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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/thermal-systems-hvac-and-refrigeration-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Thermal Systems, HVAC & RefrigerationThermal Systems and HVAC Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Headed
- Concentration is modest. the ranked leader holds 2,989 records but the top 10 combined account for only 14.8% of all 91,292 records in scope — most of the field sits with a long tail of filers.
- Filing cooled from its 2022 peak. activity rose to 1,345 records in 2022, then fell from 1,225 in 2021 to 971 in 2024, a 21% decline over that span — the last complete filing years available.
- Refrigeration and heat pumps dominate the claim map. F25B carries 7.4% of all records, more than double the next largest class, air conditioning and ventilation (F24F) at 4.3%.
91.3K
Published Records
10%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-21%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,225 records) with 2024 (971) — 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 91,292 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··8 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
A wide field with a shallow top
Thermal management, HVAC and refrigeration filing spans 91,292 records dated 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, covering everything from heat pump cycles and low-GWP refrigerants to vehicle thermal management and heat-exchanger hardware. The search string pairs system-level terms — HVAC system, refrigeration system, thermal management — with component and application terms such as heat pumps, heat exchangers, district heating and low GWP refrigerants, so the corpus captures both whole-system claims and the parts that go inside them.
No single filer controls the field: the leader holds 2,989 records against 91,292 total, and the top 10 combined reach only 14.8% of all records in scope. That points to a technology area organised around components and applications rather than one dominant platform, which matters for freedom-to-operate work — clearance searches need to cover many mid-sized filers, not just the largest few.
Filing volume by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 91,292 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how it splits across the IPC subclasses that structure the field.
Filing rose to a 2022 peak, then eased
Annual filings climbed from 909 in 2017 to a peak of 1,345 in 2022. Using only the years complete enough to compare, volume fell from 1,225 in 2021 to 971 in 2024, a 21% decline. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures shown are still filling in and should not be read as a continued fall.
Refrigeration and heat pumps lead the class map
F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) appears in 7.4% of all 91,292 records, ahead of F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) at 4.3% and F25D (refrigerators and cooling) at 2.0%. Vehicle heating and A/C (B60H) and battery/cell hardware (H01M) each clear 1.5%, and heat-exchanger apparatus and detail classes (F28D, F28F) sit close behind — evidence that heat-exchanger design is claimed as a discipline in its own right, separate from the systems that use it. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add to more than 100% of the record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 91,292 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaRepresentative Filing
A representative record: vehicle thermal management
Representative Record
Thermal management system and method for automotive vehicle
FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
A thermal management system for an automotive vehicle includes air cooled heat exchangers for an HVAC system, for a prime mover, and for various electronics componentry. All heat exchangers are cooled by a common air stream flowing from the ambient. The amount of heat imparted to the air stream through the HVAC system is controlled as to permit optimal cooling of the vehicle electronics and vehicle prime mover.Filed by Ford Global Technologies, LLC — illustrates how vehicle-level thermal management claims combine HVAC, powertrain and electronics cooling into a single shared air stream.
Most-cited records in the corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US9641122B2 | HVAC actuator with automatic end stop recalibration | 957 |
| 2 | US6391251B1 | Forming structures from CAD solid models | 833 |
| 3 | US5560362A | Active thermal control of ultrasound transducers | 750 |
| 4 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 5 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 6 | US6385510B1 | HVAC remote monitoring system | 674 |
| 7 | US5334181A | Cryosurgical system for destroying tumors by freezing | 669 |
| 8 | US20050154494A1 | Integrated building environment data system | 609 |
| 9 | US20200225655A1 | Methods, systems, kits and apparatuses for monitoring and managing industrial settings in an industrial inter… | 563 |
| 10 | US6230501B1 | Ergonomic systems and methods providing intelligent adaptive surfaces and temperature control | 522 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them — read this table as a signal of influence within the searched corpus, not as a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data implies for filing strategy
Three read-throughs from the filing trend, class composition and receiving-office spread — useful for deciding where to search before drafting and where competitive attention is likely to sharpen.
Filing Trend
-21%
2021 to 2024, complete years
The post-2022 dip is real but not a retreat
Volume peaked at 1,345 filings in 2022 and eased to 971 by 2024. That is a genuine slowdown in the most recent complete years, not evidence the field is winding down — 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under the usual publication lag and will revise upward.
Use 2024 as the last reliable comparison year.
Class Composition
7.4%
F25B share of 91,292 records
Refrigeration and heat pump claims are the densest single target
F25B alone touches 7.4% of all records, well ahead of air conditioning (F24F, 4.3%). Anyone drafting a heat pump cycle or refrigerant-handling claim is filing into the most crowded subclass in the dataset and should expect dense prior art review.
