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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/refractories-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · RefractoriesRefractories Patents: Who Holds the Ground and Where It's Open
- Concentration is modest. the ranked leaders' top 5 combined account for 11.6% of all 37,975 records, and the top 10 for 16.3% — no single assignee dominates the field.
- Filing has cooled from its 2021 peak. filings ran from 562 in 2021 to 340 in 2024, a 40% decline over that three-year span, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in.
- C04B carries the field. 17.1% of records sit in ceramics, cement & refractories (C04B), well ahead of glass manufacture (C03B, 5.2%) and furnace details (F27D, 4.6%).
38K
Published Records
12%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-40%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (562 records) with 2024 (340) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 37,975 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the refractories patent record shows
Refractories sit at the intersection of ceramics, metallurgy and industrial furnace engineering, and the patent record reflects that spread: 37,975 records filed between 2015 and 2026 touch raw material selection, firing temperature control, hydration reactions and compressive strength testing. The technology composition data shows claims distributed across eight or more IPC subclasses rather than concentrated in one, with C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) the largest single bucket at 17.1% of records.
Filing activity rose to a peak of 562 records in 2021 before declining to 340 by 2024, a complete year of data. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the trend line are still incomplete and should not be read as a continued fall.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 37,975-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records are distributed across IPC subclasses.
Filings peaked in 2021, then eased
Annual filings ran from 480 in 2017 to a peak of 562 in 2021, then fell to 340 by 2024 — a 40% decline over that three-year span. The 2025-2026 counts shown are still incomplete due to publication lag.
Ceramics and cement claims dominate the class mix
C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) covers 17.1% of records, more than three times the share of the next-largest class, C03B (glass manufacture & shaping) at 5.2%. Furnace-related classes F27D and F27B each sit near 4%, reflecting the equipment side of the field alongside material composition claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 37,975 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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A representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
Apparatus and process for thermal treatment of raw material containing lithium compounds and phosphorus compounds
MONTANUNIVERSITÄT LEOBEN
The application, filed by Montanuniversität Leoben, describes an inductively heated, packed-bed reactor whose reactor body is at least partially made of refractory material, built to recover lithium and/or phosphorus from lithium-ion battery residue. The refractory shell is a supporting element rather than the core inventive claim, but it illustrates how refractories continue to surface in adjacent, higher-value recovery and recycling processes.Filed 2023-07-20 · shows refractories claims extending into battery-material recovery.
Most-cited records in the dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070207186A1 | Tear and abrasion resistant expanded material and reinforcement | 1,495 |
| 2 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 3 | US7666511B2 | Down-drawable, chemically strengthened glass for cover plate | 565 |
| 4 | US20020091991A1 | Unified real-time microprocessor computer | 564 |
| 5 | US5738817A | Solid freeform fabrication methods | 536 |
| 6 | US20050112397A1 | Assembled non-random foams | 535 |
| 7 | US20090220761A1 | Ion exchanged, fast cooled glasses | 445 |
| 8 | US5900207A | Solid freeform fabrication methods | 406 |
| 9 | US5185299A | Microcrystalline alumina-based ceramic articles | 399 |
| 10 | US4954462A | Microcrystalline alumina-based ceramic articles | 392 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus rather than a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Reading the concentration, trend and class data together points to a field with room at the edges but dense prior art at the core.
Concentration
11.6% / 16.3%
top 5 / top 10 share of 37,975 records
No single assignee controls the field
The leader holds 1,232 records and the tenth-ranked assignee 311, but even combined, the top 10 account for only 16.3% of all records in scope. That leaves substantial room for new entrants to build a defensible family without displacing an incumbent.
Based on the 100-company ranked list
Filing momentum
562 → 340
records, 2021 to 2024
Activity has eased from its 2021 peak
Filings dropped 40% from the 2021 peak of 562 to 340 in 2024, the last complete year available. Recent-year assignee data shows several leaders at zero or sharply negative year-on-year filings, though publication lag means the most recent years understate true activity.
2024 is the last complete filing year
Class distribution
17.1%
of records classed under C04B
Ceramics and cement claims lead, but furnace and metal classes follow closely
C04B's 17.1% share is well ahead of any other single class, but F27D, F27B, B22D and C22B each hold between roughly 3.7% and 4.6%, showing that furnace design and metal-processing claims are filed almost as often as pure composition claims.
