Refrigeration & Cold Chain Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Refrigeration and cold chain patents: who leads, and where filing is heading
31.8% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 17,538 of 55,185 records in scope, but the other 68% is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings peaked at 1,289 records in 2018, then eased to 1,157 by 2021. Between 2021 and 2024 -the last year with complete published data- volume dropped 35% to 748 records. Later years in the chart will fill in further as publication catches up with filing.
- 1DAIKIN INDUSTRIES LTD10.7%
- 2MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP9.0%
- 3LG ELECTRONICS INC5.0%
- 4DENSO CORP3.7%
- 5CARRIER CORP3.4%
See the full refrigeration & cold chain patent landscape 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 on refrigeration and cold chain patents
Who holds the most refrigeration patents?
In this dataset, one assignee leads with 5,923 records, well ahead of the rest of the ranked field – the fifth-placed company holds 1,869. The top five assignees combined account for 31.8% of all 55,185 records in scope, and the top ten reach 41.0%. That still leaves a majority of filings distributed across a long tail of smaller companies, so leadership at the top does not mean the field is closed.
Is refrigeration patent filing activity growing or shrinking?
Filing volume peaked at 1,289 records in 2018 and has since declined, falling 35% from 1,157 records in 2021 to 748 in 2024, the last year with complete published data. Numbers for 2025 and 2026 in the underlying dataset will look lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop. Treat any conclusion about the very latest years with caution until more data publishes.
Which patent classes cover the most refrigeration and cold chain technology?
F25B, covering refrigeration and heat pumps, appears in 19.9% of the 55,185 records in scope, making it by far the densest single class. Air conditioning and ventilation (F24F) follows at 7.0%, and refrigerator-specific cooling (F25D) at 3.9%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed into a total.
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 Refrigeration & Cold Chain Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. 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.