Recycled Content Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Fragmented ownership. the leading assignee holds only 96 of 9,691 records, and the top 5 combined reach just 3.5% of all filings in scope.
- Data workflows, not lab testing. G06Q and G06F data-processing classes cover roughly half or more of all records, while material-analysis claims (G01N) sit at just 2.8%.
- Late, uneven growth. filings ran flat through the 2022 midpoint (883) before surging to a 2025 peak of 2,374 — this is a recent, still-forming field.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers recycled content verification and mass balance certification filings — the methods used to trace, allocate, and certify recycled or sustainable material content through a supply chain. It spans allocation-rule logic, third-party certification workflows, chain-of-custody traceability, and claim substantiation across 9,691 published records from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off.
Most of the claim activity sits in data-processing and ledger technology rather than materials science, reflecting how mass-balance certification has developed as an accounting and audit-trail problem as much as a chemistry one.
Filing trends and technology composition
The filing trend and IPC composition below are drawn from the full set of 9,691 records in scope, spanning receiving offices from China to WIPO.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 167 in 2017 to a peak of 2,374 in 2025; 2026 shows 735 so far but the cut-off date means this year is still incomplete. The midpoint year, 2022 at 883, sits well below the 2025 peak, so growth has not been steady — it accelerated late rather than compounding year over year.
Where the claims sit
G06Q (business-process and admin data handling) and G06F (general digital data processing) between them touch roughly half or more of all 9,691 records, confirming that most filings frame recycled-content verification as a data-workflow problem rather than a materials-science one. Physical-testing classes such as G01N remain thin by comparison.
Shares are the percentage of the 9,691 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Recycled Content Verification and Mass Balance with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about recycled content verification and mass balance and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA foundational filing in claim substantiation
Third-Party Certification Using Enhanced Claim Validation (US20090198596A1)
The filing describes receiving a unique item identifier at a supply-chain node, pulling event data tied to that identifier, and issuing a third-party certification of a claimed characteristic based on that event data — a three-step sequence that predates blockchain-based traceability filings by nearly a decade.Filed by AgInfoLink Holdings, a BVI corporation, on 2009-08-06.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180096175A1 | Blockchain Enabled Packaging | 670 |
| 2 | US20030158960A1 | System and method for establishing a privacy communication path | 627 |
| 3 | US20220187847A1 | Robot Fleet Management for Value Chain Networks | 335 |
| 4 | US20180285810A1 | Systems and methods of blockchain transaction recordation in a food supply chain | 314 |
| 5 | CN107911216A | 一种区块链交易隐私保护方法及系统 | 299 |
| 6 | US20180094953A1 | Distributed Manufacturing | 276 |
| 7 | US7257552B1 | Consumer products distribution system | 276 |
| 8 | US20110282476A1 | Systems and methods of on demand manufacturing of customized products | 257 |
| 9 | US20170262862A1 | Method and apparatus for managing and providing provenance of product using blockchain | 249 |
| 10 | US6995675B2 | Method and system for agricultural data collection and management | 244 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings accumulate citations over more years, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the record set is broken down by technology class, filer, and year — each has a direct bearing on where to file and what to watch.
Ownership is thin at the top
The leading assignee holds 96 records and the top 10 combined reach only 5.4% of all filings in scope. That is a low-concentration field: no single portfolio controls enough claim space to dictate terms, and clearance work has to span a long tail rather than a shortlist.
Business-process claims dominate
Nearly six in ten of the 9,691 records carry a G06Q business-data-processing classification, and G06F digital-processing claims sit close behind at 49.0%. Verification and mass-balance inventions are overwhelmingly framed as software and workflow patents, not materials or testing patents.
Growth arrived late and unevenly
Filings sat at 883 by the 2022 midpoint, well under half the eventual 2025 peak of 2,374, before the 2026 count of 735 shows an apparent pullback. Publication lag means the most recent year always understates true filing activity, so treat the 2026 figure as provisional.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to recycled content verification and mass balance, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| State Grid Corporation of China | State Grid Blockchain Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. | 20 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | State Grid Digital Technology Holdings Co., Ltd. | 19 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | Liaoning Electric Power Trading Center Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | Jiangxi Electric Power Trading Center Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | Beijing Electric Power Trading Center Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | Eastern Inner Mongolia Electric Power Trading Center Co., Ltd. | 8 |
| State Grid Corporation of China | China Electric Power Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 7 |
| China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. | China Mobile Information Technology Co., Ltd. | 6 |
Co-assignee pairing is limited to 10 pairs across the dataset, and the strongest pairing links two entities inside the same state-grid group at 20 shared records — a sign that most filers here act alone rather than in joint ventures.