Classes overlap; shares sum to more than 100%
Geographic filing
8,113
US-directed filings, the largest single office
The US leads receiving offices, Europe and the UK follow
US filings (8,113) outnumber the next-largest office, EPO (4,121), by a wide margin, with the UK, Australia, Canada and WIPO/PCT each in the 1,700-2,000 range. That spread suggests refractories protection strategies are built around a US-plus-Europe core with selective PCT extension.
Receiving office counts, all years
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to refractories patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gate stands open
The ranked leaders span steelmaking, glassmaking and specialty ceramics groups, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
Leader
1,232
records
A steelmaking and industrial-ceramics core
The top-ranked assignee's family size (1,232) is more than double the fifth-place holder (546), pointing to a sustained, decades-long filing programme rather than a recent push. Co-assignee pairings among steel and refractory-specialist groups appear repeatedly in the strongest collaboration pairs.
Leader vs fifth place: 1,232 vs 546
Mid-tier
546 → 311
records, 5th to 10th place
A cluster of glass, steel and specialty-refractory filers
Between fifth and tenth place, family sizes taper from 546 to 311, still well above the drop-off into the long tail. This mid-tier includes glassmaking and specialty ceramics groups alongside integrated steelmakers, suggesting refractories IP is actively defended across more than one industry vertical.
Based on the 100-company ranked list
Momentum
-100% YoY
at least one leading assignee, latest year
Recent-year filing has slowed even among leaders
Several of the most active historical filers show zero or sharply negative year-on-year filings in the latest year, though this reflects publication lag as much as any real pullback. Reading momentum figures from the last one to two years alone risks understating genuine activity.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corning Inc. | 2 | -82% |
| Krosaki Harima Corporation | 1 | — |
| Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc. | 1 | -83% |
| Lanxide Technology Company | 0 | — |
| Kobe Steel, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nippon Steel Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Refractory Intellectual Property GmbH & Co KG | 0 | -100% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether you are scoping freedom-to-operate, tracking a competitor, or looking for a filing gap.
Map the core C04B claim space
With 17.1% of records in C04B, a freedom-to-operate review should start there before expanding into the adjacent furnace and metal-processing classes.
Explore C04B claims in EurekaWatch the leader's recent filings
The top assignee's family size dwarfs the rest of the ranking; tracking its most recent publications flags where its programme is still active despite an overall market slowdown.
Track assignee activity in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Induction-heated reactor linings and recovery-process refractory formulations show up in adjacent filings but not as dense core claims — a targeted search can confirm how open they really are.
Run a white-space search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about refractories patenting
The ranked assignee list is led by a company with 1,232 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 546. The leaders span steelmaking, glassmaking and specialty refractory-materials groups rather than a single industry vertical. Even so, the top 10 combined account for only 16.3% of all 37,975 records in scope, so no one company controls the field, and a long tail of smaller filers holds the majority of the activity.
Filings rose to a peak of 562 records in 2021, then fell to 340 by 2024, a 40% decline over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete data point; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. It is more accurate to describe the field as past its 2021 peak than as currently collapsing.
C04B, covering ceramics, cement and refractories, is the largest single class at 17.1% of all records. Glass manufacture and shaping (C03B) follows at 5.2%, with furnace details (F27D), furnaces and kilns (F27B), metal casting (B22D) and metal extraction (C22B) each in the 3.7%-4.6% range. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as parts of a single pie.
The under-claimed branches sit adjacent to the dense C04B composition core: induction-heated refractory reactor linings, lithium and phosphorus recovery applications for refractory-lined equipment, low-cement castable hydration control, and wear-sensor integration into furnace linings. These areas show up in representative filings without carrying the same density of blocking families as core composition claims, making them a reasonable starting point for a freedom-to-operate scan.
The United States is the largest single receiving office with 8,113 filings, followed by the European Patent Office at 4,121. The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the WIPO/PCT route each sit in the 1,700-2,000 range. This pattern suggests most applicants build a US-plus-Europe protection core and extend selectively through PCT rather than filing broadly across every jurisdiction from the outset.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Refractories Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.