PIBSA and Dispersant Chemistry Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filings peaked in 2024 at 14 and the midpoint year 2022 shows zero — growth here is flat to declining, not accelerating, so freedom-to-operate hinges on legacy grants rather than a fast-moving frontier.
- One 1998 patent, US5792730A, carries 148 citations — nearly triple the next most-cited record — meaning heavy-polyamine succinimide chemistry is still the reference point examiners and drafters measure against.
- The filing footprint is US-heavy with EPO, UK, Canada, Japan and PCT trailing so a design confined to non-US jurisdictions faces a visibly thinner prior-art wall.
A mature additive chemistry with a concentrated core
PIBSA-derived succinimide dispersants sit at the intersection of polymer chemistry and fuel/lubricant formulation, and the IPC spread confirms it: C10L (fuels) and C10M (lubricants) dominate the 163 families in this dataset, with C08F addition-polymer chemistry and C09K functional materials contributing a smaller but persistent share. This is not an emerging field — the most-cited record, US5792730A, was granted in 1998 and its citation count still dwarfs everything filed since.
Filing activity has not grown in a straight line. It peaked at 14 families in 2024 after a flat stretch through the early 2020s, which reads less like a technology in expansion and more like a mature claim space where a handful of assignees periodically refresh their positions around molecular-weight control, soot handling and deposit-control performance claims.
Filing trend and technology composition
The 163 families tracked here span 2015 through the partial 2026 filing year, with receiving-office data concentrated in the United States and Europe. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
A flat-to-declining filing curve
Filings ran near zero at the 2022 midpoint before a late push to 14 in 2024, the peak year in the series. That shape is consistent with a chemistry where the foundational claims were staked out long ago and later filings are incremental refinements rather than new territory.
Fuels and lubricants carry the weight
C10L (fuels) and C10M (lubricants) account for the bulk of records, with C10N lubricant-property classifications close behind. C08F polymer-synthesis claims and C09K materials claims form a secondary layer, and B01F mixing/stirring and F02B engine-application claims appear only at the margins.
Shares are the percentage of the 163 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on PIBSA and Dispersant Chemistry with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pibsa and dispersant chemistry and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe record every later filing works around
US5792730A — Lubricating oil succinimide dispersants derived from heavy polyamine
A succinimide dispersant, which is the reaction product of hydrocarbons or polymers functionalized by halogenation (e.g. chlorination), thermal "ene" reaction or free radical grafting and derivatized with a heavy polyamine. A heavy polyamine is a mixture of polyalkylenepolyamines comprising small amounts of lower polyamine oligomers such as tetraethylene pentamine and pentahexamine but primarily oligomers with 7 or more nitrogens, 2 or more primary amines per molecule, and more extensive branching than conventional polyamine mixtures.Filed by Exxon Chemical Patents, Inc.; granted 1998-08-11. With 148 citations in this corpus, it remains the single most-referenced document in the field.
View full patent record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5792730A | Lubricating oil succinimide dispersants derived from heavy polyamine | 148 |
| 2 | US20060223945A1 | Low color polyisobutylene succinic anhydride-derived emulsifiers | 60 |
| 3 | US20050183325A1 | Conductivity improving additive for fuel oil compositions | 55 |
| 4 | WO2004065430A1 | Low color polyisobutylene succinic anhydride-derived emulsifiers | 41 |
| 5 | US20070119529A1 | Ethoxylated surfactants for water in oil emulsions | 34 |
| 6 | WO2004099350A1 | Ethoxylated surfactants for water in oil emulsions | 22 |
| 7 | US5478367A | Fuel oil compositions | 22 |
| 8 | US20120210966A1 | Fuel additives to maintain optimum injector performance | 21 |
| 9 | US6525004B1 | Combustion improving additive for small engine lubricating oils | 21 |
| 10 | EP1568756A1 | Conductivity improving additive for fuel oil compositions | 20 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a map of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the families are broken down by year, jurisdiction and citation weight.
Growth is uneven, not sustained
A flat middle followed by a late spike suggests episodic refiling around specific performance claims — likely soot-handling or deposit-control formulations — rather than steady expansion of the underlying chemistry.
One foundational patent still anchors the field
US5792730A's citation count is more than double the next-ranked record, indicating that heavy-polyamine succinimide chemistry remains the benchmark that subsequent filings distinguish themselves from.
