Thermal Mass & Variable Area Meter Patents: Leaders vs Long Tail 2026
Thermal Mass and Variable Area Flow Meter Patents
51.3% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 162 of 316 records in scope, with one leader alone accounting for 72 — a field where the top of the table is tight and the rest thins out fast. Filings peaked at 16 in 2018 and have since drifted down; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a 46% decline (13 to 7), the most recent period the data can support without publication-lag distortion. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as evidence of a further slowdown.
- 1KIMBERLY CLARK WORLDWIDE INC72
- 2THIRD POLE INC34
- 3ENVIROSCRUB TECHNOLOGIES CORP33
- 4LOCI CONTROLS INC15
- 5FISCHER & PORTER CO8
See the full thermal mass and variable area meters 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
Who holds the most patents in thermal mass and variable area flow meters?
This dataset shows a single assignee leading with 72 of the 316 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top 5 assignees combined hold 162 records, or 51.3% of the total, so filing decisions in this space should start with a review of that leader’s claims rather than treating the field as evenly distributed. Below the top 10, which together hold 62.3% of all records, the ranking spreads thinly across 100 companies.
Is patent filing activity in this space growing or shrinking?
Filings peaked in 2018 at 16 in a single year and have since declined; comparing the last two complete years available, 2021 (13 filings) to 2024 (7 filings), shows a 46% drop. Data from 2025 and 2026 is still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as confirming or reversing that trend. On the evidence available, the field has cooled from its 2018 high point rather than accelerated.
What patent classes cover thermal mass flow meter technology?
The largest classes in this corpus are G01N (material analysis and testing, 32.3% of records) and A61F (implants and prostheses, 25.3%), both ahead of G01F (flow, level and volume measuring, 13.9%), the class most directly associated with meters themselves. This reflects how many of these patents claim a meter as part of a medical device, gas separation system, or analytical instrument rather than as a freestanding flow meter. B01D (separation processes) and A61M (body fluid devices) also carry meaningful shares, pointing to industrial gas and clinical delivery applications.
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 Thermal Mass and Variable Area Meters covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.