Textiles & Fibers Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 28.3% of all 3,609 records sit with just five assignees, so the top of this field is genuinely concentrated rather than evenly spread.
- Filings fell 60% from 121 in 2021 to 49 in 2024 — the clearest complete-year window in the dataset, before 2025-26 data thins out from publication lag.
- Nonwovens (D04H) lead composition at 28.5% of records, ahead of implants/prostheses (A61F) and chemical filament features (D01F).
Filing growth compares 2021 (121 records) with 2024 (49) — 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 3,609 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
This landscape covers 3,609 published records at the intersection of textile and fiber technology — nonwoven webs, filament spinning, fiber diameter and structure — filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off. The search string pairs textile and fiber terminology with structural and processing descriptors such as fiber diameter and web structure, which pulls in both classic nonwoven/absorbent-product engineering and adjacent polymer and biomedical fiber applications.
Records are drawn from filings at the United States, European, WIPO/PCT, Australian, Canadian and Japanese offices, giving a cross-jurisdictional view of where applicants seek protection rather than only where they are based. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,609 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 125 in 2019, then declined through the early 2020s; the -60% drop from 121 filings in 2021 to 49 in 2024 is the last complete-year comparison the data supports. 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 6 for 2026, a partial year) understate real activity because publication has not caught up with filing.
IPC subclass composition
Nonwoven and felt structures (D04H) top the composition at 28.5% of the 3,609 records, with implants and prostheses (A61F) and chemical filament features (D01F) close behind at 21.1% and 20.8%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100% and should be read as overlapping claim territory, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,609 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Textiles & Fibers Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about textiles & fibers patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
US5190657A — Blood filter and method of filtration
A filter material for filtering leucocytes from whole human blood or a blood fraction, built from a shape-sustaining laid textile web with defined thickness and bulk density. The web uses interlocked staple textile fibers at specified denier and length ranges, distributed to form a matrix with controlled interstitial spacing, combined with fibrillated polymeric particles.Filed by Charter Medical, Ltd.; issued 1993-03-02.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4100324A | Nonwoven fabric and method of producing same | 3,550 |
| 2 | US6261679B1 | Fibrous absorbent material and methods of making the same | 1,319 |
| 3 | US20080170982A1 | Fabrication and Application of Nanofiber Ribbons and Sheets and Twisted and Non-Twisted Nanofiber Yarns | 1,266 |
| 4 | US4965122A | Reversibly necked material | 1,043 |
| 5 | US5190657A | Blood filter and method of filtration | 987 |
| 6 | US4293604A | Flocked three-dimensional network mat | 832 |
| 7 | US5025052A | Fluorochemical oxazolidinones | 428 |
| 8 | US2862251A | Method of and apparatus for producing nonwoven product | 411 |
| 9 | US6106913A | Fibrous structures containing nanofibrils and other textile fibers | 400 |
| 10 | WO2007015710A2 | The fabrication and application of nanofiber ribbons and sheets and twisted and non-twisted nanofiber yarns | 383 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on later work, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers imply
Reading the concentration, trend and citation data together points to a field with an established core and a cooling filing rate.
The top of the field is genuinely concentrated
Five assignees combine for 28.3% of all 3,609 records, and the top ten hold 36.6%. That leaves a long tail of the remaining ranked assignees each filing far fewer records, which is where niche and second-mover activity happens.
Filing volume has pulled back from its 2019 peak
After peaking at 125 filings in 2019, volume declined to 49 by 2024 — a -60% move from the 121 filed in 2021. Years after 2024 are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as continuing the decline.
Nonwoven structure claims dominate the class mix
D04H (nonwovens & felts) leads at 28.5% of records, with A61F (implants & prostheses) and D01F (chemical filament features) each above 20%. The overlap between nonwoven structure and medical/implant classes signals where biomedical fiber applications and industrial nonwoven engineering intersect.
