Vacuum Insulating Glass Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- One assignee dominates the ranked field. the leader holds 571 records against a fifth-place total of 95 and a tenth-place total of 46, a steep drop-off rather than a gradual taper.
- Filing activity roughly doubled in three years. growth ran +111% from 2021 (9 filings) to 2024 (19), the last year the trend can be treated as complete given publication lag.
- Claims cluster hard around windows and glass chemistry. 80.3% of the 1,536 records in scope sit in E06B (doors, windows & shutters) and 39.9% in C03C (glass & enamel compositions), leaving edge-seal metallurgy and gasket-level claims comparatively thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (19) — 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.
What the vacuum insulating glass patent record shows
Vacuum insulating glass (VIG) replaces the gas-filled cavity of conventional double glazing with an evacuated gap held open by a pillar array, sealed at the edge and protected by a getter material that scavenges outgassing over the unit’s service life. The patent record in scope, 1,536 published records spanning 2015 to the 2026-07-31 cut-off, tracks three recurring problems: keeping the edge seal vacuum-tight over thermal cycling, minimising pillar-related heat bridging and thermal transmittance, and getting tempered substrates through the evacuation and sealing process at usable production yield.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend undercount actual filing activity; the 2024 figures are the most recent that can be read as complete.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,536-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 48 in 2017 to a peak of 262 in 2023, then read lower in 2025-2026 — an artefact of publication lag rather than a genuine slowdown. The +111% jump from 9 filings in 2021 to 19 in 2024 is the most defensible growth read this dataset supports.
IPC subclass composition
E06B (doors, windows & shutters) covers 80.3% of the 1,536 records in scope and C03C (glass & enamel compositions) covers 39.9%; smaller shares in B32B, C03B, B01J, E04D, B23K and F16J point to laminate structures, glass shaping, catalytic getter chemistry, roofing applications, seal-welding methods and gasket hardware as narrower but active claim areas. Records can carry multiple classes, so these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,536 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Vacuum Insulating Glass with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about vacuum insulating glass and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this field
Metal-inclusive edge seal for vacuum insulating glass unit, and/or method of making the same
Certain example embodiments relate to metal-inclusive edge seal designs for vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units, and/or methods of making the same. First and second substantially parallel spaced-apart glass substrates, including edge portions thereof, are provided. At least one metal-inclusive edge-sealing strip is located proximate to the edge portions of the first and second substrates, getter being applied to at least a portion of at least some of the edge-sealing strips, and the at least one edge-sealing strip being selected so as to have a coefficient of thermal expansion over a temperature range of interest within about 25% of a coefficient of thermal expansion of the substrates.Filed by Guardian Glass, LLC, published 2009-06-18 — rendered separately with its full citation record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090029147A1 | Aerogel-foam composites | 228 |
| 2 | US6541084B2 | Vacuum IG window unit with polymer spacers | 197 |
| 3 | US6383580B1 | Vacuum IG window unit with edge mounted pump-out tube | 195 |
| 4 | US6701749B2 | Vacuum IG window unit with edge seal at least partially diffused at temper and completed via microwave curing… | 167 |
| 5 | US6946171B1 | Vacuum IG pillar with lubricating and/or reflective coating | 157 |
| 6 | US6692600B2 | VIG evacuation with plasma excitation | 146 |
| 7 | US6641689B1 | Vacuum IG window unit with peripheral seal at least partially diffused at temper | 140 |
| 8 | US5891536A | Design improvements to vacuum glazing | 134 |
| 9 | US6444281B1 | Vacuum IG window unit with spacers between first and second edge seals | 129 |
| 10 | US6365242B1 | Peripheral seal for vacuum IG window unit | 127 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat these as markers of influence on later claim drafting, not as a ranking of present-day relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing strategy
Reading the ranking, the trend and the citation table together points to where claim space is occupied and where it is not.
One filer, then a sharp drop
The gap between the leading assignee's 571 records and the fifth-place total of 95 is steep, not gradual — this is a field with a dominant incumbent rather than a handful of comparable rivals. Filers entering now are working against one very deep portfolio, not several moderate ones.
Growth is real but recent-year counts understate it further
Filings grew from 9 in 2021 to 19 in 2024, a +111% rise over that span, with 2023 the peak year recorded so far at 262 across the field. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, 2025-2026 figures will keep revising upward and should not be read as a cooling trend.
