Press Hardened Steel Grades Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Press hardened steel grade patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
45.5% concentration. The top five assignees combined account for 1,615 of the 3,546 records in scope, with a leader holding 918 — a steep drop to fifth place at 90. Annual filings ran at 280 in 2017, the peak so far in this dataset, easing to 171 by 2021 and 134 by 2024 — a -22% move over that span. 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in as publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so they should not be read as a continued decline.
- 1ARCELORMITTAL SA25.9%
- 2AUTOTECH ENG SL8.8%
- 3NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION5.8%
- 4MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC2.6%
- 5POHANG IRON & STEEL CO LTD2.5%
See the full press hardened steel grades 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 press hardened steel grade patents
Who holds the most patents on press hardened steel grades?
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company holding 918 of the 3,546 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top five assignees combined account for 45.5% of all records, and the gap from the leader to fifth place (90 records) is steep. Below the ranked leaders sits a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so the field is concentrated but not a monopoly.
Is patent filing in press hardened steel grades slowing down?
Filing volume peaked in 2017 at 280 records and eased to 134 by 2024, a -22% move over the 2021-2024 span that can be treated as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years always understate true activity. The honest read is a cooling from a 2017 peak, not a collapse.
What technical areas get the most patent coverage in press hardened steel?
Heat treatment of metals (IPC class C21D) appears in 47.0% of the 3,546 records in scope, and alloy composition (C22C) in 38.8%, making these the two most heavily claimed areas. Sheet-metal working, coating and surface deposition, and welding/soldering/brazing each sit in the mid-teens by share. Vehicle-specific application classes such as vehicle parts and accessories (B60R) trail well behind at 4.0%, suggesting the metallurgy itself is more densely claimed than its downstream vehicle integration.
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 Press Hardened Steel Grades 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.