Extended Depth of Focus IOL Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The leading assignee alone accounts for 585 of the 1,813 records in scope, and the top 5 combined reach 46.9% of all records — a steep drop after that into a long tail.
- Filings cooled after 2021. Annual filings fell from 138 in 2021 to 50 in 2024, a 64% drop over that three-year span, following a peak of 207 in 2020.
- Implant claims dominate, imaging claims are newer ground. A61F implant/prosthesis claims cover 64.0% of records, but H04N pictorial-communication classes already touch 10.5% — a sign that light-field and imaging approaches are being pulled into IOL claims.
Filing growth compares 2021 (138 records) with 2024 (50) — 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 1,813 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers patent families that combine extended depth of focus or multifocal intraocular lens concepts with the design and clinical problems that determine whether such a lens actually works in a patient’s eye: diffractive profile, light distribution, dysphotopsia, defocus curve, toric alignment and patient selection. The 1,813 records in scope span 2015 through the current data cut-off, giving a decade-long view of how claim language has moved from lens optics alone toward measurement, imaging and selection methods that sit around the lens.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate true filing activity — 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as complete, and later years will keep filling in as records publish.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The dataset behind this page spans 1,813 records with a data cut-off of 2026-07-31. The two views below — filing trend and IPC composition — use the same record base throughout, so shares are comparable across sections.
A decade of filing, with a 2020 peak
Annual filings rose to a peak of 207 in 2020, then fell from 138 in 2021 to 50 in 2024 — a 64% decline over that span. Filings recorded for 2025 and 2026 will rise as publication catches up; they are not yet a reliable read on current activity.
Implants lead, but optics and imaging classes are substantial
A61F (implants & prostheses) appears on 64.0% of the 1,813 records, and G02C (spectacles & lenses) on 42.0% — together they anchor the core lens-design claim space. G02B optics (17.6%), H04N pictorial communication (10.5%), A61B diagnosis/surgery (9.2%), G06T image processing (4.2%), G01J radiation measurement (3.0%) and B29D plastic articles (2.9%) show smaller but active claim activity around the core lens, particularly in measurement and imaging. Since records can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should not be added together.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,813 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Extended Depth of Focus and Multifocal IOLs with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about extended depth of focus and multifocal iols and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Device measuring the defocus curve of a multifocal intraocular lens
Disclosed is a defocus curve measuring apparatus for a multifocal intraocular lens capable of automatically measuring an objective defocus curve. The apparatus uses a light source passed through a target image for focusing, a first lens that infinitely refracts the focus as the light passes through it, a polarizing beam splitter that passes p-polarized light and reflects s-polarized light, and an intraocular lens module that refracts the light source that has passed through the beam splitter.Filed by The Catholic University of Korea Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, published 2024-04-11 as US20240118165A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5756981A | Optical scanner for reading and decoding one- and-two-dimensional symbologies at variable depths of field inc… | 1,065 |
| 2 | US5786582A | Optical scanner for reading and decoding one- and two-dimensional symbologies at variable depths of field | 602 |
| 3 | US20080187305A1 | 4D light field cameras | 386 |
| 4 | US20070252074A1 | Imaging Arrangements and Methods Therefor | 349 |
| 5 | US7723662B2 | Microscopy arrangements and approaches | 333 |
| 6 | US20040156014A1 | Multifocal ophthalmic lens | 323 |
| 7 | WO2006039486A2 | Imaging arrangements and methods therefor | 286 |
| 8 | US20090234448A1 | Intraocular lens having extended depth of focus | 220 |
| 9 | US20080266655A1 | Microscopy Arrangements and Approaches | 218 |
| 10 | US20090187242A1 | Intraocular lens having extended depth of focus | 207 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate them; treat this table as a map of influential prior art rather than a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern tells a filer
Three signals stand out once the record counts and IPC shares are read together: concentration at the top, a post-2021 pullback in filing pace, and a growing overlap between lens-optics claims and imaging/measurement claims.
Five assignees hold nearly half the field
The top 5 combined account for 851 of the 1,813 records in scope — 46.9% of the field — while the tenth-ranked assignee holds only 33 records. New entrants are filing into a field where core diffractive-profile and toric-alignment claims are already densely held by a small group.
Filing activity has pulled back from its 2020 peak
Annual filings peaked at 207 in 2020, then fell from 138 in 2021 to 50 in 2024. That is a genuine slowdown in a complete window, not an artefact of publication lag, since 2024 is the last year that can be treated as fully published.
