Valves & Flow Control Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Valves & flow control patents: who holds the flow path, and where it is still open
No single filer dominates. the ranked leader holds 2,103 records and the top 5 combined account for just 6.7% of the 129,992 records in scope. Annual filings ran at 713 in 2017, the highest point in the series, before easing through the early 2020s. The clearest complete-year comparison available is 2021 to 2024, where filings fell from 642 to 400 — a 38% drop. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still low because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months; they should not yet be read as a continued decline.
- 1HITACHI LTD1.6%
- 2KK TOSHIBA1.5%
- 3TOYOTA JIDOSHA KK1.3%
- 4MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP1.2%
- 5DEKA PRODUCTS LP1.1%
See the full valves & flow control patent landscape 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 on the valves & flow control patent landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in flow control valve technology?
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 2,103 records out of 129,992 in scope, with the fifth-place assignee at 1,450 and tenth place at 881. The top five combined account for only 6.7% of all records, and the top ten for 11.0%, so the field is broad rather than dominated by one company. Filers span automotive OEMs, industrial conglomerates, oilfield-services groups and medical-device makers, reflecting how many industries claim flow-control mechanisms independently.
Is flow control valve patent filing growing or declining?
Filings peaked in 2017 at 713 for the year and have eased since. Comparing the last two complete years available, 2021 to 2024, filings dropped from 642 to 400, a 38% decline. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects publication typically lagging filing by around 18 months rather than a confirmed further drop, so recent years should not yet be read as a continued decline.
What patent classes cover flow control valves?
F16K, covering valves and taps, is the leading class at 2.7% of all 129,992 records, followed by G05D for control of non-electric variables at 1.6% and F15B for fluid-pressure actuators at 1.1%. Related classes include A61M for body-fluid devices, E21B for well drilling, B01D for separation processes, G01F for flow measurement and F02M for fuel supply, each near or under 1%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%, showing the subject matter spread across mechanical, control and application-specific disciplines.
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 Valves & Flow Control Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. 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.