Tangential Flow Filtration Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Top 5 assignees hold 30.5% of the field. 315 of the 1,032 records in scope sit with just five companies, with the leader alone at 109 filings — the rest is a long tail of single-digit filers.
- Filings peaked in 2023 at 68, then eased. Over the last complete three-year window, 2021 to 2024, annual filings fell 14%, from 66 to 57 — though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in.
- B01D filtration claims dominate at 82.1%. Biologics-processing classes (C12N, C07K) sit well behind at 25.5% and 23.4%, while wastewater and body-fluid applications trail under 7% each — a visible under-claimed edge.
Filing growth compares 2021 (66 records) with 2024 (57) — 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 1,032 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers 1,032 patent records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine tangential flow filtration or crossflow filtration process terms — concentration factor, retentate volume, permeate flux, product retention, volume reduction, mass balance — with filtration, cell-engineering or medicinal-preparation classifications. The scope centres on product concentration: using TFF systems to concentrate a target biological, pharmaceutical or aqueous product stream rather than filtration for simple clarification or sterilisation alone.
Filings run across bioprocessing, water treatment and medical-device applications, but the dataset skews heavily toward pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing, where TFF is a standard downstream-processing unit operation. The receiving-office spread — led by the United States, followed by Europe, the WIPO PCT route, Australia, Israel and Canada — points to a field prosecuted mainly through major regulatory markets rather than filed broadly and thinly worldwide.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown below are drawn from the same 1,032 records in scope, filtered by the search string covering tangential flow filtration and crossflow filtration systems.
Filings climbed to a 2023 peak, then the trend line understates recent activity
Annual filings rose from 34 in 2017 to a peak of 68 in 2023. Measured over a complete three-year window, 2021 to 2024, filings moved from 66 to 57, a 14% decline — a real signal, though 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publication lags filing by roughly 18 months.
Filtration hardware dominates; biologics processing is the second layer
B01D separation-process claims appear in 82.1% of the 1,032 records, far ahead of C12N microorganism/genetic-engineering claims at 25.5% and C07K peptide/protein claims at 23.4%. A61K medicinal preparations and C12M bioreactor apparatus each sit at 13.4%, with C02F wastewater treatment and A61M body-fluid devices trailing at 6.5% and 6.1% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,032 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tangential Flow Filtration Product Concentration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tangential flow filtration product concentration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art shaping freedom to operate
Processes for filtering liquids using single pass tangential flow filtration systems and tangential flow filtration systems with recirculation of retentate
Methods of filtering a liquid feed are disclosed. In one version, the method comprises passing a liquid feed through a single pass tangential flow filtration (SPTFF) system and recovering the retentate and permeate from the system in separate containers without recirculation through the SPTFF system. In another version, the method of filtering a liquid feed comprises passing a liquid feed through a tangential flow filtration (TFF) system, recovering permeate and a portion of the retentate from the system in separate containers without recirculation through the TFF system, and recirculating the remainder of the retentate through the TFF system at least once.US11278827B2 — EMD Millipore Corporation — granted 2022-03-22.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4888115A | Cross-flow filtration | 150 |
| 2 | US20050205498A1 | Preparation of a cell concentrate from a physiological solution | 117 |
| 3 | US6350382B1 | Enhancing filtration yields in tangential flow filtration | 114 |
| 4 | US6607669B2 | Method and apparatus for enhancing filtration yields in tangential flow filtration | 113 |
| 5 | US8110112B2 | Liquid to liquid biological particle concentrator | 87 |
| 6 | US8758623B1 | Liquid to liquid biological particle concentrator | 84 |
| 7 | US20180298372A1 | A method for producing and purifying RNA, comprising at least one step of tangential flow filtration | 82 |
| 8 | US7510875B2 | Methods for producing purified adenoviral vectors | 81 |
| 9 | WO2007076032A2 | Compositions and methods for producing a composition | 80 |
| 10 | US9738918B2 | Liquid to liquid biological particle concentrator | 79 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings accumulate more citations simply by virtue of age, so treat this as a map of influence rather than current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three figures from the dataset matter more than the raw filing count: where ownership concentrates, which classes carry the claim density, and how the growth curve reads once the lag-affected years are set aside.
Ownership is concentrated but not locked up
Five companies hold just under a third of all records, and ten hold 42.6%. That leaves more than half the field spread across a long tail of the remaining ranked assignees, which is where smaller filers and new entrants have historically found room.