Who is filing, and how concentrated is the field
Ownership across the 100-company assignee ranking is notably thin: the leader holds 96 records and even the tenth-place filer holds only 31, out of 9,691 records in scope. That spread points to a field still being staked out rather than one already carved up.
Largest single portfolio
The leading assignee's 96 records represent a small fraction of the 9,691-record field, underscoring how little of this space any one filer has locked down. Their claim scope is worth checking first, but it is not a gatekeeper position.
Combined leading share
Five leading filers together hold 335 records, just 3.5% of all records in scope. Clearance and licensing strategy in this field has to look well beyond the top names.
Limited collaboration
Only 10 co-assignee pairings appear across the dataset, and the strongest is a state-grid group pairing at 20 shared records. Most filers here are building portfolios independently rather than through joint ventures.
Cooling at the top
Several of the historically largest filers show flat or sharply negative year-on-year filing counts in the latest year, including one drop of 88%. That cooling at the top is consistent with a field where new activity is shifting toward less established filers.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications | 2 | 0% |
| State Grid Corporation of China | 1 | -88% |
| Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. | 1 | 0% |
| Strong Force VCN Portfolio 2019 LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Eastman Chemical Company | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 0 | — |
| SICPA Holding SA | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The figures here describe the field as a whole; a specific filing decision needs a closer read of individual claims and filers.
Check freedom to operate against the cited leaders
Run the specific method-step language of the most-cited records, starting with the third-party certification sequence in US20090198596A1, against any planned architecture before filing.
Run a claim check in EurekaTrack the assignees still filing actively
Momentum has cooled for several historically large filers; watch which of the ranked leaders keep filing in the current year rather than assuming past volume predicts future activity.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaScope a claim in the under-claimed branches
Sensor-to-ledger linkage and lab-to-allocation coupling remain thinly claimed relative to their operational importance — draft a first claim there before the space fills in.
Explore white space in EurekaFrequently asked questions
No single company dominates this field: the leading assignee holds 96 of the 9,691 records in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined account for only 3.5% of all records. That means the field is fragmented across a long tail of filers rather than concentrated in a handful of portfolios. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should expect to check many smaller filers rather than a short list of gatekeepers.
Yes — this dataset contains thousands of granted and published applications covering claim substantiation, allocation-rule logic, and third-party certification workflows, so the underlying methods are treated as patentable subject matter in practice. Most filings frame the invention as a data-processing or ledger workflow (IPC classes G06Q and G06F together touch roughly half or more of the 9,691 records) rather than a chemistry or materials claim. Physical-sample verification tied to certification, by contrast, is only lightly claimed, which is where genuine open space remains.
Business-process and data-processing classes dominate: G06Q (business, commerce and admin data processing) appears in 59.7% of the 9,691 records and G06F (general digital data processing) in 49.0%. Digital transmission methods, largely blockchain and distributed-ledger architectures under H04L, appear in 29.3% of records. AI-based classification methods (G06N) and image/video recognition (G06V) are present but much smaller, at 12.5% and 2.8% respectively, indicating these are supporting technologies rather than the primary claim focus.
Filings grew from 167 in 2017 to a peak of 2,374 in 2025, but the growth was not linear — the 2022 midpoint of 883 sits well under half the eventual peak, meaning most of the increase happened in the final years of the window. The 2026 figure of 735 looks like a slowdown, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the true 2026 filing volume is understated in any dataset cut off mid-year. Treat the most recent one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling.
The clearest existing blocker in this dataset is US20090198596A1, which claims a specific sequence of receiving a unique item identifier, pulling event data from the same node, and issuing a third-party certification based on that data. It does not block architectures that separate the identifier and event-data sources, or that skip third-party validation entirely. Beyond that single filing, the fragmented ownership structure — no assignee holding more than a small single-digit share — means new entrants face many narrow, overlapping claims rather than one dominant barrier.
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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.