Circulating Tumor DNA Sample Handling Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
Circulating Tumor DNA Sample Handling Patents
31.1% of all 2,224 records sit with the five leading assignees, so a handful of players hold outsized influence over core extraction and stabilisation claims. Filings peaked in 2018 at 303 records and have since settled into a lower, steadier band; 2021 (232) to 2024 (225) — the last year that can be read as complete — is essentially flat at -3%. Earlier and later years either predate the field's initial filing wave or are still filling in behind the publication lag, so treat the most recent one to two years as undercounted rather than as evidence of decline.
- 1GRAIL INC193
- 2ILLUMINA INC159
- 3NATERA INC145
- 4JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY114
- 5TEMPUS AI INC81
See the full circulating tumor dna sample handling 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 this landscape
Who holds the most patents in circulating tumor DNA sample handling?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 193 records, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 81 and the tenth-place assignee at 58. The top five assignees combined hold 692 records, or 31.1% of all 2,224 records in scope, so filing influence is concentrated but not held by a single company. The ranking covers 100 companies in total, and most of them hold far fewer records than the leaders, forming a long tail below the top ten.
Is patent filing in this space growing or slowing down?
Filing volume peaked in 2018 at 303 records and has since settled into a lower band; comparing 2021 (232 records) to 2024 (225 records), the last year that can be treated as reasonably complete, shows a -3% change, which reads as roughly flat rather than a clear decline. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the years closest to the present will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. Anyone judging momentum should compare complete years like 2021-2024 rather than reading the last one or two years as a downturn.
What technology areas dominate ctDNA sample handling patents?
C12Q, covering enzyme and DNA measuring and testing, appears on 74.5% of all 2,224 records, making it by far the most common classification in this corpus. Bioinformatics (G16B) shows up on 32.1% of records and healthcare informatics (G16H) on 12.8%, indicating that a large share of sample-handling filings also claim the downstream data-processing methods that consume the handled sample. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages are each measured against the full record count and add up to more than 100%.
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 Circulating Tumor DNA Sample Handling 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.