Steam Turbines Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Steam Turbine Patents: Filing Trends, Leading Assignees and Open Claim Space
Concentrated but not locked up. the ranked leader holds 3,906 records, yet the top 5 combined account for only 19.6% of all 71,858 records in scope, leaving room below the leaders. Filings ran at 558 in 2017, rose to a peak of 772 in 2018, and by 2024 — the last year treatable as complete — had fallen to 446, down from 580 in 2021 (-23%). Years after 2024 are still filling in behind the roughly 18-month publication lag and should not be read as a further drop.
- 1GENERAL ELECTRIC CO5.4%
- 2KK TOSHIBA4.7%
- 3HITACHI LTD3.4%
- 4MITSUBISHI HEAVY IND LTD3.4%
- 5SIEMENS AG2.6%
See the full steam turbines patent landscape 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 on steam turbine patents
Who holds the most steam turbine patents?
The assignee ranking behind this dataset covers 100 companies, and the leading assignee holds 3,906 records against a total of 71,858 records in scope. The top 5 combined reach 19.6% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 27.7%, so while there is a clear leader, the field is not dominated by a single company. Fifth place holds 1,878 records and tenth place 859, showing a fairly steep but continuous drop-off rather than a sharp cliff after the leader.
Is steam turbine patent filing growing or slowing down?
Filings peaked in 2018 at 772 records and eased afterward; using the last three-year span that can be treated as complete, 2021’s 580 records fell to 446 by 2024, a -23% change. Years from 2025 onward will look artificially low because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those figures are still filling in rather than confirming a further decline. Anyone using this trend to size a market should anchor conclusions to 2024 or earlier.
What technology areas dominate steam turbine patent claims?
By IPC subclass, F01K (steam & thermal power plants) leads at 8.4% of the 71,858 records in scope, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) at 7.3% and F01D (turbines & non-positive engines) at 4.6%. Boiler-specific F22B and control-systems class G05B trail at 2.3% and 1.4% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a single pie chart.
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 Steam Turbines Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. 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.