Vapor Degreasing and Solvent Cleaning Patents
63.6% of all 77 records sit with the top five assignees combined — filing here is concentrated, not fragmented. Filing ran at 12 records in 2017, its peak in the dataset, and has declined in the years since, reaching zero in the most recent year. That final data point is partial — publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent-year totals are always undercounts rather than a true stop in activity.
- 1HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC21
- 2EI DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO8
- 3EASTMAN CHEM CO7
- 4RHO CHEM A CALIFORNIA7
- 5ENVIRO TECH INT6
See the full vapor degreasing and solvent cleaning 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 this landscape
Who holds the most vapor degreasing and solvent cleaning patents?
The assignee ranking for this dataset is led by a single company with 21 of the 77 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top five assignees combined hold 63.6% of all records, and the top ten hold 85.7%, meaning ownership is concentrated rather than spread evenly across the 20 companies that make up the full ranked list. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work in this space should prioritize checking those top-ranked portfolios before looking at the long tail of single-filing entrants.
Why has vapor degreasing patent filing declined since 2017?
Filing in this dataset peaked at 12 records in 2017 and has fallen in every year since, reaching zero in the most recent year. Part of that drop is real: several established filers show zero activity in their most recent-year momentum figures. But part of it is a measurement artifact — publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the last year or two of any patent trend will always look weaker than the underlying filing activity actually was.
What is the difference between C23G and C11D classifications in this field?
C23G covers cleaning of metal surfaces and appears in 84.4% of the 77 records in scope, making it the single most common classification in this landscape. C11D covers detergents and cleaning compositions more broadly and appears in 79.2% of records. Many records carry both classes at once, since a solvent formulation patent for metal parts often claims both the cleaning composition itself and its application to metal surfaces — which is why the two shares overlap rather than summing to 100%.
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 Vapor Degreasing and Solvent Cleaning 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.