Endoscopic Device QC Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- 124 filings in 2017, 2 by 2026 — the filing curve has fallen sharply from its 2017 peak, with no rebound visible through the most recent full years.
- A61B and A61L cover 105% combined weight — diagnosis/surgery hardware and sterilising/disinfecting classifications dominate the corpus at 702 and 335 records respectively, dwarfing testing-specific IPC classes like G01M (90) and G01N (73).
- Only 10 co-assignee pairs across 990 families — collaborative filing is rare in this field; most applicants are prosecuting alone rather than through joint ventures or shared R&D programmes.
Filing growth compares 2021 (41 records) with 2024 (16) — 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 990 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families filed against endoscope leak testing, optical performance QC and reprocessing validation between 2015 and mid-2026. The search string pairs endoscope and endoscopic device terminology with three quality-control mechanisms: leak testing, optical performance QC, and reprocessing validation. The 990 families in the ranking give a fairer count than raw document totals because they collapse continuations and multi-jurisdiction refilings of the same invention.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States (314) and Europe (179), with WIPO PCT filings (84) indicating a smaller but real cohort seeking multi-jurisdiction protection. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the low counts shown for 2025 and 2026 understate real filing activity in those years rather than reflecting an actual collapse in R&D interest.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 990-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A sharp decline from a 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 124 in 2017 and had fallen to a midpoint of 25 by 2022, with only 2 recorded in 2026 so far. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but the multi-year downward slope from 2017 to 2022 is a real signal, not an artefact of lag.
Diagnosis and sterilising classes dominate
A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 702 records) and A61L (sterilising & disinfecting, 335) between them account for the large majority of the corpus, meaning most claims are anchored in device or sterilisation hardware rather than in dedicated test methodology. Testing-specific classes — G01M (testing machine & structure balance, 90) and G01N (material analysis & testing, 73) — are present but comparatively thin, which is where methodology-first claims have more room to stand out.
Shares are the percentage of the 990 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Endoscopic Device Quality Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about endoscopic device quality control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
EP3431196B1 — Endoscope leak-testing apparatus and method
Filed by Smart Medical Systems Ltd. and granted 2021-11-17, this record sits squarely in the leak-testing branch of the corpus rather than the broader sterilisation or reprocessing classes.Full claim scope, family members and legal status are rendered separately.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190104919A1 | Method for situational awareness for surgical network or surgical network connected device capable of adjusti… | 1,477 |
| 2 | US5749968A | Device for priming for improved adherence of gels to substrates | 1,272 |
| 3 | US6884392B2 | Apparatus and method for steam reprocessing flexible endoscopes | 1,074 |
| 4 | US20060252990A1 | Systems and methods for endoscope integrity testing | 1,065 |
| 5 | US5900245A | Compliant tissue sealants | 518 |
| 6 | US6217894B1 | Compliant tissue sealants | 398 |
| 7 | US20190204201A1 | Adjustments based on airborne particle properties | 375 |
| 8 | US20190201127A1 | Adjustment of a surgical device function based on situational awareness | 335 |
| 9 | US20070100206A1 | Apparatus and method for providing flow to endoscope channels | 292 |
| 10 | US6352710B2 | Compliant tissue sealants | 259 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; they signal influence on subsequent filings, not current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing decisions
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against the technology classes and the filing timeline.
The wave has already broken
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and declined steadily through the 2022 midpoint of 25 records. A new entrant filing now is working in a field where the bulk of foundational claims were staked out years ago, not one still in its build-up phase.
Hardware and sterilisation crowd the field
The two largest IPC subclasses cover device structure and sterilising/disinfecting methods, together accounting for the majority of the corpus. Dedicated test-methodology classes like G01M and G01N are comparatively open.
Prosecution is mostly solo
Only ten co-assignee pairings appear across the entire dataset, and the strongest of them link academic bodies to single corporate partners rather than multi-firm consortia. Joint filing is the exception here, not the norm.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to endoscopic device quality control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and recent momentum
Recent-year filing counts by assignee are low across the board, consistent with the corpus-wide decline from the 2017 peak rather than any single company pulling back.
No assignee is currently accelerating
Every tracked assignee in the recent-momentum data shows either zero or a single filing in the latest year, several with a -100% year-over-year change. This reads as a field in a lull rather than one shifting between named leaders.
A broad but thinning applicant base
Ninety receiving offices' worth of filings and 990 total families point to a wide historical applicant base, concentrated in the US and Europe, that has not been replaced by an equally active new cohort.
Academic-industry links exist but are narrow
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset pairs a university system with a single corporate partner at a count of 13 shared families — a meaningful link, but not evidence of a wider collaborative network.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Cilag GmbH International) | 1 | 0% |
| Ethicon | 0 | — |
| Smart Medical Systems Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) Global Manufacturing, LLC | 0 | — |
| Medivators Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Steris plc | 0 | — |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Board of Regents, The University of Texas System | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to a mature, thinning field with specific open corners rather than a growth market — the next steps depend on whether you are filing, clearing, or scouting.
Check freedom to operate against the cited cluster
The most-cited records in this corpus, several dating to the late 1990s and 2000s, still shape claim scope in reprocessing and leak testing today. Any new filing should be checked against them before drafting.
Run a claim check in Eureka →Scope claims around the thinner test-methodology classes
G01M and G01N carry far fewer records than A61B and A61L, suggesting more room for methodology-first claims in testing machinery and material analysis applied to endoscopic QC.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The dataset shows filings peaking at 124 in 2017 and declining steadily to a midpoint of 25 by 2022, with only 2 recorded so far in 2026. Part of the most recent drop-off is a publication lag artefact, since patent applications typically publish about 18 months after filing, so 2025 and 2026 will fill in somewhat as more records surface. But the multi-year decline from 2017 through 2022 predates that lag window and reflects a genuine slowdown in new filing activity in this specific search space.
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) and A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) dominate the corpus with 702 and 335 records respectively, meaning most patents here are framed around device structure or sterilisation chemistry rather than dedicated test methods. Testing-specific classes, G01M (testing machinery) at 90 records and G01N (material analysis) at 73, are present but much thinner. Anyone drafting claims focused on test methodology rather than device hardware is working in comparatively less crowded classification space.
Filing volume has fallen substantially from its 2017 peak, and recent-year momentum data shows named assignees filing zero or one patent in the latest tracked year with several posting a -100% year-over-year change. This does not mean the underlying technology is no longer used commercially; the low count is consistent with a field where foundational claims were staked out years ago and current activity is largely maintenance of existing portfolios rather than new invention. New entrants should expect a dense prior-art background in the hardware and sterilisation classes and more room in test-methodology classes.
EP3431196B1, titled an endoscope leak-testing apparatus and method, was granted to Smart Medical Systems Ltd. on 2021-11-17. It sits in the leak-testing branch of this corpus specifically, distinct from the larger sterilisation and reprocessing-validation clusters. Reviewing its full claim scope and family members is a reasonable first step for anyone designing a leak-test mechanism for endoscopic devices, since it is one of the more recent granted patents in that specific sub-area.
The evidence shows a long tail rather than a single dominant player: co-assignee collaboration is rare, with only 10 pairs identified across 990 total families, and the strongest pairing links an academic institution to one corporate partner at 13 shared families. Recent-year filing momentum is flat or negative across every named assignee tracked, with none showing growth. This points to a fragmented applicant base built up over many years rather than a landscape actively being consolidated by one or two companies today.
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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.