Imaging and measurement claims are moving into IOL filings
Alongside the dominant A61F implant class (64.0%) and G02C lens class (42.0%), H04N pictorial-communication classes reach 10.5% of records and G06T image processing 4.2%. That overlap points to defocus-curve measurement and light-field style methods becoming part of how multifocal IOL performance is claimed.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to extended depth of focus and multifocal iols, with the prior art for and against each one.
The competitive set
A small group of ophthalmic device makers and one academic-industrial cluster hold most of the filing volume, but the tail beyond the top 10 is long: 100 assignees appear in the ranking, and most hold only a handful of records apiece.
One assignee holds nearly a third of the field
The top-ranked assignee's 585 records dwarf the rest of the ranking; fifth place holds 60 and tenth place 33. That gap signals a filer with a long-running, multi-generation lens platform rather than a single product line.
Ten assignees cover well over half the field
The top 10 combined hold 1,059 of the 1,813 records — 58.4% of the field. Beyond that point the ranking flattens quickly, with many single-digit filers rounding out the remaining 100 tracked assignees.
Recent-year activity is mixed even among leaders
Among assignees with tracked recent-year momentum, one vision-research institute grew filings 50% year-on-year off a small base of 3, while several established lens makers, including large diversified filers, posted flat or declining recent-year counts. That split is consistent with a field where legacy platforms are mature and newer entrants are testing narrower claims.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Brien Holden Vision Institute | 3 | +50% |
| Pharmacia Groningen | 1 | -50% |
| Alcon Inc | 1 | -75% |
| Abbott Medical Optics | 0 | — |
| Thomson Licensing | 0 | — |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 0 | — |
| Staar Surgical Company | 0 | — |
| AMO REGIONAL HLDG | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or scouting a filing gap.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top 5
Nearly half of all records in scope sit with five assignees. Any new diffractive-profile or toric-alignment filing should be checked against their portfolios before drafting claims.
Run a freedom-to-operate scanWatch the imaging/measurement overlap
H04N and G06T classes are a smaller share of records today but represent where defocus-curve measurement and light-field methods are being pulled into IOL claims. Track new filings in this overlap rather than only in A61F.
Track emerging filersRe-check 2025–2026 filings as they publish
The apparent slowdown after 2021 is measured only through 2024; publication lag means 2025 and 2026 counts will keep rising. Revisit the trend once those years are more complete.
Set a monitoring alertCommon questions on this landscape
Filing in this space is concentrated: the leading assignee alone holds 585 of the 1,813 records in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined hold 46.9% of all records. The top 10 extend that to 58.4%. Beyond the top 10, the ranking of 100 assignees flattens quickly into a long tail of firms with only a handful of filings each, so due diligence should focus first on the small group at the top rather than treating the field as evenly spread.
Filings fell from a peak of 207 in 2020 to 138 in 2021 and down to 50 in 2024, a 64% decline over that three-year window, and 2024 is the most recent year with complete publication data. That is a genuine pullback within a fully-published window, not a lag artefact. However, counts for 2025 and 2026 will rise as publication catches up, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to say whether the pullback continues past 2024.
Implant and prosthesis claims (A61F) cover 64.0% of the 1,813 records and lens/spectacle claims (G02C) cover 42.0%, forming the core of the field. Optical systems (G02B, 17.6%), pictorial communication and imaging (H04N, 10.5%), diagnosis and surgery (A61B, 9.2%), image processing (G06T, 4.2%), light measurement (G01J, 3.0%) and plastic articles (B29D, 2.9%) show smaller but active claim activity, particularly around measuring and verifying lens performance rather than the lens optics themselves.
The thinner classes in this dataset — light measurement, image processing, and pictorial communication — point to under-claimed branches around objective defocus-curve measurement, light-field style performance imaging, automated toric alignment verification, and patient-selection algorithms. These sit adjacent to the dense core diffractive-profile and toric-alignment claim space rather than inside it, which is why they show up as a smaller share of the 1,813 records despite being clinically important to how multifocal lenses actually perform in patients.
The United States leads with 555 filings, followed by the European Patent Office with 366, Australia with 190, the WIPO PCT route with 179, Canada with 139, and Germany with 81. This spread reflects a field where lens makers file broadly across the major surgical device markets rather than concentrating in a single jurisdiction, which is typical for implantable medical devices with global commercial distribution.
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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.