This landscape identifies 8,699 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, scoped to IPC classes B01J29, C01B39 and B01J29/40 and to claim language covering zeolite framework, acid-site engineering, hierarchical zeolite and metal-loaded zeolite designs. That figure counts families rather than raw document counts, which neutralises the effect of continuations and multi-jurisdiction re-filing of the same invention. It should be read as the size of the claim space for catalyst composition and synthesis, not the broader universe of patents that merely mention a zeolite catalyst in a process claim.

Filing activity has declined since a 2017 peak of 478 records, falling to a 2022 midpoint of 351 and continuing lower toward the 2026 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the final one to two years of any trend chart will always look thinner than the true filing rate — but the multi-year decline visible well before that lag window suggests this is a real slowdown, not just a reporting artefact. Recent-year momentum figures for individual assignees, most of which show double-digit percentage declines, reinforce the same picture.

B01J (chemical and physical processes, catalysis) dominates with 7,465 of 8,699 records, followed by C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) at 4,143. C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) and C10G (hydrocarbon oil refining) follow at 2,745 and 1,999 respectively. The thinnest overlaps are F01N (exhaust treatment, 468) and C07D (heterocyclic compounds, 164), which is where claim density is lowest relative to the core catalysis classes.

The named assignees in the recent-year momentum data include major energy and catalyst companies, but nearly all show flat or sharply negative year-on-year filing movement in the latest year — for example a 93% decline for one national oil company and declines in the 60–90% range for several others. Only one named assignee shows a flat, 0% year-on-year change rather than a decline. The strongest collaborative relationships, measured by co-assignee pairs, link a national oil company to a catalyst-chemical maker and a university rather than to a rival oil major, and only 10 such pairs exist across the entire corpus.

The IPC composition data points to comparatively thin claim coverage in heterocyclic-compatible zeolite frameworks (C07D overlap, 164 records) and exhaust-integrated hierarchical zeolite designs (F01N overlap, 468 records), both well below the core B01J and C01B classes. The near-absence of co-filing — only 10 co-assignee pairs across 8,699 families — also suggests collaborative structures involving non-oil-major partners are underused as a filing strategy. Neither observation proves the technology is unworkable there; it means the claim space is less occupied and worth a closer freedom-to-operate check before assuming it is blocked.