Rod Pump Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentration at the top. The five most-active assignees hold 28.4% of all 1,216 records in scope, and the ranked ten hold 41.4% — a field with a clear leading group rather than a single dominant owner.
- Control software is the crowded layer. E21B (wells) covers 77.3% of records and F04B (pumps) 44.1%, while G06N (AI-based computing) sits at just 3.3% — dynamometer-card interpretation is still lightly claimed relative to the mechanical base it sits on.
- Filing has plateaued, not collapsed. Volume peaked at 81 in 2020; from 2021 (27) to 2024 (26) the count moved -4%, a flat trend rather than a declining one once the 18-month publication lag is taken into account.
Filing growth compares 2021 (27 records) with 2024 (26) — 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 1,216 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families where rod pump, beam pumping unit or sucker rod string claims intersect with the diagnostic and control layer built around them: dynamometer cards, sucker rod fatigue, gas interference, polished rod load, counterbalance moment and fluid pound. That intersection is deliberate — it separates general oilfield pumping hardware from the instrumented, feedback-controlled systems that define modern beam lift optimisation.
The scope spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with 1,216 published records receiving offices concentrated in the United States, Canada, WIPO/PCT and Europe. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the final one or two years in any trend chart should be read as incomplete rather than as a genuine drop-off.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,216-record corpus: filing activity by year, and the IPC subclasses those records carry. Because a single record can span several classes, the composition shares add up to well over 100% of the record total — that overlap is itself informative about how tightly control and mechanical claims are bundled together.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 55 in 2017 to a peak of 81 in 2020, then settled into a narrower band; 2021 (27) to 2024 (26) is essentially flat at -4%, the last span long enough to read past the publication lag. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as a real slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
E21B (earth and rock drilling, including wells) appears on 77.3% of records and F04B (positive-displacement pumps) on 44.1%, confirming that most filings anchor to the physical well and pump assembly. Adjacent digital layers are thinner: G05B control systems sit at 5.6%, G06N AI-based computing at 3.3%, and G06F data processing at 3.0% — the analytics layer riding on top of dynamometer-card data is comparatively open ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,216 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Rod Pump and Beam Lift Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about rod pump and beam lift systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited and representative filings
US10955825B2 — Beam pumping unit and method of operation
A control system for operating a beam pumping unit includes a strain gauge and a beam pumping unit controller. The strain gauge is coupled to a Samson post of the beam pumping unit and is configured to measure Samson post strain. The controller operates the unit to induce a variable load on the rod and computes that load from the measured strain.Filed by Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations, LLC; published 2021-03-23.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5362206A | Pump control responsive to voltage-current phase angle | 193 |
| 2 | US4971522A | Control system and method for AC motor driven cyclic load | 166 |
| 3 | US5252031A | Monitoring and pump-off control with downhole pump cards | 163 |
| 4 | US4490094A | Method for monitoring an oil well pumping unit | 158 |
| 5 | US8851860B1 | Adaptive control of an oil or gas well surface-mounted hydraulic pumping system and method | 155 |
| 6 | US4561299A | Apparatus for detecting changes in inclination or acceleration | 149 |
| 7 | US9645575B2 | Method and apparatus for artificially intelligent model-based control of dynamic processes using probabilisti… | 145 |
| 8 | US6357523B1 | Drainage pattern with intersecting wells drilled from surface | 143 |
| 9 | US7168924B2 | Rod pump control system including parameter estimator | 133 |
| 10 | US3343409A | Method of determining sucker rod pump performance | 130 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references — read them as markers of foundational influence on control-method claims, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, IPC composition and concentration are read together: where claim space is dense, where it is thin, and what the recent flat trend actually signals.
A leading group, not a single owner
The top five assignees combine for 28.4% of all records and the ranked ten for 41.4%, with the leader at 92 records against a fifth-place figure of 57 and a tenth-place figure of 24. That gap between first and fifth suggests one dominant filer surrounded by several mid-sized portfolios rather than a monopoly on the core control methods.
Mechanical claims dwarf AI-based ones
E21B (wells) and F04B (pumps) together anchor most of the corpus, while G06N — AI-based computing methods — appears on only 3.3% of records. Card-interpretation algorithms built on machine learning are still a small slice of a field otherwise dominated by the physical pump and rod assembly.
