Silicone Elastomer Barrier Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled sharply since its 2017 peak. 417 filings that year versus 16 in the most recent (partial) year, with the 2022 midpoint of 206 confirming a declining trend rather than a plateau.
- Claim density sits outside pure materials science. B32B (layered products) leads IPC composition at 1,355 records, ahead of C08L polymer compositions at 1,005 — barrier claims are being built into laminate structures as much as into the elastomer chemistry itself.
- No single assignee dominates recent momentum. The most active recent filer logged just 3 families in the latest year, and every other tracked assignee shows a year-on-year decline of 60% or more.
Filing growth compares 2021 (363 records) with 2024 (202) — 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 8,792 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families combining silicone elastomer, silicone rubber or polysiloxane chemistry with claims to gas barrier property, moisture barrier or permeation control. The search spans records published between 2015 and mid-2026, capturing both the material composition side of the art and its application into layered products, medical devices and cosmetic delivery formats.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year's count of 16 understates real filing activity; the decline from the 2017 peak of 417 is nonetheless too large to be explained by lag alone.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A peak year behind us, not ahead
Filings rose to 417 in 2017, sat at 206 by the 2022 midpoint, and have fallen to 16 in the most recent partial year. There is no sign of a second wave; new work in this space is filing into a shrinking window rather than a growing one.
Barrier claims live inside laminates and devices, not just formulations
B32B (layered products & laminates) tops the IPC breakdown at 1,355 records, ahead of C08L polymer compositions at 1,005. A61K medicinal preparations (954) and H01L semiconductor devices (823) both outrank several materials-science subclasses, showing that barrier-property silicone claims are frequently filed as part of a device or laminate structure rather than as a standalone compound claim.
Shares are the percentage of the 8,792 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Silicone Elastomer Barrier Properties with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about silicone elastomer barrier properties and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Silicone elastomer composition — TESA SE (2022-05-26)
The patent claims a tin-free, room-temperature-curable silicone elastomer composition supplied as a putty. The formulation combines an end-capped polysiloxane base bearing terminal dialkoxy silyl groups with an amorphous filler, a defined proportion of spherical filler, and a curing catalyst built from organic titanates or zirconates rather than tin compounds.Filed 2022-05-26; published as US20220162448A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6001067A | Device and method for determining analyte levels | 2,316 |
| 2 | US6558321B1 | Systems and methods for remote monitoring and modulation of medical devices | 1,789 |
| 3 | US6741877B1 | Device and method for determining analyte levels | 1,614 |
| 4 | US20040045879A1 | Device and method for determining analyte levels | 1,229 |
| 5 | US7110803B2 | Device and method for determining analyte levels | 1,221 |
| 6 | US20050033132A1 | Analyte measuring device | 1,163 |
| 7 | US20080228054A1 | Analyte measuring device | 934 |
| 8 | US7711402B2 | Device and method for determining analyte levels | 904 |
| 9 | US5482446A | Ambulatory infusion pump | 856 |
| 10 | US5630710A | Ambulatory infusion pump | 854 |
High citation counts favour older, foundational filings — read them as markers of influence within this searched corpus, not as evidence of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three signals worth weighing before deciding where to file or who to watch.
The wave has passed
Filing volume fell from 417 in 2017 through a 2022 midpoint of 206 to just 16 in the most recent partial year. Even allowing for an 18-month publication lag, this is a sustained decline rather than a temporary dip, and it argues against reading current low counts as a filing gap waiting to be corrected.
Barrier value is captured at the laminate level
B32B outranks C08L polymer compositions (1,005) and every other subclass tracked, including H01L semiconductor devices at 823. Composition-only claims compete in a smaller, more contested pool than claims that tie the elastomer to a specific layered or device structure.
