Superhydrophobic & Icephobic Coating Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filings peaked in 2017 at 27 and have declined since, with 2022 sitting at roughly a third of the peak — the field has stopped expanding and is now a defend-and-license phase.
- B05D and C09D coating-process classes dominate at 165 and 158 records respectively, while C08K additive and B29C shaping classes trail well behind — most claim activity sits in how the coating is applied, not what it is made from.
- The United States receives 91 filings, more than double the next office, so freedom-to-operate risk concentrates there even for teams building products for other regions.
A mature filing base with a shrinking annual intake
Superhydrophobic and icephobic surface patents cluster around two mechanisms: surface texturing that lowers the contact area available to water or ice, and chemical modification of the coating layer itself to reduce adhesion energy. The dataset behind this page spans 258 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, concentrated in coating-process and coatings-composition IPC subclasses rather than in the underlying materials science. That composition tells its own story: most applicants are claiming how a durable water- or ice-repellent layer is deposited and structured, not a wholly new chemistry.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has trended down since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting well below that peak. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the last one or two years in any chart will look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but the multi-year decline predates that lag and reflects a genuine cooling of new filings rather than a reporting artefact.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 258-family dataset: filings by year, and where those filings sit across the IPC subclasses that define the coating and surface-treatment art.
A 2017 peak followed by sustained decline
Annual filings ran from 27 in 2017 down toward single digits by the mid-2020s, with 2022 at 8. The most recent year is partial and will rise somewhat as later filings publish, but the multi-year trajectory is downward, not flat.
Coating process and composition classes dominate
B05D (coating processes, 165 records) and C09D (coatings, paints and inks, 158) lead by a wide margin over C23C surface deposition (51), C09K functional materials (49) and the smaller textile-treatment, additive and laminate classes. The gap signals that the contested claim territory is process and formulation, not novel base chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 258 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Superhydrophobic and Icephobic Surfaces with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
US10961628B1 — Durable metal or metallic alloy based ice release coatings
Icephobic coatings that reduce ice adhesion strength must often achieve extreme durability requirements, such as in aviation or wind turbine applications, to survive the impact of high-speed rain. This patent describes a multi-layer coating with a thin metallic or metallic-alloy film adhered to an underlying layer that is softer and thicker than the metallic layer, achieving low ice adhesion for ice adhered onto the coating.Filed by Anish Tuteja; granted 2021-03-30.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO1998058117A1 | Surface coatings | 144 |
| 2 | US4617057A | Oil and water repellent coating compositions | 85 |
| 3 | US20110077172A1 | Assembly and deposition of materials using a superhydrophobic surface structure | 76 |
| 4 | EP1640419A1 | Water repellent coating comprising a hydrophobically modified layered silicate | 56 |
| 5 | US20120107581A1 | Composition for forming an optically transparent, superhydrophobic coating | 54 |
| 6 | CN102632031A | 一种超疏水表面的制备方法 | 52 |
| 7 | JP1998273617A | Water repellent coating film | 52 |
| 8 | US20190161623A1 | Compositions and Methods for the modification of imine covalent organic frameworks (COFs) | 47 |
| 9 | WO2007149617A1 | Articles having durable hydrophobic surfaces | 46 |
| 10 | US6551950B1 | Surface coatings | 46 |
Citation counts reward older, earlier-filed records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the corpus — read them as markers of foundational influence, not of current commercial weight.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put next to each other: where the art is dense, where the field is heading, and what receiving-office choices imply about risk.
The field has passed its filing peak
Annual filings fell from a 2017 high of 27 to a 2022 midpoint of 8, and the most recent year shows only 1 — partly a publication-lag artefact, but consistent with several years of decline. New entrants are filing into a field where the busiest period of claim-staking has already happened.
Process and formulation claims dominate over new chemistry
B05D coating-process and C09D coatings-composition subclasses account for the bulk of records, well ahead of C23C deposition, C09K materials and the smaller textile, additive and laminate classes. Anyone entering with a genuinely new base material rather than a new deposition method is filing into comparatively open ground.
US filings outnumber the next office by more than double
The United States receives 91 filings against 34 at the EPO, 29 via WIPO/PCT and 24 in China. Freedom-to-operate exposure is disproportionately a US question, even for teams whose manufacturing or sales footprint sits elsewhere.