Window-assembly and glass-chemistry claims are crowded
E06B and C03C together account for the bulk of filings, meaning the core mechanical assembly and glass-composition claim space is well populated. Smaller subclasses such as F16J (seals & gaskets) and B23K (welding, soldering & brazing) carry far fewer records relative to the same 1,536-record base.
Filing is concentrated in the US and European offices
The United States (442) and the EPO (312) are the two largest receiving offices, with WIPO PCT filings (182) and Germany, Austria and Denmark also carrying meaningful volume — consistent with the leading assignees' manufacturing and sales footprints.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to vacuum insulating glass, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity is shifting
The ranked field spans 100 companies counted by patent family; a small number carry most of the recent-year momentum while several established filers show no activity in the latest tracked year.
The dominant incumbent
The leading assignee's 571 records dwarf the rest of the ranking, spanning edge-seal, pillar and getter claims across multiple related entities in its corporate family.
A newer entrant still filing
LuxWall Inc shows 2 records in the latest tracked year, down 86% year over year, but remains one of the few assignees with any recorded activity in that period, alongside the general publication-lag caveat for recent years.
A steep drop past the top handful
By the tenth position the ranking has fallen to 46 records, underlining how much of the field's activity sits with a small group of filers rather than spreading evenly across the 100 ranked companies.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LUXWALL INC | 2 | -86% |
| Guardian Industries Corp | 0 | — |
| Guardian Glass, LLC | 0 | — |
| AGC Glass Europe SA | 0 | — |
| VKR Holding A/S | 0 | -100% |
| AGC Inc. | 0 | — |
| The University of Sydney | 0 | — |
| AGC Flat Glass North America, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The patterns above point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio building or competitive tracking.
Check freedom-to-operate before filing
The dense E06B and C03C claim space means a new edge-seal or pillar filing likely sits close to existing art from the leading assignee; a clearance search against that portfolio specifically is worth doing before drafting.
Run a clearance search in EurekaTrack momentum, not just headcount
Several established filers show zero activity in the latest tracked year while a newer entrant still files, however modestly — watching direction of travel matters more than static rank here.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaDraft into the thinner branches
Getter chemistry, pillar coatings and gasket-level hardware carry far fewer records than the core assembly claims, and may offer more room for a defensible first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaFrequently asked questions
One assignee leads the ranked field with 571 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 95 and the tenth-place holder at 46. That gap is steep rather than gradual, meaning the field currently has one dominant portfolio rather than several closely matched competitors. Related entities within the same corporate family also appear separately in the ranking, so the practical concentration around that lead filer is likely even greater than the single top line suggests.
Filings grew from 9 in 2021 to 19 in 2024, a +111% increase over that span, with the broader field peaking at 262 filings in 2023. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower, but that is an artefact of publication lag — patent applications typically take around 18 months to publish, so the most recent one to two years always undercount true filing activity. Based on the complete years available, the trend through 2024 is upward, not slowing.
Representative filings claim edge-seal designs (including metal-inclusive strips with getter material and matched thermal-expansion coefficients), pillar array structures and coatings, and methods for sealing and evacuating the unit at production scale. US20090155499A1, held by Guardian Glass, LLC, is a representative example covering a metal-inclusive edge seal with getter treatment. Most claims sit within the E06B (doors, windows & shutters) and C03C (glass & enamel compositions) subclasses, which together cover the large majority of the 1,536 records in scope.
Compared with the dense claim coverage in window assembly and glass chemistry, subclasses like F16J (seals & gaskets), B23K (welding, soldering & brazing) and B01J (chemical/physical processes & catalysis, relevant to getter chemistry) carry far fewer records against the same 1,536-record base. That does not mean these areas are unclaimed, but the filing density is measurably thinner, which is where a new entrant's freedom to draft a defensible first claim is more likely to exist. Getter material chemistry and pillar-coating approaches for thermal bridging stand out as specific under-claimed branches.
The United States receiving office leads with 442 filings, followed by the EPO with 312 and the WIPO PCT route with 182. Germany, Austria and Denmark also carry meaningful volume, at 103, 101 and 73 respectively, reflecting where the leading assignees manufacture and sell. Anyone assessing freedom-to-operate in a specific market should weight their search toward whichever of these offices covers that jurisdiction.
Research Vacuum Insulating Glass in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole vacuum insulating glass corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.