Protective Fabric Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
A data-backed look at protective fabric patents: who leads filing, how concentrated the field is, where filings are growing, and which technology branches remain open.
Filing growth = 2021 (39 records) → 2024 (40); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 1,815 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What the protective fabric patent record actually shows
Protective fabric patenting spans woven and nonwoven construction, garment assembly, layered laminates and fibre chemistry, reflected in the 1,815 records captured under IPC classes D01, D03 and D04 between 2015 and 2026. The dataset is dominated by mechanical and structural claims rather than pure chemistry: woven fabric and weaving methods (D03D) and outerwear and garment construction (A41D) carry the largest share of filings, with nonwovens and layered laminates close behind. This is a field built on combinations — fibre plus structure plus finish — more often than on a single novel material.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has settled into a steadier pace since, with 2021-2024 essentially flat once the most recent, still-incomplete years are set aside. Ownership is moderately concentrated at the top but the bulk of the field is held by companies filing only a handful of families each, which is the pattern to expect when a technology area rewards incremental combination claims over a small number of foundational patents.
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Filing trend, technology mix and where applicants file
These figures come directly from the 1,815 records in scope and the 100-company assignee ranking the dataset returns; nothing here is extrapolated.
A field that peaked in 2017 and has since flattened
Filings ran from 97 in 2017 down toward the low double digits by the most recent, still-filling-in years. Across the three most recent complete years, 2021 to 2024, filings moved from 39 to 40 — a 3% increase, essentially flat. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the final one to two years on the chart will revise upward and should not be read as a decline.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Woven construction and garment assembly dominate the claim space
D03D (woven fabrics & weaving) appears in 49.6% of records and A41D (outerwear & garments) in 32.9%, well ahead of nonwovens (D04H, 29.4%) and laminates (B32B, 24.6%). Chemical filament features (D01F), yarn texturing (D02G), knitting (D04B) and textile chemical treatment (D06M) each cover a smaller, more specialised slice — treatment chemistry in particular sits at just 8.8%, the thinnest coverage of the eight subclasses tracked.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,815 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Protective Fabric Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about protective fabric patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents setting the citation baseline
US20180105960A1 — Novel Light Flame-Retardant Heat-Insulated Warm-Retention Protective Fabric and Preparation Method Thereof
The application discloses a light, flame-retardant, heat-insulating protective fabric made by ring-spun core-spun spinning of soluble fibres wrapped around core fibres, weaving the resulting yarn into a grey fabric, then dissolving the soluble fibre component before dyeing and finishing. The result is a hollow-yarn fabric — woven or knit — that traps still air for insulation while keeping the structure light.Filed by an individual inventor (YU, YANPING), published 2018-04-19 — illustrative of the fibre-plus-structure combination claims common across this dataset.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4502479A | Water-activated casting material | 235 |
| 2 | US6155084A | Protective articles made of a composite fabric | 233 |
| 3 | US5965223A | Layered composite high performance fabric | 216 |
| 4 | US5208098A | Self-bonded nonwoven web and porous film composites | 211 |
| 5 | US20050079379A1 | Enhancement of barrier fabrics with breathable films and of face masks and filters with novel fluorochemical … | 176 |
| 6 | US5399418A | Multi-ply textile fabric especially for protection suits and the like | 174 |
| 7 | US3916447A | Low cost, absorbent, clinging, aqueous liquid barrier protective covering | 153 |
| 8 | US20030228812A1 | Flame resistant fabrics comprising filament yarns | 148 |
| 9 | US20060008643A1 | Polypropylene based fibers and nonwovens | 141 |
| 10 | US20040002273A1 | Liquid repellent nonwoven protective material | 139 |
Citation counts favour older documents simply by virtue of being in the corpus longer; treat them as a measure of influence on later filings, not as a signal of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and technology data mean for filing strategy
Three patterns matter more than the raw counts: how concentrated ownership is, which structural claim space is already dense, and which offices see the most filing.
The top of the field is thin, the tail is long
Five assignees hold 380 of the 1,815 records in scope — 20.9% — and the top 10 combined reach 28.5%. That leaves more than seven in ten records spread across a long tail of the ranked leaders and beyond, consistent with a field built on incremental combination claims rather than a handful of blocking patents.
