Coronary Guidewire Design Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 23.1% concentration at the top. The five most active assignees hold 2,357 of the 10,185 records in scope — a leading cluster, not a monopoly, with room for the rest of the field to compete on specific mechanisms.
- Filing volume has pulled back from its 2019 peak. Annual filings ran from 483 at the 2019 peak down to 251 by 2024, a -37% move over 2021–2024, though 2025-2026 counts are still filling in as publications catch up to filings.
- The technology mix is bimodal. A61M (body-fluid devices) and A61B (diagnosis & surgery) each cover more than half of all records, while wire-working and welding classes sit under 1% — a sign that mechanical core-wire fabrication is claimed far less densely than the delivery and diagnostic layers around it.
Filing growth compares 2021 (399 records) with 2024 (251) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 10,185 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What sits inside a coronary guidewire patent
A coronary guidewire is a mechanical assembly wrapped around a single core wire: taper geometry sets tip flexibility and tip load, a shaping ribbon or coil governs how the operator steers through tortuous anatomy, and a distal coating or hydrophilic coating reduces friction against vessel walls. Torque transmission along the proximal shaft, radiopaque marker placement for fluoroscopic visibility, and the graduated support level along the shaft are the recurring claim elements across this dataset. Filers describe the same physical wire from different angles — materials science, mechanical geometry, coating chemistry, or imaging — which is why the technology composition below spans several IPC subclasses rather than one.
Because a single guidewire family often generates continuation filings across jurisdictions, the patent family is the more reliable unit for judging where real activity sits, even though the raw record count is what the charts on this page display.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The figures below are drawn directly from the 10,185 records in scope, spanning receiving offices, publication years and IPC classification.
Filing trend: rise, peak, pullback
Annual filings rose to a peak of 483 in 2019, then eased to 251 by 2024, a -37% change over the 2021-2024 span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still low in this dataset because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months — treat the most recent one to two years as incomplete rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
Where the claims concentrate
A61M and A61B each appear in more than half of all 10,185 records, reflecting how guidewire claims are usually framed as part of a delivery or diagnostic system rather than as a standalone wire. A61F implant claims cover 28.3% of records. Mechanical wire fabrication (B21F) and welding/brazing (B23K) each sit under 1%, which is a thin layer of claims relative to how central those processes are to actually manufacturing a working core wire.
Shares are the percentage of the 10,185 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Coronary Guidewire Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about coronary guidewire design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
US20120271409A1 — Helical Radiopaque Marker
A radiopaque marker includes a core wire having a proximal portion and a distal portion, and a coil wrapped around the distal portion of the core wire. The core wire is formed from a shape memory material and the coil is formed from a radiopaque material. The radiopaque marker includes a delivery configuration wherein the marker is substantially elongated and a deployed configuration wherein the distal portion forms a substantially helical tube.Filed by Medtronic Vascular; illustrates how a single mechanical feature — marker geometry tied to a shape-memory core wire — becomes its own claim scope distinct from the coating or torque-transmission claims filed around it.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5957949A | Percutaneous placement valve stent | 2,922 |
| 2 | US20020188170A1 | Prevention of myocardial infarction induced ventricular expansion and remodeling | 1,804 |
| 3 | US7108701B2 | Drug releasing anastomosis devices and methods for treating anastomotic sites | 1,778 |
| 4 | US6482217B1 | Neuro thrombectomy catheter | 1,593 |
| 5 | US5445155A | Intravascular imaging apparatus and methods for use and manufacture | 1,592 |
| 6 | US5487757A | Multicurve deflectable catheter | 1,354 |
| 7 | US5238004A | High elongation linear elastic guidewire | 1,334 |
| 8 | US5438997A | Intravascular imaging apparatus and methods for use and manufacture | 1,328 |
| 9 | US5313967A | Helical guidewire | 1,281 |
| 10 | US7850623B2 | Elongate medical device with continuous reinforcement member | 1,213 |
Citation counts favour older, foundational filings inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once family counts, technology shares and the filing trend are read together.
