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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/diagnostics-imaging-and-laboratory-technologies-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory TechnologiesDiagnostics, imaging and laboratory technology patents: who leads and where the field is still open
- 19.2% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 25,014 of the 129,962 records in scope — a real lead, but not a lock on the field.
- Filing has pulled back from its 2019 peak. Filings ran from 1,437 in 2019 to 995 in 2024, a -19% change between 2021 and 2024 for the complete-year window.
- Imaging processing is now bigger than the imaging hardware it feeds. G06T image data processing appears on 3.7% of records, and G16H healthcare informatics on 2.1% — both smaller than core diagnosis claims but growing categories to watch.
130K
Published Records
19%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-19%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,229 records) with 2024 (995) — 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 129,962 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this patent landscape covers
This landscape draws on 129,962 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine medical diagnostics, medical imaging or laboratory diagnostics with a specific modality — X-ray, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, molecular diagnostics, point-of-care testing, lab-on-chip, laboratory automation or MRI. That intersection is deliberately narrow: it captures claims where a diagnostic or laboratory concept is tied to a named imaging or testing technique, rather than every filing that merely mentions imaging in passing.
The set spans hardware-heavy filings (scanner subsystems, RF coils, detector arrays) alongside software and data-processing claims (image reconstruction, healthcare informatics, pattern recognition), which is why the IPC composition below is spread across both A61B-style clinical classes and G06T/G06F-style computing classes.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Data
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 129,962-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 1,158 in 2017 to a peak of 1,437 in 2019, then eased to 995 by 2024 — a -19% move across the 2021-to-2024 window that can be read as a complete trend. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in behind an 18-month publication lag and should not be read as a further decline yet.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61B (diagnosis & surgery) leads at 8.4% of all records, roughly double the share of G01R (electric & magnetic measurement, 4.1%) and G06T (image data processing, 3.7%). Because records often carry more than one IPC subclass, these shares add up to more than the record total — they describe density within the corpus, not a partition of it.
Shares are the percentage of the 129,962 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records and a representative filing
Representative Filing
System and method for correcting attenuation in hybrid medical imaging
LAWSON HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE
A hybrid medical imaging system comprises a nuclear medicine imaging subsystem for capturing an image of a target region of a subject, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsystem for capturing an MRI image of the target region based on at least one MRI parameter and processing structure communicating with the subsystems. The processing structure processes the MRI image to estimate attenuation within the target region and uses the estimated attenuation to correct the image captured by the nuclear medicine imaging subsystem.Filed by Lawson Health Research Institute, published as US20100204563A1 — a hybrid PET/MRI or SPECT/MRI attenuation-correction claim that sits at the boundary of two modalities covered separately elsewhere in this landscape.
Highest-cited records in the corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7386339B2 | Medical imaging and navigation system | 922 |
| 2 | US6016439A | Method and apparatus for synthetic viewpoint imaging | 874 |
| 3 | US20020049375A1 | Method and apparatus for real time quantitative three-dimensional image reconstruction of a moving organ and … | 813 |
| 4 | US6892090B2 | Method and apparatus for virtual endoscopy | 801 |
| 5 | US6122538A | Motion-Monitoring method and system for medical devices | 794 |
| 6 | US20040015079A1 | Ultrasound probe with integrated electronics | 777 |
| 7 | US20070167801A1 | Methods and apparatuses for image guided medical procedures | 730 |
| 8 | US20020032583A1 | Apparatus and method for processing and/or for providing healthcare information and/or healthcare-related inf… | 699 |
| 9 | US6301495B1 | System and method for intra-operative, image-based, interactive verification of a pre-operative surgical plan | 689 |
| 10 | US5498421A | Composition useful for in vivo delivery of biologics and methods employing same | 681 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this searched corpus rather than a ranking of present-day importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, growth and citation data above.
Concentration
19.2%
of all 129,962 records
The top of the field is real but not dominant
The five leading assignees hold 25,014 records between them, 19.2% of everything in scope. That leaves roughly four-fifths of the field held outside the leading group, which is a wide door for a well-targeted filing rather than a closed market.
