Workover rig and well-servicing patents: concentration, decline and open claim space
Top 5 filers hold 51.3% of the field. 115 of 224 records in scope sit with the five leading assignees, and the top 10 combined reach 69.6% — a genuinely concentrated field, not a long tail dressed up as one. Filings peaked at 24 records in 2017. By 2021 the annual count had fallen to 4, and 2024 — the most recent year that can be treated as complete once publication lag is accounted for — recorded 0, a -100% move over that three-year span. Later years in the chart are still filling in and should not be read as a continued decline until they mature.
- 1AXIS ENERGY SERVICES LLC28
- 2SMART DRILLING & COMPLETION INC27
- 3SPN WELL SERVICES INC24
- 4CUDD PRESSURE CONTROL INC22
- 5BAKER HUGHES CO14
See the full workover rigs and well servicing 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 workover rig patents
Who holds the most patents on workover rigs and well-servicing equipment?
Within this dataset of 224 published records, one assignee leads with 28 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 14. The top five assignees combined hold 51.3% of all records in scope, and the top ten hold 69.6%, so the field is concentrated among a small group of established oilfield service companies rather than spread evenly across many small filers. A freedom-to-operate check in this space should start with that leading group before looking at the long tail of single- or double-digit filers.
Is patent filing activity for workover rigs increasing or declining?
Documented filings peaked in 2017 at 24 records and have fallen sharply since, with 2021 at 4 records and 2024 — the most recent year that can be treated as reasonably complete — at 0, a -100% swing over that three-year window. Publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months, so the very latest years in any trend chart are undercounted and should not be read as proof the technology has stopped moving. The safest reading is that documented activity has cooled substantially from its 2017 high, with the most recent trend still uncertain.
What patent classes cover snubbing units and well intervention equipment?
The overwhelming majority of records — 95.1% of 224 — fall under IPC subclass E21B, covering earth and rock drilling for wells, which is effectively the default classification for this technology area. Smaller shares fall under B23P (general metal working, 8.5%), and single-digit percentages sit in foundations and earth drilling, motor vehicle mounting, cranes and hoists, jacks and lifting devices, and both positive- and non-positive-displacement pumps. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these figures add up to more than 100% and should not be treated as a clean breakdown of the whole field.
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 Workover Rigs and Well Servicing 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.