Refrigerant Leak Detection Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
A data-backed view of refrigerant leak detection patents: who leads filings, how technology composition splits across refrigeration, testing and materials classes, and where filing activity is heading through 2026.
Filing growth = 2021 (46 records) → 2024 (16); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 545 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Refrigerant leak detection sits at the intersection of mechanical refrigeration hardware and sensing or diagnostic method claims. The search underlying this page combines title/abstract hits on refrigerant leak detection language with claims-level matches that pair leak-sensing terms against refrigeration IPC codes, so the resulting 545 records skew toward system-level detection architectures rather than sensor component patents filed under general sensing classes. Patent families, not raw document counts, are the fairer unit for judging real filing activity because they neutralise continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend chart will read lower than actual filing activity once the backlog clears.
Filing concentration and technology mix
The dataset spans 545 published records, ranked across 100 assignees and split across IPC subclasses that a single record can carry more than one of.
Filing trend: a 2019 peak followed by a real pullback
Annual filings rose to a peak of 57 in 2019, then declined; the cleanest comparison available is 2021's 46 filings against 2024's 16, a 65% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuation of that 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.
Technology composition: core refrigeration dominates, testing and materials are secondary
F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) appears on 81.8% of the 545 records, far ahead of F24F air conditioning (23.7%), F25D refrigerators (20.4%) and G01M testing/structure balance (18.3%). Materials-focused C09K appears on 14.7% of records, while chemical-compound class C07C, analytical class G01N and vehicle-specific B60H each sit under 6%, marking them as narrower, more specialised filing tracks rather than mainstream routes.
Shares are the percentage of the 545 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Refrigerant leak detection system and method
A refrigerant leak detection system is herein disclosed. The system can detect the existence of a slow leak based on the refrigerant level and the system data. The system uses data models, either stored or dynamically created, to calculate an expected refrigerant level. Based on the expected refrigerant level and the actual refrigerant level and statistical process control data, a leak can be identified.Filed by Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions, this record frames leak detection as a statistical inference problem over modelled versus actual refrigerant level, rather than a direct chemical or acoustic sensing approach.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6772598B1 | Refrigerant leak detection system | 99 |
| 2 | US5934087A | Refrigerating apparatus | 96 |
| 3 | US20090071175A1 | Refrigeration monitoring system and method | 90 |
| 4 | US5650563A | Method of introducing leak detection dye into an air conditioning or refrigeration system including solid or … | 89 |
| 5 | US5440919A | Method of introducing leak detection dye into an air conditioning or refrigeration system | 87 |
| 6 | US20110112814A1 | Refrigerant leak detection system and method | 77 |
| 7 | US20050103029A1 | Refrigerator having alarm device for alarming leakage of refrigerant | 70 |
| 8 | US20130213068A1 | Safe operation of space conditioning systems using flammable refrigerants | 63 |
| 9 | US20190170603A1 | Systems and methods for refrigerant leak management based on acoustic leak detection | 60 |
| 10 | US20080087039A1 | Galley cooling heat sink through water system | 54 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three structural signals stand out once the ranking, technology split and trend line are read together.
Filing sits with a small group, but not a monopoly
The leader holds 66 records and fifth place holds 23, so the gap from first to fifth is itself steep. Below that, the top 10 combined reach 59.1% of all records, meaning roughly four in ten records are spread across a long tail of 90-plus other ranked assignees.
Detection claims are anchored to refrigeration hardware, not general sensing
F25B's dominance, alongside F25D and F24F, shows that most filings describe leak detection as integrated into a refrigeration or air-conditioning system rather than as a standalone sensor. G01M testing claims appear on 18.3% of records, indicating a secondary but real cluster of dedicated test-methodology filings.
A real pullback after the 2019 peak, not just a publication-lag artefact
Because 2021 and 2024 are both far enough from the cut-off to be treated as complete, the -65% figure reflects an actual decline in new filings rather than an accounting gap. That contrasts with 2025-2026, which will understate true activity until later publications catch up.
Co-assignment is rare and concentrated around a few individual inventors
Only 10 co-assignee pairings appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing appearing 12 times. This suggests most refrigerant leak detection patents are filed by a single corporate assignee rather than through joint ventures or shared ownership structures.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to refrigeration & cold chain: refrigerant leak detection patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The numbers above answer where filing has concentrated. The next questions are what specific claims block a given design, and where a new filing would face the least prior art.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leading portfolios
With the top 5 assignees holding 46.1% of all 545 records, a targeted claim chart against those portfolios covers close to half the field before touching the long tail.
Open Eureka to map the leading portfoliosTest a claim draft against the under-claimed IPC branches
Classes like G01N and B60H sit under 6% of records, which is either genuine white space or a sign the branch is served by adjacent search terms outside this dataset.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on refrigerant leak detection patents
The ranking in this dataset covers 100 assignees across 545 records, with the leading assignee holding 66 records and the fifth-ranked holding 23. The top 5 combined account for 46.1% of all records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 59.1%. Below that concentration, filing activity spreads across a long tail of assignees with far fewer records each, so no single company controls the field outright.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 57 records and has declined since; the most reliable comparison is 2021's 46 filings against 2024's 16, a 65% drop over that span. 2024 is the most recent year the dataset treats as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 will look lower still, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than a continued decline, so they should not be read as evidence the trend is still falling.
F25B, covering refrigeration and heat pumps, appears on 81.8% of the 545 records, making it by far the most common technology class. F24F air conditioning (23.7%) and F25D refrigerators (20.4%) follow, alongside G01M testing and structure-balance claims at 18.3%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%, and they show detection claims are usually bundled with the refrigeration system itself rather than filed as standalone sensor technology.
The United States receives the largest volume of filings among the offices tracked, followed by the European Patent Office and WIPO's PCT route. Germany, Canada and Australia follow at a lower but still meaningful volume. This spread indicates that applicants pursuing refrigerant leak detection protection typically file across the major refrigeration and HVAC manufacturing and consumption markets rather than concentrating in a single jurisdiction.
AU2010319488B2, assigned to Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions, describes a refrigerant leak detection system that identifies slow leaks by comparing an expected refrigerant level, calculated from stored or dynamically generated data models, against the actual measured level using statistical process control. It represents a data-driven, model-based detection approach rather than a direct chemical or acoustic sensor. Its relevance in this landscape comes from framing leak detection as an inferential monitoring problem, a framing that recurs across many of the most-cited records in this dataset.
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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.