WORKING CEMENT, CLAY, OR STONE

Description

Class B28 covers machinery and processes for processing and working cement, clay, and stone materials. This includes equipment for crushing, grinding, mixing, shaping, and treating these raw materials and their products, such as concrete, bricks, tiles, and dimension stone. The class encompasses both wet and dry processing methods, as well as auxiliary operations like screening, drying, and quality control during production. It excludes finished construction work and the design of structures themselves, which fall under other sections of the IPC.

Filing statistics

IPC B28 recorded 264,030 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023, summed across its 3 subclasses. Annual filings grew from 8,404 in 2013 to 35,053 in 2023 (+317%), peaking at 39,925 applications in 2020. The most active applicants in class B28 are MITSUBOSHI DIAMOND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY (868 applications), QINGDAO GAOCE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY (678 applications) and DISCO CORPORATION (500 applications).

Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings