Polyoxymethylene (POM) Resins Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 44.3% of all 10,080 records sit with just five assignees, so most of the claim space around homopolymer and copolymer formulation is already staked out by a small group.
- Filings have fallen since the 2019 peak of 210 to single digits by 2026, though the last year or two are always undercounted because publication lags filing by about 18 months.
- C08L compositions cover 54.4% of records while bearing- and shaft-related F16C filings sit at just 3.9%, marking wear-part integration as comparatively open ground.
What this landscape covers
Polyoxymethylene, sold widely as acetal or POM, is a crystalline engineering thermoplastic valued for dimensional stability, low friction and creep resistance under sustained load. This landscape tracks 10,080 patent records published between 2015 and 2026 whose title or abstract reference polyoxymethylene, POM acetal resin or polyacetal alongside terms tied to formaldehyde emission control, dimensional stability, creep, wear, friction, homopolymer or copolymer chemistry, or fuel-contact applications. The scope spans both resin composition claims and the additive, stabiliser and processing routes used to tune them.
Records are drawn from major receiving offices led by Japan, the United States, Europe and China, reflecting where POM resin producers and their automotive and consumer-goods customers have historically sought protection.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 10,080-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how that activity splits across the IPC subclasses that describe the technology.
A peak in 2019, then a steady decline
Filings rose to 200 in 2017 and peaked at 210 in 2019, the high point of the tracked period. From there the count falls through the 2022 midpoint of 97 down to single digits by 2026. Part of that final drop is a publication-lag artefact, but the multi-year decline from 2019 predates the lag window and reflects a genuine slowdown in new filing activity.
Composition claims dominate; wear-part integration is thinner
C08L (polymer compositions) touches 54.4% of the 10,080 records and C08K (additives) another 33.1%, confirming that most activity is about tuning the resin itself. Shaping (B29C, 6.8%), bearing and shaft hardware (F16C, 3.9%) and addition-polymer chemistry (C08F, 3.5%) each cover a much smaller share, which is where component-level integration claims are comparatively sparse.
Shares are the percentage of the 10,080 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polyoxymethylene (POM) Engineering Resins with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polyoxymethylene (pom) engineering resins and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
Polyacetal resin composition having excellent wear resistance and abruption-preventing effect (US7098262B2)
Disclosed is a polyacetal resin composition including a polyoxymethylene homopolymer or copolymer, an antioxidant, a thermal stabilizer, a polyethylene vinylacetate copolymer and hydroxyl pentacrythritol fatty acid ester. The polyacetal resin composition is excellent in mechanical properties, chemical resistance, heat resistance, dimensional stability, and electrical properties. Further, the composition is advantageous in terms of superior wear resistance and abruption-preventing effect.Filed by Korea Engineering Plastics Co., Ltd., this record ties a specific additive combination directly to wear resistance and abruption prevention, the kind of narrow but commercially relevant claim that recurs across the wear- and friction-tagged portion of this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5476653A | Polyoxymethylene-oxyethylene copolymers in conjunction with biomolecules | 357 |
| 2 | EP0319290A2 | Resin composition | 296 |
| 3 | US6221103B1 | Device and method for restructuring heart chamber geometry | 282 |
| 4 | US20020022880A1 | Device and method for restructuring heart chamber geometry | 191 |
| 5 | US4146495A | Detergent compositions comprising polyacetal carboxylates | 186 |
| 6 | US4423185A | Thermoplastic resinous composition | 172 |
| 7 | US20030139520A1 | Interlayer film for laminated glass and laminated glass | 167 |
| 8 | US20040242803A1 | Resin composition and molded article, film, and fiber each comprising the same | 157 |
| 9 | US20040137228A1 | Polymer powders for SIB processes | 141 |
| 10 | US4410595A | Laminate of thermoplastic resinous composition | 137 |
Citation counts favour older records inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The top of the field is crowded
Almost half of all records in scope sit with five companies, which means core homopolymer and copolymer composition space is heavily occupied. New entrants filing broad composition claims are likely to run into dense prior art rather than open ground.
Momentum has cooled since 2019
The midpoint year of 2022 recorded 97 filings, roughly half the 2019 peak, and the decline continues through the most recent data. This is consistent with a technology where the core chemistry is settled and activity has shifted toward incremental additive and processing claims rather than new base compositions.
