Endoscopic Imaging Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has already peaked. 2021 was the high point at 82 families; by 2022 activity was already easing toward flat, and the tail into 2026 falls off sharply — partly a publication-lag effect, but the direction is down, not up.
- One IPC subclass dominates the corpus. A61B accounts for 1,444 of 1,482 records, meaning the diagnosis-and-surgery classification carries nearly the entire field; optics (G02B) and video pictorial communication (H04N) trail well behind at 230 and 213.
- Momentum has stalled even among the largest holders. Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year, including a documented -100% YoY drop for one major surgical robotics holder — a sign the leaders are consolidating, not expanding, their positions.
Filing growth compares 2021 (82 records) with 2024 (47) — 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 1,482 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the endoscopic imaging patent record actually shows
The dataset covers 1,482 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from filings that combine endoscope or capsule-endoscope imaging with claims on illumination, field of view, distal-chip design, sterilization compatibility or narrow-band imaging. Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2021 at 82 families, and has since flattened — the 2022 midpoint of 74 already signals the plateau, and the sharp drop into 2026 reflects both a real slowdown and the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Classification is heavily concentrated: A61B (diagnosis and surgery) covers nearly all records, while optical systems and video transmission subclasses form a much smaller secondary layer. That concentration says claim space around core endoscope-and-camera architecture is occupied — it does not say the underlying technology is finished, only that the obvious architectural claims have largely been staked.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,482-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings split across the IPC subclasses that define the technical scope of endoscopic imaging.
Filings rose to a 2021 peak, then plateaued
From 53 families in 2017, annual filings climbed to a peak of 82 in 2021, held near that level through 2022 (74), and then declined into the most recent years — the last one or two years are undercounted because publication lags filing by about 18 months.
A61B carries the corpus; secondary subclasses are thin
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) appears in 1,444 of 1,482 records. G02B (optics, 230) and H04N (pictorial communication, 213) form a distant second tier, with G06T image processing, H04L transmission, G03B photographic apparatus, H04B transmission and G16H healthcare informatics each under 70 records — evidence that image-processing, connectivity and informatics layers around the core endoscope are comparatively under-filed.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,482 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Endoscopic Imaging Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about endoscopic imaging systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art everyone in this space cites
Dynamically adjusting field of view in a capsule endoscope
A capsule endoscope with a dynamically adjustable field of view: an illuminator (optical or acoustical) lights the GI tract lining, a MEMS-type scanner sweeps the illumination source to adjust field of view on command, a lenslet array focuses the illumination, and the image sensor itself is built on a thin, flexible substrate so it can be curved to a body-contour shape.US7044908B1, National Semiconductor Corporation, published 2006-05-16 — filed well before the 2015 window but foundational to the field-of-view and curved-sensor claims this dataset tracks.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7907166B2 | Stereo telestration for robotic surgery | 721 |
| 2 | US5788688A | Surgeon's command and control | 414 |
| 3 | US20050165272A1 | Endoscope system | 398 |
| 4 | US5879289A | Hand-held portable endoscopic camera | 397 |
| 5 | US6537211B1 | Fluorescence imaging endoscope | 370 |
| 6 | US7530948B2 | Tethered capsule endoscope for Barrett's Esophagus screening | 350 |
| 7 | US20130218024A1 | Interventional In-Situ Image-Guidance by Fusing Ultrasound and Video | 320 |
| 8 | US8556807B2 | Hermetically sealed distal sensor endoscope | 287 |
| 9 | US6224542B1 | Endoscopic camera system with non-mechanical zoom | 248 |
| 10 | US20050049462A1 | Capsule endoscope | 235 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside a searched corpus, so older records are structurally favoured — read this as a map of foundational influence, not of current competitive priority.
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Three patterns in the data matter more than any single ranking: where filing volume is concentrated, where it has stopped growing, and where the jurisdictional footprint suggests a firm's commercial priorities.
Core endoscope architecture is densely claimed
Nearly every record in the corpus touches the A61B diagnosis-and-surgery classification, which covers the endoscope body, imaging head and related surgical-device claims. New entrants filing straightforward device-architecture claims are filing into the most crowded part of the map.
Growth stopped before the data window closes
Filings peaked at 82 families in 2021 and the 2022 figure of 74 shows the plateau was already underway before any publication-lag effect. This is a maturing filing cycle, not an emerging one — new claims now compete against a large, settled body of prior art rather than open ground.
