Self-Healing Agents & Encapsulation Patent Landscape
The self-healing agents and encapsulation field is in active growth, with annual filings rising sharply and a corpus of 50 patent families dominated by cement and concrete applications. The field is fragmented across many small filers, with PURAC BIOCHEM BV holding the largest single position and India accounting for the plurality of patent activity.
PURAC BIOCHEM BV leads a highly fragmented field
The corpus comprises 50 patent families. PURAC BIOCHEM BV holds the top position with 6 patent records, followed by Chandigarh University with 3 — together representing the only filers with more than 2 patent records in the ranking.
The top five filers account for 13% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, signaling very low concentration. No single entity has established a dominant lock-in position, and the second tier is composed almost entirely of individual inventors and small academic institutions each holding 2 patent records.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PURAC Biochem BV | 6 | |
| 2 | Chandigarh University | 3 | |
| 3 | Kalyani P Vanjari | 2 | |
| 4 | Jagadish Prasad P Bhadane | 2 | |
| 5 | Dr G Sree Lakshmi Devi | 2 | |
| 6 | Ganesh S Kame | 2 | |
| 7 | Hrishikesh U Mulay | 2 | |
| 8 | Hemraj R Kumavat | 2 | |
| 9 | Purva P Rathore | 2 | |
| 10 | Saudi Arabian Oil Company | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Dhanshri B Pawar | 2 | |
| 12 | Ratilal P Badgujar | 2 | |
| 13 | 4M Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 14 | KOREA INST OF CIVIL ENG & BUILDING TECH | 2 | |
| 15 | Bhagyashri D Patil | 2 | |
| 16 | Symbiosis International University | 2 | |
| 17 | NIMS University Rajasthan Jaipur | 2 | |
| 18 | Narendra R Borase | 2 | |
| 19 | Maulik Jayendrakumar Mistry | 1 | |
| 20 | Aditi Dubey | 1 |
The absence of major industrial incumbents in the upper ranks creates an open competitive window; the field’s leader, PURAC BIOCHEM BV, enters as a new entrant with its entire portfolio concentrated in ceramics and cement chemistry (C04B), suggesting the commercial angle is concrete infrastructure rather than polymer or biomedical self-healing.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; final activity levels for 2025 and 2026 will be higher than current figures show. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Rapid acceleration in filings and heavy concentration in cement chemistry
Two structural features define this field: a sharp multi-year growth trajectory driven largely by academic and inventor activity, and a technology mix overwhelmingly anchored in ceramics and cement (C04B), with a long tail of adjacent branches.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings were negligible through 2020, began rising in 2021–2022, then accelerated strongly in 2023 and 2024. The multi-year growth rate stands at 317%. The 2025 and 2026 bars are incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
C04B (Ceramics, cement and refractories) is the dominant IPC branch with 51 patent records, dwarfing all others. C12N (Microorganisms and genetic engineering) is the second branch with 7 records, reflecting bio-based self-healing approaches using bacteria. B01J (Chemical/physical processes and catalysis) and C09K (Materials for miscellaneous applications) each hold 5 records. The remaining branches each contribute 4 or fewer records, indicating that non-cement application domains remain early-stage.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Microcapsule for self-healing concrete and prepara…
Disclosed are a microcapsule for self-healing concrete and a preparation method thereof, and a self-healing concrete and a preparation method thereof. The microcapsule comprises a core and a wall, the components of the core comprising a healing agent, microcrystalline cellulose and Tween 80, and a material of the wall being a high-molecular organic material… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microcapsule for self-healing concrete and prepara… | 32 |
| 2 | Silica encapsulation of ureolytic bacteria for sel… | 19 |
| 3 | Grouting mixture using a magnetic granular polymer… | 7 |
| 4 | Self-healing concrete for infrastructure durability | 2 |
| 5 | 一种新型自愈合水泥砂浆及其制备方法 | 2 |
| 6 | 自愈合水泥浆体系及其制备方法 | 2 |
| 7 | 一种磁性混凝土自愈合胶囊、制备方法及微分装置 | 2 |
| 8 | 一种混凝土自愈合剂、制备方法和应用方法 | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment
Four structural signals — lifecycle stage, concentration level, collaboration patterns, and geographic distribution — point toward an early-mover advantage window that is narrowing as institutional filers arrive.
Growth stage with annual filings still rising
The field is classified at the Growth stage. Annual filings are still rising — the lifecycle evidence explicitly notes no easing from the 2024 peak — with a multi-year growth rate of 317%. This indicates the foundational patent positions are still being established, and there is time to stake claims in adjacent sub-domains before the field matures.
Growth stageHighly fragmented: no entrenched incumbent
The top five filers hold only 13% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total. The leading filer, PURAC BIOCHEM BV, holds 6 patent records; no other entity holds more than 3. This level of fragmentation means there is no blocking portfolio that a new entrant would need to design around, and the cost of establishing a leading position is lower than in mature fields.
Low concentrationOne confirmed co-filing pair: Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology with 4M Co Ltd
The only identified co-applicant relationship is between the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology and 4M Co Ltd, with 2 jointly filed patent records. This sole collaboration pair suggests that cross-institutional R&D is nascent. For new entrants, there is an open opportunity to form strategic partnerships that would be visible in the collaboration network.