Filtration hardware claims are the dense core
B01D separation-process claims appear far more often than any biologics-specific class. C12N and C07K, the microorganism and peptide/protein classes, sit at 25.5% and 23.4% — meaningful but secondary to the hardware and process layer.
Filings eased after a 2023 peak
Annual filings climbed from 34 in 2017 to a peak of 68 in 2023, then declined 14% across the last complete three-year window, 2021 to 2024. The most recent one to two years remain provisional because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months.
The oldest crossflow patent still anchors the field
The single most-cited record in the corpus dates to the foundational crossflow filtration patent, followed closely by a cluster of yield-enhancement filings from the late 1990s and early 2000s. These citation counts reflect age and influence, not current filing activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tangential flow filtration product concentration, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Ownership in this field sits with a small group of long-tenured bioprocessing and filtration-equipment companies, but the concentration is partial: more than half of the 1,032 records in scope sit outside the ten leading assignees.
A single filer sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds more than double the fifth-place count (32), a gap that suggests a sustained, deliberate filing programme rather than opportunistic filing around a single product launch.
Concentration at the top, room below it
Five companies hold just under a third of the field. The gap between the top 5 combined share (30.5%) and the top 10 combined share (42.6%) is comparatively narrow, meaning places six through ten still carry meaningful weight rather than trailing off sharply.
Joint filings are rare
Only ten co-assignee pairings appear across the whole corpus, and the strongest of them link a small number of large pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturers. Most filers in this field prosecute independently rather than through joint ventures.
Recent-year counts are provisional, not a verdict
Several long-standing filers show zero filings in the latest year, including one leading assignee down 100% year-on-year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as incomplete data rather than an exit from the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Genentech Inc. | 2 | — |
| Amgen Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| EMD Millipore Corporation | 0 | — |
| Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Danisco US Inc. | 0 | — |
| Pall Corporation | 0 | — |
| Minnetronix, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Baxalta LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish concentration, growth and technology mix. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific competitors.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leading portfolios
Start with the assignees holding the top combined 42.6% share and the most-cited foundational patents, since these carry the deepest and oldest claim language in the field.
Search assignee portfolios in EurekaScope a claim in an under-claimed branch
Wastewater and body-fluid applications show filing activity well below the pharmaceutical-manufacturing core — evaluate whether a narrowly scoped claim there clears the existing art.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the next 12-18 months of publications
Recent-year filing counts are still incomplete because of publication lag; revisit the trend once 2025 filings have caught up before drawing conclusions about a slowdown.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about tangential flow filtration patents
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the 1,032 records in scope, and filings are concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together hold 315 records, or 30.5% of the total, and the ten leading assignees hold 440 records, or 42.6%. The single leader alone accounts for 109 records. Beyond the leaders there is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, so a freedom-to-operate search should weight the leading portfolios heavily but not ignore the tail entirely.
US11278827B2, assigned to EMD Millipore Corporation and granted in 2022, covers single-pass tangential flow filtration with optional partial recirculation of retentate through the same system. It does not claim tangential flow filtration in general — a conventional multi-pass batch process or a single-pass system with zero recirculation falls outside its literal claim language. Anyone evaluating exposure should check specifically whether their process recirculates any fraction of retentate back through the same membrane pass, since that is the operative fact pattern in the claims.
Wastewater and water-treatment applications of crossflow filtration (C02F, 6.5% of the 1,032 records) and body-fluid device applications (A61M, 6.1%) both appear in the corpus but at far lower density than the pharmaceutical-manufacturing core built on B01D and C12N classes. That gap does not mean the technology is unproven — it means fewer claims have been staked there, which is where a narrowly scoped first claim is more likely to clear prior art than in the crowded retentate-recirculation space.
Filings rose from 34 in 2017 to a peak of 68 in 2023. Looking at the last fully mature three-year window, 2021 to 2024, annual filings moved from 66 to 57, a 14% decline. Figures for 2025 and 2026 should not be read as confirming a continued slowdown, because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months and those years are still being backfilled in the data.
US4888115A, titled 'Cross-flow filtration', is the most-cited record in the corpus with 150 citations, followed by a cluster of yield-enhancement patents including US6350382B1 and US6607669B2, both dealing with enhancing filtration yields in tangential flow filtration. High citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so treat these as markers of foundational influence rather than as evidence that the underlying technology is still the most active area of filing.
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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.