dedicated prior-art search before drafting, since a thin subclass share can also mean the claims are simply filed under a different, unexpected class. Given how concentrated the top of the field already is, a narrowly drafted claim in one of these branches is more defensible than trying to compete head-on with the leading assignee's core formulation claims.