Shampoo Surfactant Systems Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Shampoo Surfactant Systems Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
45.3% of all 4,019 records in scope sit with just five assignees, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them. Filings peaked in 2017 at 225 records and declined to 25 by 2026, though the last two years understate true activity because of publication lag. The only span reliable enough to describe as a real trend is 2021 to 2024, where filings dropped 34% (175 to 116 records) — a genuine pullback in new filing rather than a data artefact.
- 1PROCTER & GAMBLE CO18.9%
- 2COLGATE PALMOLIVE CO11.7%
- 3UNILEVER GLOBAL IP LTD5.6%
- 4UNILEVER PLC4.6%
- 5UNILEVER NV4.4%
See the full shampoo surfactant systems 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 about this landscape
Who holds the most shampoo surfactant system patents?
Filing in this field is concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together hold 45.3% of the 4,019 records in scope, and the top ten reach 59.5%. The leading company alone accounts for 761 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 178. Beyond the top ten, coverage spreads across a long tail of companies with much smaller portfolios, so a full picture of the space requires looking past the largest names.
Is filing activity in shampoo surfactant systems growing or shrinking?
The reliable complete-year comparison shows a decline: filings fell from 175 in 2021 to 116 in 2024, a 34% drop. Filing peaked earlier, in 2017, at 225 records. The 2025 and 2026 figures in the raw trend look even lower, but that is a publication-lag artefact rather than evidence of a further slowdown, since patent publication typically trails filing by around 18 months.
What is the most common patent classification for shampoo surfactant claims?
A61K (medicinal preparations) is the most frequent classification, appearing on 55.8% of the 4,019 records, followed closely by C11D (detergents and cleaning compositions) at 45.2% and A61Q (cosmetics use) at 44.6%. Because many formulations claim across more than one of these areas at once, the three shares add up to well over 100% of records rather than summing neatly to 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 Shampoo Surfactant Systems covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.