Nascent ecosystemIndia is the dominant filing jurisdiction, China and the US trail
India leads with 26 patent records, followed by China with 11 and the United States with 7. Europe (EPO) holds 3 records and WIPO (PCT) holds 2. The strong India weighting reflects the high proportion of Indian academic and individual-inventor filers. For commercial players targeting global protection, the US, EPO, and PCT routes remain comparatively under-filed, suggesting those jurisdictions could be entered without facing a dense prior-art thicket.
India-led filingGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology | 4M Co Ltd | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
PURAC BIOCHEM BV leads in cement chemistry; Chandigarh University leads among academic filers
The two entities with the highest patent-record counts approach the field from different angles: PURAC BIOCHEM BV from an industrial cement and construction chemistry perspective, and Chandigarh University from an academic multi-domain perspective spanning both construction and medicinal applications.
PURAC BIOCHEM BV
PURAC BIOCHEM BV holds 6 patent records, the highest count in the corpus, with all filings classified under C04B (Ceramics, cement and refractories), specifically sub-classes C04B 18 and C04B 28. Its momentum is flagged as a new entrant, meaning its entire portfolio has been filed in the recent window. This concentrated, cement-focused position suggests the company is staking an early claim in cementitious self-healing additive formulations.
patent records: 6Chandigarh University
Chandigarh University holds 3 patent records and also enters as a new entrant. Its technology focus spans C04B 111 and C04B 28 (cement and refractories) alongside A61K 47 (medicinal preparations), indicating a broader research agenda that bridges construction self-healing and pharmaceutical encapsulation. This cross-domain profile may generate IP that is harder to design around but also harder to commercialize without an industry partner.
patent records: 3| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| PURAC Biochem BV | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
| Chandigarh University | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| PURVA P RATHORE | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| NARENDRA R BORASE | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| KALYANI P VANJARI | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| JAGADISHPRASAD P BHADANE | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches worth watching
Several IPC branches appear alongside the dominant C04B cement class but with notably lower patent-record counts, indicating areas where foundational positions remain available. These are observations of relative sparsity; whether they represent viable R&D directions depends on the filer’s technical capabilities and target markets.
C12N · Microorganisms & genetic engineering (bio-based self-healing)
With only 7 patent records, this branch covers microbial and biological encapsulation approaches — for example, silica-encapsulated ureolytic bacteria for concrete self-healing, which appears among the most-cited works in the corpus. The technical rationale is strong: bio-based agents can precipitate calcium carbonate in cracks autonomously. Entry paths exist through collaboration with microbiology labs or licensing of encapsulation strains, and the sparse prior art reduces freedom-to-operate risk.
Search this in Eureka →B01J · Chemical/physical processes & catalysis (microencapsulation process engineering)
B01J holds 5 patent records, covering the physical and chemical processes used to form capsules — including the microcapsule preparation methods central to healing-agent delivery. Saudi Arabian Oil Company’s filings in B01J 13 (microencapsulation) signal that industrial players see process IP as strategically valuable. This branch is sparse relative to the end-use cement branch and offers an entry point focused on capsule fabrication methods that are application-agnostic and therefore potentially licensable across cement, coatings, and polymer matrices.
Search this in Eureka →How leading filers differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | C04B 28 · Ceramics, cement & refractories | C04B 20 · Ceramics, cement & refractories | C04B 24 · Ceramics, cement & refractories | C04B 111 · Ceramics, cement & refractories | C04B 18 · Ceramics, cement & refractories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PURAC Biochem BV | Strong · 5 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Strong · 5 |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent |
| 4M Co Ltd | Absent | Moderate · 1 | Moderate · 1 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 |
| Chandigarh University | Strong · 2 | Moderate · 1 | Absent | Strong · 2 | Absent |
| Symbiosis International University | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Strong · 2 |
| Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology | Absent | Absent | Absent | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 |
| Anurag Engineering College | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Absent | Strong · 1 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus currently covers 50 patent families. This is a small field by patent-landscape standards, reflecting its early growth stage, and the most recent 18–24 months of filings are likely under-counted due to publication lag.
PURAC BIOCHEM BV holds the highest count with 6 patent records, all concentrated in ceramics and cement chemistry (C04B). It is a new entrant, meaning all its filings fall within the recent filing window. Chandigarh University follows with 3 patent records.
India is the leading jurisdiction with 26 patent records, followed by China with 11 and the United States with 7. Europe (EPO) accounts for 3 records and WIPO (PCT) for 2.
C04B (Ceramics, cement and refractories) is by far the dominant IPC branch with 51 patent records, reflecting the field’s primary application in concrete and construction self-healing. The next-largest branch, C12N (Microorganisms and genetic engineering), holds only 7 records.
The multi-year growth rate is 317%, with annual filings accelerating from near zero before 2021 to 14 patent records in 2024. The lifecycle stage is classified as Growth with annual filings still rising. The 2025 and 2026 figures are incomplete due to publication lag.
Collaboration is nascent. The only confirmed co-applicant relationship in the evidence is between the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology and 4M Co Ltd, with 2 jointly filed patent records. Most filers are independent academic institutions or individual inventors.
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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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