Spray Drift Control Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Top 5 hold 40.0% of the field. 80 of 200 records in scope sit with just five assignees, with the leader alone holding 20 records.
- Filing volume has flattened, not grown. 2021 to 2024 filings ran flat at 0% growth across that span, even as 2017 remains the peak year on record at 27 filings.
- Spraying hardware rivals the chemistry. B05B spraying and atomising classes appear on 30.5% of records, nearly as often as A01N biocide claims at 39.5%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 200 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Spray drift control sits at the intersection of agrochemical formulation and spraying hardware: patents in this set claim everything from droplet spectrum management and drift reduction agents to shielded booms and air-assisted delivery systems. The search spans 200 published records from 2015 through the current cut-off, pulled from filings that combine drift-control language with technical terms like buffer zone, wind condition and regulatory classification.
The mix of formulation chemistry (A01N) and delivery hardware (B05B, A01M) shows this is not a single-discipline field. A filer working only on nozzle geometry or only on rheology modifiers is competing against a smaller slice of the total than the headline count suggests, but the two disciplines increasingly overlap in the same claim sets.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 200-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend
Filings peaked in 2017 at 27 and have since settled into a lower, flatter pattern. The three-year span from 2021 to 2024 — the last window unaffected by publication lag — shows 0% growth, holding at 2 filings in both years. Counts from 2025 onward are still filling in as publication catches up with filing.
Technology composition
A01N biocide and agrochemical claims appear on 39.5% of the 200 records, with B05B spraying and atomising close behind at 30.5% and A01M pest control at 27.5%. Because records commonly carry more than one class, these figures do not sum to 100% — they show how tightly formulation and hardware claims intertwine, with smaller shares in A01G, F16K, A01C, A61K and C09K marking narrower adjacent branches.
Shares are the percentage of the 200 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Spray Drift Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about spray drift control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited and representative filings
US8760303B2 — Spray drift systems and methods including an input device
Systems and methods for adjusting or providing instructions to spraying systems are provided. An exemplary embodiment includes an apparatus to identify sensitive areas: a module to electronically receive sensitive area information related to areas proximate to a specified location, a module to receive the identity of a substance to be sprayed there, and an alert mechanism indicating when a sensitive area proximate to that location is sensitive to that substance.Filed by Corteva Agriscience, granted 2014-06-24.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20120228395A1 | Electrically actuated valve for control of instantaneous pressure drop and cyclic durations of flow | 125 |
| 2 | US20160368011A1 | Spray pattern of nozzle systems | 120 |
| 3 | US4779805A | Electrostatic sprayhead assembly | 116 |
| 4 | US5874096A | Newtonian drift control agent processes | 77 |
| 5 | US5824797A | Guar as a deposition and bioefficacy aid | 74 |
| 6 | US20070145191A1 | Method and system for increasing safety in chemical application from an aircraft | 70 |
| 7 | US20060225489A1 | System and method for determining atomization characteristics of spray liquids | 66 |
| 8 | US20120169504A1 | Spray Drift Systems and Methods Including an Input Device | 62 |
| 9 | US5550224A | Guar as a drift control agent | 49 |
| 10 | WO2011148144A1 | Liquid compositions comprising a sustained release system for insecticides | 44 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on later filers, not as a signal of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
The top of the field is crowded, the rest is thin
Five assignees hold 80 of the 200 records in scope, with the leader alone at 20. The next tier down to tenth place drops to 8 records, meaning most of the remaining 52 ranked companies hold only a handful of filings each — a long tail rather than a second concentration point.
Activity has plateaued since the 2017 peak
Filing volume peaked at 27 in 2017 and has not returned to that level since. The most recent complete three-year comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows flat volume at 2 filings each year — a plateau, not a decline, given that later years are still filling in under publication lag.
Hardware claims are nearly as common as chemistry claims
A01N biocide and formulation claims lead at 39.5% of records, but B05B spraying/atomising hardware sits close behind at 30.5%, and A01M pest-control delivery systems at 27.5%. Filers focused purely on drift-reduction chemistry are working alongside — not ahead of — a comparable volume of nozzle and boom hardware claims.