Heat-exchanger classes (F28D, F28F) sit apart from system classes.
Filing Venue
11,041
United States receiving-office records
US filing leads by a wide margin over other offices
The United States receiving office accounts for 11,041 records, more than three times the EPO's 3,452 and well ahead of WIPO PCT filings at 2,288. Regional strategy should still account for Canada, Australia and the UK, each with meaningful but smaller volumes.
PCT volume signals filers keeping international options open.
Concentration
14.8%
top 10 share of 91,292 records
No single assignee controls the claim space
The ranked leader holds 2,989 records, but the top 10 combined reach only 14.8% of all records in scope. Clearance work needs to look beyond the largest filers, since most of the field's claim density sits in a long tail of mid-sized and single-filing entrants.
Ranking covers 100 companies, not a top-50 cut.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to thermal systems, hvac & refrigeration patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
A broad field with a shallow leadership tier
The ranked leaders hold meaningful positions, but the concentration figures show the bulk of filing activity sits outside the top 10 — worth mapping before assuming a clearance search can stop at the largest names.
Leader Position
2,989
records, ranked leader
The top filer sets the pace without controlling the field
The leading assignee's 2,989 records is the single largest position in the ranking, yet it represents a small fraction of the 91,292 records in scope. That gap between leading and controlling is the defining feature of this landscape.
Fifth place holds 1,367; tenth place holds 763.
Recent Momentum
-57% to +33%
YoY range among tracked filers
Momentum is diverging sharply among active filers
Latest-year activity swings from double-digit declines at some long-standing filers to a 33% year-over-year increase at another, on small absolute counts. These are early signals on thin volumes, not settled strategic shifts.
Watch next year's data to confirm direction.
Co-filing
10
co-assignee pairs identified
Joint filing is rare and concentrated in a few relationships
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, with the strongest pairs linking related corporate entities or named inventors to their employer. Co-filing is not a common pattern here — most records carry a single assignee.
Pairs cluster around a handful of corporate families.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier Corporation | 6 | -57% |
| Lennox Industries Inc. | 4 | +33% |
| The Chemours Company FC, LLC | 3 | -91% |
| General Electric Company | 2 | -89% |
| Trane International Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or clearance decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific competitors.
Map claim scope inside F25B and F24F
The refrigeration and air-conditioning classes carry the densest filing. Before drafting into either, a claim-by-claim read of the closest prior art in those subclasses will show what is actually blocked versus what only looks crowded at the subclass level.
Explore F25B and F24F in EurekaTrack momentum among mid-tier filers
Concentration is low enough that filers outside the top 10 are worth watching directly. Year-over-year momentum data can flag which of them are accelerating before that shows up in aggregate rankings.
Build a momentum watchlist in EurekaCheck the under-claimed branches
Low-GWP refrigerant blends and heat pump defrosting logic show thinner filing density than the system classes around them. A first-claim search in these branches can confirm whether that is genuine white space or simply under-indexed terminology.
Run a white space search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
The ranking in this dataset covers 100 companies, and the leader holds 2,989 records out of 91,292 total. That is the largest single position in the field, but it is far from a controlling share — the top 10 combined only reach 14.8% of all records in scope. Practically, this means competitive monitoring needs to extend well past the handful of largest names to get a full picture of who is actually active.
Filing rose from 909 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,345 in 2022, then eased to 971 by 2024 — a 21% decline over the 2021-2024 window using the most recent years that can be treated as complete. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are not yet reliable and will revise upward as more records publish. The honest read is a cooling from a 2022 peak, not a collapse in activity.
Refrigeration and heat pump technology (IPC class F25B) is the single densest area, appearing in 7.4% of all 91,292 records, followed by air conditioning and ventilation (F24F) at 4.3%. Heat-exchanger apparatus and its detail components each carry over 1% independently, suggesting heat-exchanger design is claimed as its own discipline rather than folded entirely into system-level filings. Vehicle heating and battery thermal management also show measurable, distinct claim activity.
Sub-areas such as low-GWP refrigerant blends, district heating network controls, and heat pump defrosting logic show comparatively thin filing relative to the system-level classes that surround them. That does not guarantee the space is legally open — it may simply mean prior art uses different terminology than the search terms captured — but it is a reasonable starting point for a first-claim novelty search. Any white-space read should be confirmed against a targeted prior-art search before drafting.
The United States receiving office leads by a wide margin with 11,041 records, more than three times the EPO's 3,452. WIPO PCT filings total 2,288, indicating a meaningful share of filers are preserving international options rather than committing early to specific jurisdictions. Canada, Australia and the UK each show smaller but non-trivial volumes worth including in any freedom-to-operate check outside the US and Europe.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Thermal Systems, HVAC & Refrigeration Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
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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.