Top 5 combined share, all records
Growth
-19%
2021 → 2024
Filing has eased off its 2019 peak
Volume peaked at 1,437 in 2019 and had fallen to 995 by 2024, a -19% move across a window clean of the publication lag. That is consistent with a field consolidating existing claim territory rather than one still in a land-grab phase.
Complete-year filing comparison
Momentum
-84% to -100%
YoY, leading assignees
Even the leaders have slowed their latest-year filing
Several of the largest historical filers show sharp year-over-year drops in the most recent year, including drops to zero. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads more as filings still working through the pipeline than as leaders exiting the space.
Recent-year assignee momentum
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to diagnostics, imaging & laboratory technologies patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders concentrate around large imaging-hardware and health-system names, with co-assignee pairs pointing to internal corporate restructuring as much as external partnership.
Leader
11,049
records
One assignee holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee's 11,049 records are more than four times the fifth-place total of 2,591, showing a steep drop-off rather than a gradual taper at the very top of the ranking.
Leader vs fifth place
Mid-field
1,316
records, 10th place
The drop-off flattens by tenth place
By the tenth position the count is down to 1,316, and the top-10 group together account for 25.7% of all 129,962 records — meaningful, but well short of a monopoly on the field.
Top 10 combined share
Structure
10
co-assignee pairs
Co-filing clusters around single corporate families
The strongest co-assignee pairings link an entity to its own IP-holding or imaging-therapy affiliate, which suggests internal patent-portfolio structuring more than arms-length collaboration between rival filers.
Strongest co-assignee pairs
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| GE Precision Healthcare LLC | 10 | -84% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 5 | -92% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Siemens Healthineers AG | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Hyperfine Research, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next questions rather than a single verdict on the field.
Check freedom-to-operate around the cited pillars
The highest-cited records in this corpus, several dating to imaging-navigation and reconstruction work from the 2000s, still shape claim scope in adjacent filings today.
Explore citation network →Track the momentum shift before it shows up in totals
Recent-year filing drops at several of the largest historical assignees are still working through the publication lag, so the next 12–18 months of data will show whether this is a pause or a redirection.
Monitor assignee activity →Scope claims in the under-claimed chips above
Portable and hybrid-modality hardware, plus lab-on-chip automation, show lower filing density than core diagnosis and measurement classes — worth a freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is crowded.
Run a white space search →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads clearly with 11,049 records, more than four times the fifth-place total of 2,591. The top five assignees combined hold 25,014 records, 19.2% of the 129,962 records in this landscape, and the top ten hold 25.7%. That leaves the large majority of filings spread across a long tail of smaller filers, so leadership at the top does not translate into control of the whole field.
Filing peaked at 1,437 records in 2019 and had eased to 995 by 2024, a -19% change across that complete-year window. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in any such dataset will look artificially low and should not yet be read as continued decline. The honest read is that growth has cooled from its 2019 high rather than accelerated further.
A61B, covering diagnosis and surgery, is the densest single IPC subclass at 8.4% of all 129,962 records, roughly double the density of G01R electric and magnetic measurement (4.1%) or G06T image data processing (3.7%). Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages are not mutually exclusive shares of the field — they describe where claim density concentrates, and A61B is the area most likely to run into prior art.
Hybrid-modality attenuation correction, point-of-care molecular diagnostics chips, and lab-on-chip sample-prep automation show comparatively thin filing density in this corpus relative to core diagnosis and measurement classes. Healthcare informatics tied to imaging workflow (G16H, at 2.1% of records) is also smaller than the hardware classes it supports. These are not empty categories, but they carry noticeably less claim density than the crowded A61B and G01R clusters, making them worth a targeted freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is taken.
That filing, from Lawson Health Research Institute, claims a system that pairs a nuclear medicine imaging subsystem with an MRI subsystem and uses the MRI data to estimate and correct attenuation in the nuclear medicine image. It sits at the technical seam between two modalities that are each heavily filed separately in this landscape. Anyone building a combined PET/MRI or SPECT/MRI attenuation-correction workflow should map their approach against this claim specifically, rather than assuming general PET or MRI prior art alone covers it.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Diagnostics, Imaging & Laboratory Technologies Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.