The dataset behind this page contains 83,460 published records from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off that match cell-sorting terms combined with operational qualifiers like sort purity, sort speed and nozzle clogging. This counts records, not distinct inventions, since a single family can generate multiple publications across jurisdictions. Treat it as the scope of the searched corpus rather than a global total for every cell-sorting patent ever filed.

No single company dominates: the top-ranked assignee holds 2,665 of the 83,460 records, and the combined top 10 hold 13,494 records, or 16.2% of the total. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of assignees with far fewer records each, including numerous universities and biopharma companies filing on downstream therapeutic uses of sorted cells rather than sorting hardware itself. A freedom-to-operate search should therefore check the specific claim area rather than assume one company blocks the field.

Filing peaked in 2018 at 1,210 records and has since pulled back, falling 42% from 1,042 records in 2021 to 606 in 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the lower figures shown for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not be read as evidence the decline is continuing. The genuine three-year drop through 2024, however, is a real signal worth factoring into any competitive timing decision.