No dominant recent filer
The most active assignee in the latest year recorded only 3 families, and named assignees with prior activity show year-on-year declines of 60% to 96%. This is a landscape without a clear current leader, which raises the value of freedom-to-operate checks against older, still-cited filings rather than against a single incumbent's recent pipeline.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silicone elastomer barrier properties, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity is thinning
Assignee momentum has slowed across the board; the co-filing pairs that do exist are concentrated around a single materials supplier.
Procter & Gamble leads a thin field
Procter & Gamble posted 3 families in the latest tracked year, the highest count among assignees with recent activity, though the dataset does not show a prior-year figure for comparison.
Device-side filers are pulling back too
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory dropped to 2 families in the latest year, down 60% year on year, echoing similar declines at Mary Kay (-96%), Abbott Diabetes Care (-94%) and Dai Nippon Printing (-67%).
DuPont anchors most co-filing activity
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest three all include DuPont paired with different individual or corporate co-filers, suggesting collaborative filing here is occasional rather than a structural feature of the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Procter & Gamble | 3 | — |
| Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | 2 | -60% |
| Mary Kay Inc. | 1 | -96% |
| Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. | 1 | -94% |
| Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. | 1 | -67% |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (USA) | 0 | — |
| PPG Industries Ohio, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Kaneka Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The aggregate trend and the top assignees only set the frame. Deciding where to file, or whether a specific formulation is clear, needs a claim-level pass.
Check freedom to operate against the most-cited records
The most-cited filings in this corpus date from earlier device-monitoring patents; running a claim chart against current formulation work is a faster check than relying on filing-date proximity alone.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaMap the white space chips against your formulation
Tin-free catalyst systems and filler-loading ratios show thinner claim coverage than the core polysiloxane chemistry; a targeted search will confirm whether a specific ratio or catalyst combination is still open.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions
The dataset shows filings falling from 417 in 2017 to a 2022 midpoint of 206 and down to 16 in the latest partial year. This pattern is consistent with a technology area that saw an initial wave of formulation and application patents which has since been substantially claimed, leaving later entrants filing into more crowded space with narrower opportunities for novel composition claims. Publication lag of around 18 months means the very latest year is always undercounted, but the multi-year decline predates any lag effect and reflects a genuine slowdown in new filing activity.
B32B, covering layered products and laminates, carries the largest share of records at 1,355, ahead of C08L polymer compositions at 1,005. This means many barrier-property claims are written around a laminate or layered structure incorporating the silicone elastomer rather than around the elastomer composition alone. A61K medicinal preparations and H01L semiconductor devices also rank highly, showing that medical device encapsulation and electronics packaging are major application routes for this chemistry, alongside more general polymer processing claims under C08J.
No single assignee shows sustained high-volume recent filing in this dataset. The most active assignee in the latest tracked year recorded only 3 families, and other previously active assignees show year-on-year declines ranging from 60% to 96%. This suggests the field is not controlled by one incumbent's current pipeline, though older, heavily cited filings from device-monitoring patents still carry citation weight and should be checked for continuing relevance to any new formulation work.
US20220162448A1, assigned to TESA SE and published in 2022, claims a tin-free, room-temperature-curable silicone elastomer composition supplied in putty form. Its specific elements include an end-capped polysiloxane base with terminal dialkoxy silyl groups, an amorphous filler, a defined proportion of spherical filler by weight, and a curing catalyst drawn from organic titanates or zirconates rather than tin compounds. Anyone formulating a similarly cured, filler-loaded silicone putty without tin catalysis should review this claim set closely, since the tin-free catalyst limitation and the filler ratio are the narrowest and most defining elements.
Based on filing density relative to the core chemistry, tin-free curing catalyst systems, specific spherical-filler loading ratios, and dialkoxy-silyl end-capping approaches appear less densely claimed than the general polysiloxane composition space. These are narrower, more technical branches rather than broad open fields, so a first claim there would likely need to specify a particular catalyst combination, filler ratio range, or cure profile to distinguish itself from the existing art, including from filings like US20220162448A1.
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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.