Flat, not falling
Volume peaked at 81 in 2020 and has since settled into a narrower band; the 2021-to-2024 comparison shows a -4% change, which reads as a plateau once the usual 18-month publication lag is factored in for the final years shown in the chart.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to rod pump and beam lift systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| CDX Gas, LLC | EXPLORATION INT LLC | 16 |
| Weatherford Lamb, Inc. | PONS VICTORIA M | 14 |
| PETERSON RONALD G | MACDONALD MICHAEL A | 11 |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | Schlumberger Canada Limited | 10 |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | Schlumberger Limited | 10 |
| Unico, LLC | PETERSON RONALD G | 9 |
| PETERSON RONALD G | GREGORY BENJAMIN J | 9 |
| PETERSON RONALD G | HILGERS ANDREW J | 7 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest combinations linked to specific joint-development or acquisition relationships rather than broad cross-licensing — a sign that most collaboration here is bilateral, not consortium-based.
Who holds the portfolios, and where they are not filing
The ranked leaders sit in oilfield equipment and controls rather than generalist industrials, consistent with a field defined by the instrumented pump rather than the raw mechanical rod string. Recent-year momentum across the leading names has cooled to zero in the latest year for several of them, which is expected given the publication lag rather than evidence of exit.
One firm ahead of a mid-sized pack
The top-ranked assignee holds 92 records, well ahead of the fifth-place figure of 57, pointing to a genuine leadership position in dynamometer-card and pump-control claims rather than a near-tie at the top.
A meaningful drop by tenth place
By the tenth position the count falls to 24 records, less than a third of the leader's total, showing that portfolio depth thins out quickly outside the top few names even though the ranked ten together still cover 41.4% of all records.
Bilateral links, not broad alliances
Co-assignee activity is limited to ten pairs, several tied to specific corporate or inventor relationships, suggesting most portfolios here were built independently rather than through joint filing programmes.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| CDX Gas, LLC | 0 | — |
| Bristol, Inc. (d/b/a Remote Automation Solutions) | 0 | — |
| Lufkin Industries, LLC | 0 | — |
| Weatherford Lamb, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Unico, LLC | 0 | — |
| HEAL SYST LP | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish concentration, composition and trend. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means drilling into specific claim sets and named portfolios.
Map claim scope on the highest-cited records
The five most-cited patents anchor much of the control-method prior art in this field; understanding exactly what they claim narrows where a new filing can safely sit.
Explore claim charts in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
AI-based card interpretation and fatigue prediction remain thin relative to the mechanical base — worth monitoring for new entrants before the space fills in.
Set up monitoring in EurekaBenchmark a specific assignee's portfolio
Concentration at the top means a handful of portfolios are worth a closer, claim-by-claim read rather than a corpus-wide view.
Run an assignee benchmark in EurekaCommon questions on rod pump patent activity
This landscape identifies 1,216 published records that combine rod pump, beam pumping unit or sucker rod string claims with the diagnostic and control layer built around them, such as dynamometer cards or gas interference detection. The scope runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years of that range will keep filling in as more applications publish.
The ranking covers 100 companies, with the leading assignee holding 92 records against 57 for the fifth-ranked firm and 24 for the tenth. The top five combined account for 28.4% of all 1,216 records in scope, and the top ten for 41.4%, indicating one clear leader followed by a group of mid-sized portfolios rather than a large number of similarly sized filers. Leading names sit in oilfield equipment and downhole controls rather than generalist industrial manufacturing.
Filing volume rose from 55 records in 2017 to a peak of 81 in 2020, then eased into a narrower band. Comparing 2021 (27) to 2024 (26) — the most recent span long enough to be treated as complete — shows a -4% change, which reads as a plateau rather than a decline. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still understated because of the normal publication lag and should not be read as evidence of a downturn.
E21B, covering wells and earth drilling, appears on 77.3% of the 1,216 records in scope, and F04B, covering positive-displacement pumps, appears on 44.1% — together confirming that most filings anchor to the physical pump and well assembly. Software-adjacent classes are thinner: G05B control systems sit at 5.6%, G06N AI-based computing at 3.3% and G06F data processing at 3.0%. That gap suggests the algorithmic layer built on top of dynamometer-card data carries comparatively lighter claim density than the mechanical hardware beneath it.
The composition data points to AI-based dynamometer card interpretation, gas-interference compensation and sucker rod fatigue prediction as branches with meaningfully lower claim density than the mechanical core, since G06N and related computing classes sit at only 3.0-3.3% of records against E21B's 77.3%. That does not mean the area is empty, but it does mean fewer prior filings define the boundaries there. Any filing strategy in that space should still start with a claim-by-claim read of the highest-cited control-method patents, since several predate the current wave of AI-based approaches.
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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.
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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.