Coverage is US-first with thin Asian filing
Japan's 12 filings compared to the US's 43 suggests protection strategies here are built around US and European markets first, leaving Asian jurisdictions comparatively open for parallel filing.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pibsa and dispersant chemistry, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| DONNER JOHN | BENNETT JOSHUA J | 3 |
| RICHARDSON DUNCAN | DONNER JOHN | 2 |
| RICHARDSON DUNCAN | BENNETT JOSHUA J | 2 |
| Lubrizol Corporation | STECKEL THOMAS F | 1 |
| Lubrizol Corporation | PSAILA ALEX | 1 |
| Lubrizol Corporation | PRICE DAVID | 1 |
| Lubrizol Corporation | MORETON DAVID J | 1 |
| Lubrizol Corporation | HUANG NAI Z | 1 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest being Donner John with Bennett Joshua J at 3 shared families, suggesting a small, stable inventor team behind several of the more recent filings.
Who holds the ground, and where it thins out
Recent-year momentum figures show the named assignees at zero filings in the latest tracked year, including one at -100% year-on-year — consistent with the flat 2022 midpoint and confirming this is a settled rather than an actively contested field at present.
Exxon Chemical Patents set the reference chemistry
The heavy-polyamine succinimide dispersant claimed in US5792730A remains the most-cited document in the corpus, and its structure still shapes how later filings frame their point of difference.
No assignee is currently pushing volume
Every major named assignee, including Lubrizol, Infineum, Afton and ExxonMobil Chemical Patents, shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year, though the 18-month publication lag means some of this understates true 2025-2026 activity.
A small inventor team drives recent filings
Donner John and Bennett Joshua J co-appear on three families, with Richardson Duncan linked to both — a tight cluster worth tracking for where the next refinement claims originate.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Lubrizol Corporation | 0 | — |
| Infineum International Limited | 0 | -100% |
| Afton Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. | 0 | — |
| ENEOS Corporation | 0 | — |
| ALTERNATIVE GASOLINEEUM TECH | 0 | — |
| Chevron U.S.A. Inc. | 0 | — |
| RICHARDSON DUNCAN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This landscape narrows to filing counts, citations and jurisdiction — the next step is testing a specific formulation or claim draft against the actual prior art.
Check freedom-to-operate on a specific formulation
Run a candidate PIBSA or succinimide dispersant composition against the most-cited records, starting with the heavy-polyamine claims in US5792730A, before committing to a formulation route.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the co-filing cluster
Follow the Donner/Bennett/Richardson inventor group's future filings, since recurring co-assignee pairs often signal where the next round of refinement claims will land.
Monitor assignees in Patsnap EurekaDraft into the under-claimed branches
Amine-coupling stoichiometry and soot-dispersancy test methods show thin filing density relative to the core chemistry — a targeted claim there faces less crowded prior art.
Draft claims with Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on PIBSA and dispersant chemistry patents
PIBSA is polyisobutylene succinic anhydride, a reactive intermediate made by grafting maleic anhydride onto polyisobutylene, typically via a thermal "ene" reaction or free-radical route. It is the precursor most succinimide dispersants are built from, after reaction with a polyamine to form the finished dispersant molecule. In patent claims, disputes usually centre on the molecular weight of the polyisobutylene backbone, the grafting method, and the specific amine used in the coupling step.
The historical anchor patent in this dataset, US5792730A, is held by Exxon Chemical Patents, and it remains the most-cited document with 148 citations, well ahead of the next-ranked record at 60. Other assignees tracked in recent-year momentum data include Lubrizol, Infineum, Afton, ExxonMobil Chemical Patents and ENEOS, though all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. This points to a field where legacy holders set the baseline rather than one with an active new entrant pushing volume.
No — the filing trend in this dataset is flat to declining, with the midpoint year 2022 recording zero families and the peak arriving late, in 2024, at 14. That pattern looks more like periodic refiling around specific performance claims than sustained technology growth. Readers should still discount the final one to two years shown, since publication typically lags filing by about 18 months.
US5792730A claims succinimide dispersants made by functionalizing a hydrocarbon or polymer via halogenation, thermal ene reaction or free-radical grafting, then derivatizing it with a heavy polyamine defined by specific nitrogen count and branching characteristics. A formulation that uses a heavy-polyamine coupling agent matching that structural definition sits close to the claimed territory, regardless of the base polymer's exact molecular weight. Anyone formulating in this space should map their amine chemistry against this claim before finalising a route, since it is the most-cited reference in the field.
Filing density is thin in amine-coupling stoichiometry control, soot-dispersancy performance test methods, and molecular-weight distribution tuning specific to thermal-ene synthesis routes — all areas with far fewer families than the core C10L/C10M fuel and lubricant classifications. Mixing and stirring process claims under B01F also appear only at the margins of the dataset. These are the branches most likely to support a defensible first claim rather than a design-around of existing succinimide chemistry.
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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.