Water-Efficient Plumbing Patent Landscape 2026
Water-Efficient Plumbing Patent Landscape in 2026
The water-efficient plumbing patent corpus is extremely small, with a single applicant — Middle Chart LLC — holding all indexed families and filing activity concentrated in the United States. Annual volume peaked in 2018 and has since eased, indicating a field that is either nascent in a narrow search scope or in structural decline.
Middle Chart LLC holds the entire indexed position
Within the indexed corpus, Middle Chart LLC is the sole ranked applicant, accounting for all 2 patent families in scope. This represents complete concentration rather than a competitive landscape in the conventional sense.
The top five filers’ share of the hundred largest filers stands at 100%, reflecting a corpus too small to reveal a competitive tier structure. No second-tier challengers appear in the evidence.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle Chart LLC | 2 |
Middle Chart LLC’s position implies that if this search scope is representative of the field, there is virtually no incumbent competition — an unusual finding that warrants verification against a broader search before drawing strategic conclusions.
The most recent filing years are subject to publication lag and may undercount activity; the apparent zero filings from 2022 onward should be interpreted cautiously. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sparse filing history with a 2018 peak and no recent activity
Two charts frame the temporal and technical structure of this corpus: annual filing volume since 2017 and the IPC class distribution across the indexed families.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity shows isolated single-family filings in 2018 and 2020, with no recorded activity in any other year including 2021–2026. The most recent years carry publication lag risk, but the pattern is consistent with a field that has not attracted sustained filing programs.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
The IPC mix is dominated by control and regulating systems (G05B), digital data processing (G06F), and image data processing (G06T), each appearing across both families. Sensor and positioning classes (G01C, G01S), optical systems (G02B), AI-based computing (G06N), and wireless networks (H04W) each appear once, suggesting the patents address smart or sensor-assisted plumbing management rather than purely mechanical water-saving hardware.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
System for conducting a service call with orientee…
Method and apparatus for conducting a Service Call using orienteering methods. The AVM may assist in determining whether or when equipment needs repair and can automatically call a service technician. By referencing the AVM on a smart device, the technician can quickly and easily locate the equipment to be repaired. Additionally, the data contained within… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | System for conducting a service call with orientee… | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the structure means for R&D investment
Despite the water-efficiency theme, the indexed families skew toward software, sensing, and control — pointing to a digital-management framing rather than mechanical fixture innovation. The following cards translate the structural evidence into R&D-relevant observations.
Decline stage: annual volume has eased from the 2018 peak
The lifecycle evidence places this corpus in the Decline stage, with annual filings easing back from a peak in 2018 and the recent-window growth rate at –100%. This could reflect a genuinely contracting niche, a narrow search scope missing adjacent filings, or simply a lack of follow-on investment by the sole identified applicant. R&D teams should broaden the search before concluding the field is commercially dormant.
Lifecycle: DeclineSingle-applicant corpus — no visible competition
Middle Chart LLC accounts for 100% of the indexed families. This level of concentration is atypical and most likely reflects the narrowness of the current search scope rather than a genuine monopoly. Any entrant would face negligible incumbent patent pressure based on this evidence, but should validate against a broader corpus before concluding freedom-to-operate is uncontested.
High concentrationNo co-applicant activity detected
The collaboration evidence is empty — no co-filed or joint-applicant patents appear in the indexed corpus. This absence is consistent with a very small corpus held by a single entity and does not indicate anything about broader industry collaboration patterns beyond this scope.
Evidence pendingFiling activity confined to the United States
All 2 patent records are filed in the United States, with no PCT, European, or Asian jurisdiction coverage observed. This geographic narrowness either reflects a domestic-only strategy by Middle Chart LLC or suggests that broader international protection is being sought under filings not captured in this corpus. Teams targeting non-US markets would find no identified blocking positions based on current evidence.
US-only jurisdictionGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Middle Chart LLC: sole indexed applicant with a control-systems focus
Only one applicant appears in the ranked corpus. The technology emphasis and family count are drawn directly from the indexed evidence; applicant momentum data is not available for this corpus.
Middle Chart LLC
Middle Chart LLC holds all 2 patent families in the indexed corpus. Its technology focus sits in control and regulating systems (G05B), image data processing (G06T), and distance/navigation sensing (G01C) — a profile consistent with sensor-driven management tools rather than mechanical water-saving fixtures. Applicant momentum data is not available in the current evidence set.
families: 2No challenger identified
No second-ranked applicant appears in the indexed corpus. The absence of a challenger tier is a direct consequence of the extremely small corpus size and should not be interpreted as evidence that the broader water-efficient plumbing space lacks competition.
families: N/AUnder-served IPC branches adjacent to the dominant control-systems core
Several IPC classes appear only once in the indexed corpus, making them relatively sparse relative to the G05B/G06F/G06T cluster. These are observations of relative sparsity within a very small corpus and should be evaluated for technical fit before being treated as entry opportunities.
G05D · Control of non-electric variables
G05D covers automatic control of physical variables such as flow rate, pressure, and temperature — directly relevant to water-efficient plumbing hardware. With only one record in this branch and a 7% share of the indexed corpus, it is sparsely represented relative to software-oriented classes. For engineers developing smart flow-control valves or pressure-regulation systems, this branch may warrant investigation as an adjacent filing area, contingent on a broader freedom-to-operate search.
Search this in Eureka →G06N · Computing based on AI models
G06N, covering AI and machine-learning computing models, appears only once in the corpus despite the broader industry trend of applying predictive analytics to water-use optimization. Its sparse representation here — 7% share, single record — suggests that AI-driven demand forecasting or anomaly detection for plumbing systems has not been heavily patented within this particular scope. Teams working on AI-based leak detection or usage optimization may find limited indexed blocking art in this branch.
Search this in Eureka →Technology route comparison across leading applicants
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | G05B 15 · Control & regulating systems | G06T 19 · Image data processing & generation | G01C 15 · Distance, navigation & gyroscopes | G01C 21 · Distance, navigation & gyroscopes | G01S 19 · Radar, sonar & positioning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Chart LLC | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Moderate · 1 | Moderate · 1 | Moderate · 1 |
Frequently asked questions
The indexed corpus contains 2 patent families. This is an unusually small number and likely reflects a narrow search scope rather than the full extent of global patenting activity in water-efficient plumbing.
Middle Chart LLC is the sole ranked applicant, holding all 2 patent families identified in the indexed corpus.
The IPC classification mix includes control and regulating systems (G05B), digital data processing (G06F), image data processing (G06T), distance and navigation sensing (G01C), radar and positioning (G01S), optical systems (G02B), AI-based computing (G06N), business data processing (G06Q), and wireless communication networks (H04W). The profile leans toward sensor-driven and software-based management tools.
All 2 patent records are filed in the United States. No other jurisdiction coverage — such as EP, PCT, CN, or JP — appears in the current evidence.
The evidence places the field in the Decline stage. Annual filings peaked in 2018 and have eased back, with no recorded activity from 2021 onward in the indexed corpus. Publication lag affects the most recent years, but the overall trend is downward from the 2018 peak.
No co-applicant or joint-filing activity is detected in the indexed corpus. This is consistent with a very small, single-applicant dataset and does not characterize broader industry collaboration patterns beyond this scope.
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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.
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