Filing is US-anchored with broad secondary coverage
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 71, followed by Australia at 23 and the EPO at 22. WIPO/PCT filings at 18, Canada at 17 and India at 11 indicate applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than concentrating on a single regulatory market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to spray drift control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked leaders account for well under half of all activity even at the top five, and momentum among the largest names has cooled across the most recent year tracked.
A single leader, then a fast drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 20 of the 200 records, roughly a quarter of the top-5 total by itself. Fifth place already falls to 12 records and tenth place to 8, showing the lead position is not shared evenly even within the top tier.
A long tail of narrow filers
With the top 10 combined holding 126 records — 63.0% of the 200 in scope — more than fifty ranked companies are splitting the remaining share, most with only one or a handful of filings each. That is where freedom-to-operate analysis needs the most individual checking rather than pattern-matching against a few large portfolios.
Co-filing is limited but concentrated on one company
Only 8 co-assignee pairs appear in this set, and the strongest recurring pairings all involve the same corporate assignee working with named individual inventors — suggesting internal inventor-assignee structuring more than cross-company joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Dow AgroSciences LLC | 0 | — |
| WinField Solutions LLC | 0 | — |
| GREENA BV | 0 | — |
| Clariant Int Ltd | 0 | — |
| CAPSTAN INC | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| Exosect | 0 | — |
| Council of Scientific and Industrial Research | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is defensive clearance or new claim drafting.
Check freedom to operate against the long tail
With 52 of 62 ranked companies holding small filing counts outside the top 10, a blocking patent is as likely to sit with an obscure single-filer as with a familiar name. Individual clearance searching matters more here than portfolio-level screening.
Run a clearance search in EurekaDraft around hardware-chemistry overlap
The near-parity between A01N formulation claims and B05B/A01M hardware claims means new filings should map both disciplines together rather than treating drift-reduction chemistry and delivery hardware as separate claim sets.
Map claim overlap in EurekaWatch for the next filing cycle
Because 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under publication lag, the true trend since the 2021-2024 plateau will not be visible for another year or two. Revisit this landscape once later filings publish.
Track filing activity in EurekaCommon questions on spray drift control patents
The ranked leader in this 200-record dataset holds 20 records, roughly a quarter of the combined top-5 total of 80 records (40.0% of all records in scope). Beyond the leader, holdings drop off quickly — fifth place holds 12 records and tenth place only 8 — so no single company dominates the field outright. The ranking covers 62 companies in total, most of which hold only a handful of filings each.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 27 records and has not returned to that level since. Looking at the most recent three-year window that is not distorted by publication lag, 2021 to 2024, volume was flat at 0% growth, holding at 2 filings in both years. It is more accurate to describe the field as plateaued than as either growing or declining, since 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete.
Agrochemical and biocide formulation claims under IPC class A01N appear on 39.5% of the 200 records, making it the single most common classification. Spraying and atomising hardware (B05B) is close behind at 30.5%, and pest-control delivery systems (A01M) at 27.5%. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%, reflecting how often chemistry and hardware claims appear in the same filing.
The United States is the leading receiving office with 71 filings, well ahead of Australia at 23 and the European Patent Office at 22. WIPO/PCT filings account for 18, Canada 17 and India 11. This spread suggests applicants are pursuing coverage across several major agricultural markets rather than concentrating filings in one jurisdiction.
US8760303B2, assigned to Corteva Agriscience, claims a system that electronically receives sensitive-area information near a spraying location, receives the identity of the substance to be sprayed, and issues an alert when that substance is sensitive to a nearby area. It is a software/alert-layer claim tied to sensitive-area detection rather than to nozzle geometry or formulation chemistry, so it primarily constrains drift-alert and decision-support systems rather than physical drift-reduction hardware or chemical adjuvants. Anyone building an alert or advisory feature for spray operations should review its claim scope directly rather than assume it only affects Corteva's own product line.
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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.