Organic UV Filters Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Organic UV filter patents: mapping the sunscreen chemistry claim space
31.0% of all filings sit with five assignees. 1,058 of the 3,415 records in scope trace to the top five, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants below them. Filings ran from 141 in 2017 down to 10 in the most recent (partial) year. The reliable comparison is 2021 to 2024, where filings fell 26%, from 129 to 96 a year — a real cooling, not an artefact of publication lag, though years after 2024 are still filling in and should not be read as a continuation of the drop.
- 1BASF SE13.1%
- 2CIBA SPECIALTY CHEMICALS HOLDING INC9.0%
- 3ESSILOR INTERNATIONAL(COMPAGNIE GENERALE D OPTIQUE)3.3%
- 4EASTMAN KODAK CO2.9%
- 5CIBA SPECIALTY CHEMICALS CORP2.6%
See the full organic uv filters 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 organic UV filter patents
Who holds the most organic UV filter patents?
One assignee leads the ranked list with 449 records, well ahead of fifth place at 90 and tenth place at 55. The top five assignees combined hold 1,058 records, 31.0% of the 3,415 records in scope, so the field has a clear leader plus a long tail of companies with far smaller filing counts. The full ranking covers 100 companies, so most of the field’s activity comes from names outside that top tier.
Is organic UV filter patent filing growing or declining?
Filing peaked in 2017 at 141 records and has cooled since. The most reliable comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows a 26% decline from 129 to 96 filings a year. Years after 2024 are still being published because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, so those later years understate real activity and should not be read as confirming a further drop.
What technology areas do organic UV filter patents cover?
Most records fall under A61K (medicinal preparations) and A61Q (cosmetics use), each touching roughly a third of the 3,415 records in scope, reflecting the corpus’s emphasis on formulation and use claims. Meaningful shares also sit in C08K (polymer additives), C07D (heterocyclic compounds), C09K, C09D, G02B (optical elements) and C08L, each between about 9% and 18% of records. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
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 Organic UV Filters 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.