US and Europe carry the bulk of filings
The United States and the European Patent Office together account for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with China, WIPO/PCT, Japan and Germany trailing. That split points to where commercial enforcement and freedom-to-operate risk is concentrated for endoscopic imaging products.
Even the largest holders show zero recent-year filings
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including major surgical-imaging and endoscopy holders, shows zero filings in the latest year, with one large surgical robotics holder recording a documented -100% year-over-year change. That is consistent with a plateaued field where leaders are defending existing positions rather than adding new claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to endoscopic imaging systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it is still open
Co-assignee pairings and recent-year momentum point to a field where a small number of large holders — several linked through parent-subsidiary filing pairs — dominate the core architecture, while momentum has stalled across the board.
One parent-subsidiary pair dominates joint filings
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links a major endoscopy manufacturer with its medical-systems subsidiary at 58 shared families — far ahead of the next co-assignee pairs, which sit at 6 each. That gap shows most joint filing in this space happens inside a single corporate group rather than across cross-licensing partners.
A long tail sits beneath a concentrated top
With co-assignee pairs topping out at single digits outside the dominant parent-subsidiary link, and ten pairings total, most of the corpus is filed independently rather than jointly — a long tail of single-assignee filings beneath a small set of high-volume holders.
Surgical robotics filing has cooled sharply
A major surgical robotics assignee shows a documented -100% year-over-year change alongside zero filings in the latest year, matching the broader plateau seen across the corpus's largest holders. Recent activity should not be read from portfolio size alone.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Olympus Corporation | 0 | — |
| Olympus Medical Systems Corporation | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Ankon Medical Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| FUJIFILM Corporation | 0 | — |
| Intuitive Surgical, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Arthrex, Inc. | 0 | — |
| CapsoVision, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Ankon Technologies (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing trend and IPC composition point to a plateaued core with thinner activity in adjacent layers. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or tracking a specific competitor.
Map claims against the A61B core before filing
With 1,444 of 1,482 records touching A61B, any new device-architecture claim needs a freedom-to-operate check against that concentration before drafting begins.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaTrack momentum, not just portfolio size
Zero-filing latest years across the largest holders means portfolio rank is a lagging signal; watch application-level activity to see who is actually still active.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Image-processing, transmission and informatics layers sit far below the A61B core in filing density — a candidate area for a first-claim search before committing to a filing strategy.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on endoscopic imaging patents
The corpus shows a small set of large holders, most notably a major endoscopy manufacturer and its medical-systems subsidiary, which together form the strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset at 58 shared families. Other named holders include large surgical robotics, imaging and capsule-endoscope companies, alongside several single-digit co-assignee pairs. Beneath these leaders sits a long tail of independent filers, so portfolio concentration is real but not absolute — smaller entrants still hold meaningful claim positions in adjacent subclasses.
No, filing activity has plateaued rather than continued growing. Annual families rose from 53 in 2017 to a peak of 82 in 2021, held near that level at 74 in 2022, and then declined into the most recent years tracked. Some of that recent decline reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, but the flattening was already visible before the most recent years, indicating a genuine slowdown rather than a purely reporting artefact.
The IPC composition shows a steep drop-off outside the core A61B diagnosis-and-surgery classification: optics (G02B, 230 records) and video pictorial communication (H04N, 213) form a secondary tier, while image-data processing (G06T, 66), digital transmission (H04L, 38), photographic apparatus (G03B, 23), general transmission (H04B, 20) and healthcare informatics (G16H, 19) are comparatively thin. That pattern suggests real-time image processing, wireless transmission design and informatics integration around the endoscope — rather than the endoscope body itself — carry more open claim space.
The United States leads with 536 records at the receiving-office level, followed by the European Patent Office at 411. China (145), WIPO/PCT (93), Japan (85) and Germany (58) follow at meaningfully lower volumes. This distribution indicates that the US and Europe are the primary jurisdictions where enforcement and freedom-to-operate risk concentrate for companies commercialising endoscopic imaging products, though a PCT filing volume of 93 shows a meaningful share of applicants are still pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection.
US7044908B1, assigned to National Semiconductor Corporation and published in 2006, covers a capsule endoscope with a dynamically adjustable field of view, combining a MEMS-style scanner, an illuminator, a lenslet array, and a curved, flexible image sensor substrate. It predates the 2015-2026 filing window tracked in this dataset but remains a foundational reference point for field-of-view and curved-sensor claims. Anyone drafting a capsule-endoscope claim involving adjustable field of view or a flexible, contour-shaped sensor should review this record specifically, since it defines several of the architectural elements later filings build on.
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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.