Ship Loaders and Unloaders Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
Ship Loaders and Unloaders Patents: Filing Trends and Where the Claims Sit
Concentrated but shallow. The top 5 assignees hold 22.6% of all 84 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 35.7% — leadership exists but nobody dominates. Filings peaked at 11 in 2020, cooled, then climbed again — 2 filings in 2021 to 7 in 2024, a 250% increase over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
- 1SUMITOMO HEAVY IND LTD6
- 2DALIAN HUARUI HEAVY IND GRP CO LTD4
- 3无锡市一二机械装备有限公司3
- 4WUXI GANGSHENG HEAVY EQUIP CO LTD3
- 5WUHAN HAIBO HARBOR & SHIPPING ENG TECH3
See the full ship loaders and unloaders 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 ship loader and unloader patents
Who are the leading patent holders in ship loader and unloader technology?
The ranked leader in this 84-record dataset holds 6 records, with the field’s top 5 assignees together accounting for 22.6% of all records in scope. That is a real but modest lead — the top 10 combined only reach 35.7% of records, meaning the majority of filings come from companies outside the ranked leaders. Most of the 59 ranked assignees hold just one or two filings each, so the field is better described as fragmented with a light concentration at the top than as dominated by a small number of firms.
Is patent filing activity in ship loading and unloading equipment growing?
Yes, based on the most recent complete years of data. Filings rose from 2 in 2021 to 7 in 2024, a 250% increase over that three-year span, following an earlier peak of 11 filings in 2020. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so the true recent trend will only become clear as those records publish.
What technology areas dominate ship loader and unloader patents?
The conveying and material-handling subclass B65G covers 89.3% of the 84 records in scope, making it by far the dominant claim area. Adjacent classes — ships and marine vessels (B63B), winches and capstans (B66D), and excavating equipment (E02F) — each account for only 3.6% of records, with radar/positioning (G01S) and a few other classes even smaller. This concentration means the core conveying mechanism is heavily claimed, while sensing, vessel-integration and winch-control angles remain comparatively open.
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 Ship Loaders and Unloaders 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.