Tank Gauging Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 74.6% concentration. The top five assignees hold 53 of the 71 records in scope, leaving a thin tail of single- and double-filing entrants.
- Filing has doubled since 2021. Annual filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a +100% increase over the most recent three-year span that can be read as complete.
- Radar and data integration are pulling apart. G01S (radar/positioning) sits at 14.1% of records while G06Q and H04L (data processing and transmission) each hold only 8.5%, pointing to where the hardware side has outpaced the software side.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 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 71 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Tank gauging and inventory management sits at the intersection of level measurement hardware and the custody-transfer, overfill-prevention and data-reporting obligations that surround bulk liquid storage. The 71 records in scope span servo and radar gauges, temperature averaging, calibration tables and the gateways that move gauge data into inventory and business systems. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, with publication lagging filing by roughly eighteen months — so the last one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity.
The field reads as a mature hardware core with a newer, thinner layer of data-integration claims built on top of it. Flow and level measurement (G01F) and dispensing (B67D) together account for the bulk of the corpus, while business-data and digital-transmission classes remain comparatively small, suggesting the software layer connecting gauges to inventory systems is still being actively claimed rather than settled.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 71 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend
Filings peaked at 15 in 2019, the highest single year in the dataset, before settling into a lower but recovering pattern — 1 filing in 2021 rising to 2 in 2024, a +100% increase over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under the publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition
G01F (flow, level and volume measuring) leads at 40.8% of the 71 records, with B67D (dispensing liquids) close behind at 33.8%. G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) holds 14.1%, while B65D, F16K, G06Q and H04L each sit at 8.5% and G01B at 5.6% — since records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 71 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tank Gauging and Inventory Management with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tank gauging and inventory management and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing
Method of integrating wired and wireless tank gauging systems on flexible common gateway hardware
A communication interface apparatus in a tank gauging system. The communication interface includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor communicates using a control application with a tank inventory system that operates over a serial connection, and communicates using a wireless application with tank gauging equipment that operates over a wireless connection.US10880126B2, assigned to Honeywell International Inc., published 2020-12-29.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6535161B1 | Loop powered radar rangefinder | 149 |
| 2 | US20070050206A1 | Method and apparatus for operating data management and control | 79 |
| 3 | US7539593B2 | Self-validated measurement systems | 66 |
| 4 | US20080270162A1 | Self-validated measurement systems | 61 |
| 5 | WO2007067248A2 | System for operating data management and control | 35 |
| 6 | US4123753A | Ullage measuring device | 26 |
| 7 | US6247492B1 | Overfill protection for fuel tanks | 24 |
| 8 | WO2002044748A2 | Loop powered radar rangefinder | 15 |
| 9 | US20170307461A1 | Automatic pressure correction for level gauges in storage tanks | 10 |
| 10 | GB2344582A | Fuel storage tank with a fill tube diffuser | 6 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, concentration, trend and technology mix point to where new claims still have room and where they will collide with dense prior art.
The top of the field is settled
Five assignees account for 53 of the 71 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 95.8%. A new entrant filing on core servo or radar gauge mechanics is filing into space the ranked leaders have already occupied.
Activity is rebuilding after a trough
Filings fell from the 2019 peak of 15 to as low as 1 in 2021, then doubled to 2 by 2024. That is a small base, but it is the clearest complete-year signal the dataset supports.
The data layer is thin relative to the hardware layer
G01F and B67D together dominate the corpus, but the classes covering business-data processing and digital transmission sit at 8.5% each. Claims on how gauge data moves into inventory and custody-transfer systems are comparatively underdeveloped.
Filing is split across three main offices
The United States leads with 19 records, followed closely by Europe (EPO) and the United Kingdom at 15 each, with WIPO PCT, Austria and Germany each contributing smaller counts. Any global filing strategy in this field needs to clear all three main jurisdictions, not just one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tank gauging and inventory management, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the field, and where the gaps sit
Nineteen companies make up the entire ranked list the dataset returns. Activity concentrates hard at the top, with co-filing patterns showing a small number of applicant-inventor pairs repeating across records.
A single dominant filer
The leading assignee holds 20 of the 71 records, well ahead of fifth place at 5 and tenth place at 2. That gap is wide enough that competitive filings need to design explicitly around the leader's claim set rather than assume open ground.
A thin field beyond the top ten
The ranking covers 19 companies in total, with the top ten already accounting for 95.8% of all records. The remaining ranked assignees hold single-digit counts, typical of a field with a stable core and occasional new entrants.
Repeated inventor-applicant pairings
Seven co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairings repeating twice each. This pattern is consistent with in-house engineering teams filing steadily rather than one-off inventor assignments.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| BERRYS (HOLDINGS) TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED | 0 | — |
| RISBRIDGER | 0 | — |
| Rosemount Tank Radar AB | 0 | — |
| MARINE MOISTURE CONTROL | 0 | — |
| DENBY CARL | 0 | — |
| McEwan Technologies | 0 | — |
| MARATHON PETROLEUM COMPANY LP | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape points to where the claim space is dense and where it is not. The next step is testing a specific claim idea against the records that actually matter.
Check freedom to operate on gateway integration
The representative record covers gateway hardware that bridges wired and wireless tank gauging systems. Any new gateway or data-normalization filing should be checked against this claim set before drafting.
Explore in EurekaMap the under-claimed data layer
G06Q and H04L classes sit far below the measurement-hardware classes in record count. That gap is worth probing with a targeted claim search before assuming it is open.
Run a white-space searchTrack the post-2021 filing recovery
Filings have doubled from their 2021 low through 2024. Watching who files next as 2025 and 2026 data fills in will show whether the recovery concentrates further or broadens.
Set up monitoring in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The dataset ranks 19 assignees across 71 records, with a single leader holding 20 records — well ahead of fifth place at 5 and tenth place at 2. The top five assignees combined hold 53 records, or 74.6% of all records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 95.8%. This means the field is concentrated at the top, with a long tail of assignees holding only one or two records each, rather than an evenly distributed field.
Filing peaked at 15 records in 2019, the highest single year in the dataset, then fell to a low point before recovering. Using the most recent years that can be treated as complete, filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a 100% increase over that span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so recent-year counts should not be read as a decline.
Flow, level and volume measuring (IPC class G01F) covers 40.8% of the 71 records, making it the largest single category, followed by dispensing liquids (B67D) at 33.8%. Radar, sonar and positioning (G01S) accounts for 14.1%, reflecting the role of radar-based level sensing in the field. Business-data processing (G06Q) and digital transmission (H04L) each sit at only 8.5%, indicating the data-integration side of tank gauging carries comparatively fewer claims than the core measurement hardware.
US10880126B2, assigned to Honeywell International Inc. and published in December 2020, claims a communication interface apparatus that lets a tank gauging system bridge a wired serial connection to a tank inventory system with a wireless connection to gauging equipment. In practice this covers the gateway hardware pattern of translating between wired control applications and wireless gauge communication on shared hardware. Anyone building a multi-protocol gateway for tank gauging data should review this claim set specifically, since it sits at the exact junction between the hardware and data-integration layers this landscape identifies as active.
The clearest gaps sit in the data-integration layer rather than the core measurement hardware: classes covering business-data processing and digital transmission each account for only 8.5% of the 71 records, compared with over 40% for core level-measurement claims. Sub-areas such as calibration table auto-generation, custody-transfer audit trails, and wireless gateway data normalization show comparatively few dedicated filings relative to the density in servo and radar gauge mechanics. A first claim in these areas would need to tie a specific data-handling method to the physical gauging step to avoid overlap with the dense hardware prior art.
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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.