Within this dataset's five-company ranking, one assignee holds 20 of the tracked records, far ahead of the rest, while the fifth-ranked holder has only one. That gap indicates a single company built out most of the foundational claims around bulked continuous filament manufacturing from recycled feedstock, with the remaining ranked companies holding narrow, specific positions rather than competing broadly across the same claim space. Anyone entering this field should review that leader's granted claims first, since a new filing is more likely to run into its scope than into any of the smaller holders'.

Filings peaked at 8 in 2020 and have since settled at low single digits, with 1 filing in 2021 and 1 in 2024 — 0% change across that span. That is best read as a plateau rather than a decline, since publication lags filing by around 18 months and the very latest years in any such dataset are always undercounted. The complete-year data through 2024 shows a mature, not a growing, filing rate.

All 24 records in scope classify under C08J, covering polymer processing and treatment of polymer waste, and the large majority also carry shaping (B29C), filament/fibre feature (D01F) and plastics-preparation (B29B, D01D) classes. Only 62.5% of records carry B01D, the class specific to separation and filtration processes, meaning most filings frame melt filtration as one step inside a broader fibre or article-manufacturing claim rather than as a standalone separation invention. That split matters for drafting: a claim written narrowly around the filtration mechanism itself sits in a comparatively less crowded slice of the space.

WO2026080783A1, filed by Valerio, Thomas A. in 2026, covers a full process for recycling automotive shredder residue into specification-controlled thermoplastics: density separation of a metal-reduced feed, shredding and friction-cleaning, extrusion through a screen-changed melt-filtration zone with vacuum devolatilization, and use of coupling agents such as organic titanates, zirconates and aluminates during extrusion. As a system-and-process claim tied specifically to ASR feedstock, it is most likely to constrain other filers working with mixed automotive shredder waste and similar contaminated feed streams, rather than melt filtration of cleaner post-consumer plastic generally. It is a recent filing near the end of the tracked window, so its prosecution and final claim scope are still worth monitoring.

The clearest gap is the separation-specific slice: only 62.5% of the 24 records in scope carry the B01D filtration classification, while the rest fold filtration into broader processing or fibre-spinning claims. That leaves room for filings that claim the filtration or screen-change mechanism itself, independent of a specific downstream article like carpet filament. The thin international footprint outside the United States — Australia, WIPO/PCT and India together account for a small minority of receiving-office filings — also suggests less claim density to design around in non-US jurisdictions.