Wire EDM Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Wire Electrical Discharge Machining Patents: Who Files, Where the Gaps Sit
35.8% concentration at the top. The top five assignees hold 934 of 2,607 records in scope — a field with a defined leadership group rather than a diffuse crowd. Filings ran from 83 in 2017 to a peak of 149 in 2019, then fell to 32 by 2024 — a 68% decline over 2021-2024. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, so the most recent bars understate actual filing activity.
- 1ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC9.7%
- 2MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP9.1%
- 3FANUC LTD8.4%
- 4INOUE JAPAX RES INC5.4%
- 5EXIMIS SURGICAL LLC3.2%
See the full wire electrical discharge machining 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
Frequently asked questions
Who holds the most wire EDM patents?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 254 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed filer at 83. The top five assignees together hold 934 of the 2,607 records in scope, or 35.8%, and the top ten extend that to 46.6%. That still leaves more than half the field distributed across a long tail of smaller filers, so leadership is concentrated but not exclusive.
Is wire EDM patent filing slowing down?
Filing volume fell from a peak of 149 records in 2019 to 32 in 2024, a 68% decline over the 2021-2024 span. That trend is based on complete data through 2024. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are not yet reliable evidence of a continued slowdown — they will rise as more filings publish.
What technology areas dominate wire EDM patent claims?
B23H, the core electro/chemical machining classification, appears in 40.9% of the 2,607 records in scope, more than double the next largest class, B23K (welding, soldering & brazing) at 15.7%. G01N (material analysis and testing) and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) also carry meaningful shares, reflecting adjacent uses of wire electrode and flushing-condition terminology outside pure metal-cutting contexts. Records often carry more than one class, so these shares overlap rather than sum 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 Wire Electrical Discharge Machining 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.