Woven construction is the most crowded branch to search
Nearly half of all records carry a D03D classification, making woven fabric and weaving-method claims the densest prior-art zone in this dataset. A41D garment construction is the second-largest at 32.9%, meaning most filings combine a structural weave claim with a garment-assembly claim rather than staying in one lane.
Flat, not falling
Filing moved from 39 records in 2021 to 40 in 2024, a 3% increase across the last three years that can be treated as complete. The 2017 peak of 97 has not been repeated, but the recent trend reads as steady rather than declining once the lag in publication is accounted for.
US and EPO carry the most filing volume
The United States leads at 444 records, ahead of the EPO at 314 and WIPO/PCT at 161. China, Australia and Canada each carry over a hundred records, indicating protective fabric filers are pursuing broad multi-jurisdiction coverage rather than concentrating in a single market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to protective fabric patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP | GPCP IP Holdings LLC | 4 |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | Consoltex Inc. | 2 |
| Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP | Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP | 2 |
| Atofina Research | DEMAIN AXEL | 2 |
| Kaneka Corporation | Asahi Kasei Trading Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| Kaneka Corporation | Asahi Kasei Corporation | 2 |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | ZHU REIYAO H | 1 |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | ZHU REIYAO | 1 |
The dataset records only 10 co-assignee pairs, the strongest linking two related corporate entities across four shared records — evidence that most protective fabric patenting here is done by a single owner rather than through joint filing arrangements.
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing new claim space, or tracking a competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on woven and garment claims
With D03D and A41D covering the largest share of records, any new protective fabric filing should be checked against these two subclasses first before assuming clear space.
Search prior art in Eureka →Map the long tail behind the top 10
With 28.5% of records held by the top 10 and the rest spread thin, competitive tracking should extend past the leaders into the many single- and few-filing entrants.
Explore assignee rankings in Eureka →Watch the thin treatment-chemistry branch
D06M textile chemical treatment covers just 8.8% of records — the smallest share tracked — making it worth a closer look for underclaimed combinations.
Analyse white space in Eureka →Common questions about protective fabric patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset lists 100 companies, with the leader holding 159 of the 1,815 records in scope. The next four ranked companies combine with the leader to reach 380 records, or 20.9% of the field, so ownership is moderately concentrated at the top but far from dominated by one player. Most of the remaining records are spread across a long tail of companies filing only a handful of families each, which is typical in a technology area built on combination claims rather than a single foundational patent.
Based on the three most recent complete filing years, the field is essentially flat: filings moved from 39 in 2021 to 40 in 2024, a 3% increase. Filing peaked earlier, in 2017 at 97 records, and has settled to a steadier pace since. Recent years should not be read as a decline, because patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months and the newest years in any dataset are always undercounted until later publications catch up.
Woven fabric and weaving methods, classified under D03D, appear in 49.6% of the 1,815 records in scope, making it the single largest technology branch. Outerwear and garment construction (A41D) follows at 32.9%, with nonwovens (D04H) and layered laminates (B32B) also well represented. Because a single patent record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, which reflects how often protective fabric claims combine a structural approach with a garment or laminate application.
The United States receiving office carries the most volume at 444 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 314 and the WIPO/PCT route at 161. China, Australia and Canada each account for over a hundred records. This spread indicates that companies active in this space typically pursue coverage across several major jurisdictions rather than filing in a single market, which is worth factoring into any freedom-to-operate search.
US20180105960A1 covers a specific preparation method: ring-spun core-spun yarn made from soluble fibres wrapped around core fibres, woven into a grey fabric, then dissolved to leave a hollow-yarn structure before dyeing and finishing. It does not block protective fabrics generally, only this particular sequence of spinning, weaving and selective fibre dissolution used to create an insulating hollow-yarn structure. Anyone working with core-spun yarn or soluble-fibre removal techniques for insulation should review its claims closely, but alternative routes to hollow or insulating yarn structures — different fibre removal chemistry, different spinning method — would sit outside its specific claim language.
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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.