Component integration is thinly claimed
Composition and additive classes (C08L, C08K) dominate at 54.4% and 33.1% of records respectively, but claims that tie POM formulation to specific bearing, shaft or coupling hardware sit at just 3.9%. That gap is a plausible area to search before assuming freedom to operate, or to target for new filings.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polyoxymethylene (pom) engineering resins, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where momentum has stalled
The ranked leaders account for the majority of filing volume, but recent-year momentum data shows almost all of the largest names have gone quiet in the most recent tracked year.
One company sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's record count is roughly five times the fifth-place figure of 365, a gap wide enough that displacing the top position through volume filing alone is not realistic in this space.
A steep drop-off after the top ten
Filing counts fall from 365 at fifth place to 155 at tenth, and the top ten combined account for 55.1% of all 10,080 records in scope. Below that, the ranking thins into a long tail of smaller filers.
The largest historical filers have gone quiet
Recent-year momentum figures show several of the historically largest assignees recording zero or near-zero filings in the latest tracked year, with year-over-year changes as steep as -100%. Some of this reflects publication lag, but the pattern is broad enough across multiple leaders to suggest a genuine pause in new filing rather than a reporting artefact alone.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BASF SE | 2 | 0% |
| Polyplastics Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Asahi Kasei Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. | 0 | — |
| Ticona GmbH | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hoechst AG | 0 | — |
| Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation | 0 | — |
Turning this landscape into a filing or clearance decision
The dataset shows where claim density sits today; deciding what to do about it means running the same questions against your own product formulation and target markets.
Check freedom to operate against the top holders
Before filing a new POM composition claim, screen it against the leading assignees' portfolios directly, since the top five alone cover 44.3% of all records in scope.
Run a freedom-to-operate search →Probe the under-claimed branches
Bearing, shaft and fuel-contact integration claims sit well below the density of core composition filings, which makes them worth a closer look for both clearance and new filing opportunities.
Explore white space in Eureka →Track whether the slowdown reverses
Filing activity has fallen every year since the 2019 peak; watch whether the most recent, still-understated years reverse that trend once publication catches up.
Set up a filing trend alert →Common questions about POM resin patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 1,796 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 365 and the tenth-place holder at 155. The top five assignees combined account for 44.3% of all 10,080 records in scope, and the top ten for 55.1%. Below the top ten, filing counts drop off sharply into a long tail of smaller contributors, so most of the durable claim density sits with a small group of established resin producers.
Filings peaked at 210 in 2019 after running around 200 in 2017, then declined through the 2022 midpoint of 97 down to single digits by 2026. This is a genuine multi-year decline rather than just a reporting gap, though the very last one or two years are always undercounted because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. Anyone reading the most recent year's low count as the true current filing rate should adjust for that lag.
US7098262B2, assigned to Korea Engineering Plastics, claims a polyacetal resin composition combining a POM homopolymer or copolymer with an antioxidant, a thermal stabiliser, a polyethylene vinylacetate copolymer and hydroxyl pentaerythritol fatty acid ester, aimed at wear resistance and abruption prevention. It does not block POM formulations generally; it blocks that specific additive combination and the wear/abruption performance claims tied to it. A formulation using different stabiliser or wear-additive chemistry, or a different combination ratio, would sit outside its claim scope, though a proper clearance check should compare claim language directly.
Relative to core composition claims, which cover 54.4% of the 10,080 records through IPC class C08L, and additive claims at 33.1% through C08K, component-integration classes are comparatively thin: bearing and shaft hardware (F16C) sits at 3.9% and addition-polymer blending (C08F) at 3.5%. These lower-density branches, including bearing and shaft integration and fuel-contact grade formulations, are reasonable starting points for both freedom-to-operate checks and new filing strategy.
Japan is the largest receiving office in this dataset with 2,628 records, ahead of the United States at 1,446 and European filings at 1,438. China follows at 593, with WIPO PCT filings at 550 and Germany at 501. The Japan-led pattern is consistent with the historical concentration of major POM resin producers and their downstream automotive and electronics customers in that market.
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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.