Atomic Force Microscopy Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Atomic Force Microscopy Mode Patents: Who Leads and Where the Claims Sit
31.1% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 356 of the 1,144 records in scope, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them. Filings rose from 47 in 2017 to a peak of 67 in 2019, then eased across the following years. The 2021-to-2024 span, the last window unaffected by publication lag, shows a 20% drop from 45 to 36 filings — a genuine slowdown in new mode-and-control filings rather than a data artifact.
- 1BRUKER NANO INC20.5%
- 2RGT UNIV OF CALIFORNIA3.2%
- 3VEECO INSTRUMENTS INC3.0%
- 4THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON2.2%
- 5UT BATTELLE LLC2.2%
See the full atomic force microscopy modes 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 about AFM mode patents
Who holds the most patents in atomic force microscopy modes?
One assignee leads the ranking with 235 records out of 1,144 in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 25 and tenth place at 20. The top five combined account for 31.1% of all records, and the top ten reach 40.3%. Beyond that mid-field, ownership spreads across a long tail of universities, national labs and single-filing inventors, so no single company controls the field outright.
Is AFM patent filing activity growing or slowing down?
Filings peaked in 2019 at 67 and have since declined; the most recent complete comparison window, 2021 to 2024, shows a drop from 45 to 36 filings, a 20% decrease. Data for 2025 and 2026 is still incomplete because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so those years will rise as more records publish. Treat the 2021-2024 figure as the most reliable recent signal rather than the raw yearly counts near the cut-off.
Which technology areas have the most AFM patent coverage?
Scanning-probe and nanometric measurement, IPC class G01Q, appears in 50.1% of the 1,144 records, making it by far the densest claim area. Material analysis and testing (G01N) follows at 22.2%, and length/dimension measurement (G01B) at 13.1%. Application-specific classes like semiconductor devices, medicinal preparations and enzyme/DNA testing each sit in the 4-7% range, meaning most patent activity protects the instrument and control mechanism rather than a specific end use.
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 Atomic Force Microscopy Modes 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.