US and EPO dominate the filing venues
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 1,022 records, followed by the EPO at 576 and WIPO/PCT at 402. Australia, Canada and Japan each sit in the low hundreds, suggesting protection strategies concentrate on US and European coverage first.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to textiles & fibers patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the gaps sit
The leader board is dominated by large consumer-products and materials companies; momentum data shows even that top tier filing at low single digits in the latest year, consistent with the broader slowdown.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 454 records, more than four times the fifth-placed filer's 105. That gap suggests a company with a long-running, deliberate filing programme rather than opportunistic activity.
The drop from fifth to tenth is steep
Tenth place holds 45 records against 105 for fifth place, more than halving across five ranking positions. This is a field where a handful of names anchor the top ten, then activity thins quickly.
Even leading filers show low latest-year counts
Momentum data for several top assignees shows only one filing in the latest year, with year-over-year changes as steep as -83% for one leader. This is consistent with the broader publication-lag effect rather than a genuine collapse in activity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Procter & Gamble Co | 1 | -83% |
| Dow Global Technologies LLC | 1 | 0% |
| Tepha Inc | 1 | — |
| Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc | 0 | — |
| 3M Company | 0 | — |
| PPG Industries Ohio Inc | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co | 0 | — |
| Kimberly-Clark Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a mature, concentrated core with specific adjacent branches still open.
Map claim scope around the top assignee
With one filer holding 454 records against a fifth-place count of 105, understanding exactly which sub-claims that filer holds is the first step before filing nearby.
Explore assignee claim scope in Eureka →Track the post-2024 filing signal as it fills in
2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete due to publication lag; revisit the trend once another cycle of data has published to see whether the 2021-2024 decline continued or reversed.
Set up trend monitoring in Eureka →Test white space in under-claimed IPC overlaps
Sub-areas like nanofiber yarn structures and sterilisation-compatible fiber matrices show thinner density than the D04H/A61F core and may offer more freedom to operate.
Run a white space search in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company holding 454 of the 3,609 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-placed filer at 105. The top five assignees combined account for 28.3% of all records, and the top ten reach 36.6%, so filing activity is concentrated among a small group of large consumer-products and materials companies before dropping into a long tail of smaller filers. This concentration pattern means a freedom-to-operate check in this space should start with the top-ranked assignees rather than assume activity is evenly spread.
Based on complete-year data, filing volume peaked at 125 in 2019 and then declined, falling 60% from 121 filings in 2021 to 49 in 2024. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are lower still, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than a genuine collapse in filing activity, since recent applications have not all published yet. The honest read is a multi-year pullback from a 2019 peak, with the very latest years still an open question.
Nonwoven and felt structures (IPC class D04H) lead the composition at 28.5% of the 3,609 records, followed by implants and prostheses (A61F) at 21.1% and chemical filament and fibre features (D01F) at 20.8%. Layered products and laminates (B32B) and sterilising/disinfecting applications (A61L) also carry meaningful shares. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than partition the field, so high density in one class does not preclude density in an adjacent one.
The clearest gaps sit in branches adjacent to the dense D04H/A61F/D01F core rather than in entirely separate fields: fiber diameter control within spun nonwovens, polymer solution processing for fiber applications, sterilisation-compatible fiber matrices, and nanofiber yarn twisting structures all show comparatively thinner filing density. These are not unclaimed territories but areas where the claim space is less occupied than the core nonwoven and implant classes. A practical next step is a focused search within one of these branches before drafting new claims.
US5190657A, assigned to Charter Medical, Ltd. and issued in 1993, claims a shape-sustaining laid textile web for filtering leucocytes from blood, built from interlocked staple textile fibers within specified denier and length ranges plus fibrillated polymeric particles. It is one of the most-cited records in this dataset, reflecting its influence on later fiber-filtration and nonwoven-matrix filings. Anyone designing a textile-based filtration medium with similar fiber dimension and density parameters should review this filing closely, since its claim structure around fiber matrix geometry recurs as a citation anchor across the corpus.
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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.