A leading cluster, not a lock-out
The five most active assignees combine for 23.1% of all records in scope, and the ranked ten reach 32.6%. That leaves roughly two-thirds of filing activity distributed across a long tail of single-digit and single-filing entrants — workable space for a new entrant with a genuinely different mechanical approach.
Delivery and diagnostic claims dominate; wire fabrication is thin
A61M and A61B each sit above 55% of all 10,185 records, while wire-working (B21F) and welding/brazing (B23K) sit under 1% each. That gap suggests the core mechanical fabrication of the wire itself is claimed far less densely than the systems and procedures built around it.
Pullback from peak, not a collapse
Filings peaked in 2019 and have since eased, with a -37% move recorded between 2021 and 2024. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as continuing decline.
Foundational prior art skews older
The most-cited records in this corpus date from the 1990s and early 2000s and cover valve stents, catheter delivery and imaging apparatus rather than guidewire-specific mechanics. High citation counts here reflect age and breadth of applicability inside the search, not current relevance to guidewire design specifically.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to coronary guidewire design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and where activity is thinning
The ranked leaders span large device manufacturers and smaller neurovascular and cardiovascular specialists. Recent-year momentum figures show several established filers pulling back sharply from their historical pace, which is consistent with the broader post-2019 pullback in the trend data.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 1,004 records, well clear of the fifth-place holder at 301 and tenth place at 171. The drop-off after the leader is steep, then flattens into a long tail across the rest of the ranking.
Recent-year activity has cooled across several established names
Several long-standing filers show sharp year-on-year declines in their most recent filing counts, some down to a single digit or zero. Given the 18-month publication lag, part of this is reporting lag rather than a real stop in R&D, but the direction is consistent across multiple large filers.
Collaboration is limited and mostly institutional
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in this dataset, and the strongest links pair device companies with university research partners rather than with each other. This points to guidewire IP being developed mostly in-house rather than through joint filing arrangements.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Scientia Vascular, Inc. | 2 | -50% |
| Boston Scientific International Ltd. | 1 | -97% |
| Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Boston Scientific Ltd. (UK) | 0 | — |
| Covidien LP | 0 | — |
| MicroVention, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Target Therapeutics, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Scimed Life Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a stable leading cluster, a thinning trend since 2019, and mechanical fabrication claims that are lighter than the surrounding system and coating claims.
Map your own core-wire geometry against the ranked claims
Run a targeted search against the taper, coil-pitch and marker-placement claims held by the leading assignees before committing to a specific mechanical design.
Explore in EurekaWatch the wire-fabrication classes for new entrants
B21F and B23K carry a fraction of the record volume of A61M or A61B — a new filer with a genuinely novel fabrication method has more open space there than in the crowded delivery-system claims.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on coronary guidewire patents
One assignee leads the ranking with 1,004 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 301 and tenth place at 171. The top five combined account for 23.1% of the 10,185 records in scope, and the top ten reach 32.6%. Beyond that, activity spreads across a long tail of smaller filers, so no single company controls the field outright.
Filings peaked in 2019 at 483 and have since pulled back, with a -37% change measured between 2021 and 2024. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still filling in and should not be read as proof of continued decline. Treat 2024 as the most recent complete year for trend judgements.
The majority of records fall under A61M (devices for body fluids, 57.4% of records) and A61B (diagnosis and surgery, 56.0%), with A61F implant-related claims covering 28.3%. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100%. Mechanical wire-fabrication classes like B21F and B23K each cover under 1% of records, a noticeably thinner layer relative to the systems built around the wire.
The mechanical fabrication side of the wire — taper grinding tolerances, coil-to-core welding and brazing joints, and coil pitch variation for support transition — carries far fewer records than the delivery-system and coating claims that surround it. That gap does not mean the engineering is unimportant; it means fewer parties have staked exclusive claims there, which is where a first-filer advantage is more available.
That filing, assigned to Medtronic Vascular, claims a helical radiopaque marker built from a coil wrapped around a shape-memory core wire, with a distinct delivery configuration and a deployed helical configuration. Anyone designing a marker that uses a similar shape-memory-to-coil transition for visibility should check this claim scope closely. Alternatives that avoid the helical deployed geometry, or use a different marker attachment mechanism entirely, are less likely to fall inside it.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.