Collaboration is limited and university-anchored
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest is a corporate-university pairing rather than a corporate-corporate one. Joint filing is the exception here, not a common route to market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the momentum has gone quiet
The named assignees below anchor the largest filing counts in this dataset, but recent-year activity for every one of them has dropped to zero, which reframes the ranking as a record of past claim-staking rather than a live filing race.
Kimberly-Clark and University of Illinois lead joint filing
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset pairs a consumer-products manufacturer with a research university, at 17 joint filings — far ahead of any other pairing. It points to a licensing or sponsored-research relationship rather than an internal R&D pipeline.
Leading assignees have gone quiet in the most recent year
University of Illinois, University of Massachusetts, University of Florida Research Foundation, HRL Laboratories and the UK Ministry of Defence all show zero filings in the latest year despite ranking among the largest historical filers. That is consistent with a field past its filing peak rather than one still accelerating.
A second, smaller cross-border collaboration
Eurofoil Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology co-file at a smaller but still notable scale, alongside a UK Ministry of Defence pairing at 3 — evidence that state-backed research institutes are a recurring co-filing partner across several jurisdictions.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. | 0 | — |
| The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois | 0 | — |
| University of Massachusetts | 0 | — |
| University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc. | 0 | — |
| HRL Laboratories, LLC | 0 | — |
| UK Secretary of State for Defence | 0 | — |
| University of Akron | 0 | — |
| Nissan Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with settled claim territory in process and formulation, and comparatively open ground in materials and applications. Two directions are worth pursuing next.
Check freedom-to-operate in the US first
With 91 of the tracked filings routed through the US and process/formulation classes carrying the densest coverage, any commercialisation plan should clear US claim space before assuming other jurisdictions are the binding constraint.
Run a claim-scope check in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches before designing around dense art
Textile finishes, additive-driven durability and transparent superhydrophobic layers show thinner coverage than the dominant coating-process classes — a faster route to a defensible filing than crowding into B05D or C09D.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on superhydrophobic and icephobic surface patents
The largest historical filing counts in this dataset belong to a small group of universities, defence research organisations and consumer-products companies, with Kimberly-Clark and the University of Illinois forming the strongest co-filing relationship at 17 joint records. However, every one of the top assignees shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year, which means today's leaderboard reflects accumulated historical filing rather than current momentum. A buyer or licensor should weight these rankings by recency, not just by total count.
No. Filings peaked in 2017 at 27 records and had fallen to roughly a third of that by the 2022 midpoint, with the trend continuing downward into the most recent years. Some of the apparent drop in the very latest year is a publication-lag artefact, since filings typically take about eighteen months to appear in public records, but the multi-year decline predates that effect. The field looks past its most active filing period rather than in an early growth phase.
Coating-process claims (IPC class B05D) and coatings-composition claims (C09D) together account for the bulk of the 258 families in this dataset, well ahead of surface-deposition methods (C23C) or novel functional materials (C09K). That composition means most granted and pending claims describe how a repellent layer is applied or formulated, rather than an entirely new base chemistry. Applicants working on genuinely new materials, rather than new deposition or formulation methods, are filing into comparatively less crowded IPC territory.
US10961628B1, credited to Anish Tuteja and granted in 2021, claims a multi-layer icephobic coating built from a thin metallic or metallic-alloy film adhered to a softer, thicker underlying layer, aimed at achieving low ice adhesion strength under demanding conditions such as aviation rain erosion or wind turbine exposure. The claim scope is specific to that layered metal-on-soft-substrate architecture rather than to icephobic coatings generally. Teams working with metallic top layers on compliant substrates for ice-release applications should review this patent's claim language closely before finalising a layer stack.
The IPC composition points to textile-treatment (D06M), polymer-additive (C08K) and laminate (B32B) classes as thinner than the dominant B05D and C09D coating-process and formulation classes, suggesting less-crowded ground for anti-icing textile finishes, additive-driven durability improvements and laminate-integrated barrier films. Optically transparent superhydrophobic layers and metallic-alloy ice-release stacks also show comparatively narrow existing coverage relative to their commercial relevance in aviation and consumer optics. A targeted prior-art search in those specific sub-areas, rather than the dominant classes, is the more efficient use of freedom-to-operate budget.
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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.