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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/high-flow-nasal-cannula-therapy-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Respiratory Therapy · Patent LandscapeHigh Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy Patents: Filing Trends and White Space
- One assignee dominates the field. the leading filer holds 116 of the 131 records in scope, while the fifth and tenth-ranked entities each hold only 1 — a steep drop from the top.
- Filing activity accelerated sharply, then cooled. filings rose from 2 in 2021 to 18 in 2024, an +800% climb, after peaking at 39 in 2022; 2025-26 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag.
- Claims cluster almost entirely in one device class. A61M (devices for body fluids) covers 95.4% of the 131 records, while adjacent classes like control systems and healthcare informatics remain thin.
131
Published Records
+800%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
EP
Leading Jurisdiction
14
Active Filers Ranked
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (18) — 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.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What the patent record shows about high flow nasal cannula therapy
High flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy delivers heated, humidified, blended gas at flow rates that exceed a patient's inspiratory demand, and the patent activity captured here spans 131 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026. The search scope centres on the mechanics that make the therapy work in practice: flow rate setting, oxygen blending, cannula geometry, airway pressure effect, humidifier integration and weaning protocol. Most of the documented invention effort sits inside a single IPC subclass, A61M, which covers devices for introducing media into the body — a strong signal that the contested ground is the delivery hardware itself rather than diagnostics or informatics layered on top.
Filing offices lean toward Europe and Australia ahead of the United States and the UK, and PCT filings account for a meaningful share of the total — consistent with a field where a small number of assignees are managing global patent families rather than filing purely domestically.
Filing activity by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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
Data & Trends
Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below use the same 131-record base: one tracks filings by year, the other breaks the same records down by IPC subclass. Because a single record can carry multiple classification codes, the technology shares sum to more than 100%.
Filings climbed sharply into 2022, then cooled
Annual filings moved from 28 in 2017 to a peak of 39 in 2022. The 2021-to-2024 window shows the clearest signal: filings rose from 2 to 18, a documented +800% increase. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are necessarily incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent tail-off in the most recent years should not be read as a slowdown.
Delivery hardware dominates the classification mix
A61M appears on 95.4% of the 131 records, far ahead of A61B (diagnosis and surgery, 22.1%) and G05D (control of non-electric variables, 5.3%). Smaller clusters in C01B, G01M, G16H, H05H and G09B each sit at 3.1% or below, marking areas of the field that have attracted only a handful of filings each.
Shares are the percentage of the 131 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 High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about high flow nasal cannula therapy and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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The most-cited records anchor the prior art
Representative Filing
Portable and compact system for delivery of humidified high flow nasal cannula (HHFNC) therapy in neonates and infants
YALE UNIVERSITY
The filing describes a portable housing containing a respiratory circuit where an ambient air conduit and an oxygen conduit merge into a blended air conduit, fed by an air pump and an oxygen supply connection, with a humidification chamber sitting between the blended air conduit and the output conduit delivered to the patient.Filed by Yale University, published 2022-09-22 — notable as an academic entrant in a field otherwise concentrated among commercial device makers.
Highest-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160193438A1 | Improvements to flow therapy | 118 |
| 2 | WO2015033288A1 | Improvements to flow therapy | 80 |
| 3 | WO2018033863A1 | Pressure regulating valve | 55 |
| 4 | US20210178110A1 | Pressure regulating valve | 10 |
| 5 | WO2022167960A1 | Nasal minute ventilation and peak inspiratory flow in respiratory flow therapy systems | 6 |
| 6 | US20240253990A1 | Systems and Methods for Nitric Oxide Delivery | 5 |
| 7 | WO2023111914A1 | Measurement device and system for breathing assistance apparatus and/or performing diagnostics | 5 |
| 8 | US11235123B2 | Pressure regulating valve | 5 |
| 9 | WO2022264045A1 | Patient simulation training system for a breathing assistance or respiratory apparatus | 4 |
| 10 | WO2022167982A1 | Determining inspiratory and expiratory parameters in respiratory flow therapy systems | 4 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references; treat them as a measure of influence on subsequent filers, not of current commercial relevance.
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 High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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 patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the classification mix are read together.
Concentration
116 of 131 records
leading assignee's share of records
One filer holds most of the family
The leading assignee accounts for 116 of the 131 records in scope, with the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked entities holding just 1 record each. A new entrant filing broad hardware claims in this space is filing directly into that leader's prior art.
Ranking covers 14 assignees total
Momentum
+800%
filing growth, 2021 to 2024
Growth is real, but the top has already been counted
The jump from 2 filings in 2021 to 18 in 2024 is the clearest complete-year signal in the dataset; the 2022 peak of 39 total filings suggests the surge has already crested rather than just having begun.
2025-26 data incomplete due to publication lag
Technology mix
95.4%
records classified under A61M
Claim density sits in the device class, not the software layer
With A61M covering the overwhelming majority of records, and classes like G16H (healthcare informatics) and G05D (control systems) sitting under 6% each, the mechanical and pneumatic aspects of delivery are heavily claimed while control-logic and data-driven approaches are comparatively open.
Class shares sum above 100% because records carry multiple IPC codes
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high flow nasal cannula therapy, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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 field is still open
The assignee ranking is short — 14 companies and individuals in total — and dominated by one commercial filer, with academic and individual inventors holding single-digit counts further down.
Leader
116 records
of 131 in scope
The dominant commercial filer
One assignee's family accounts for the large majority of records in this dataset, spanning flow therapy hardware and pressure regulating valve designs that also appear among the most-cited filings.
Co-assignee pairs with named inventors recur across several of its filings
Academic entrant
1 record
Yale University filing
A university filing among mostly commercial assignees
Yale University's neonatal HHFNC delivery system is a rare academic filing in a field otherwise led by device manufacturers, focused on portability for neonatal and infant use rather than adult critical care.
Published 2022-09-22
Long tail
1 record each
fifth- and tenth-ranked assignees
A steep drop-off after the leader
Beyond the top of the ranking, assignee counts fall to single filings quickly — a pattern consistent with a technology where one company set the early claim boundaries and later entrants have filed narrowly around it.
14 assignees make up the full ranking
Recent-year filing momentum has flattened across the board
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Ireland Ltd | 0 | — |
| Third Pole Inc | 0 | — |
| WHITE CRAIG KARL | 0 | — |
| SPENCE CALLUM JAMES THOMAS | 0 | — |
| OLDFIELD SAMANTHA DALE | 0 | — |
| EVANS ALICIA JERRAM HUNTER | 0 | — |
| SAMANTHA DALE OLDFIELD | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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 steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading family
With one assignee holding 116 of 131 records, any new hardware filing in flow rate setting or pressure regulation should be checked against that family's granted claims before drafting.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaWatch the under-claimed classes
G16H, G05D and H05H each sit at or below 5.3% of records — worth monitoring for early movers before the space fills in.
Track technology classes in EurekaRead the 2025-26 filings with the lag in mind
The most recent two years will keep filling in as publications catch up; re-check the trend line periodically rather than treating current counts as final.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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 HFNC therapy patents
One assignee accounts for 116 of the 131 records in this dataset, a substantial lead over every other filer — the next entities in the ranking hold as few as 1 record each. This concentration spans core hardware areas including flow therapy systems and pressure regulating valves, which also rank among the most-cited filings in the field. Anyone entering this space should expect to file around, or license from, that leading portfolio rather than assume open ground on basic delivery hardware.
Filings grew sharply from 2 in 2021 to 18 in 2024, an increase of roughly +800% over that span, with the field's overall peak year at 39 filings in 2022. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is not a genuine slowdown — publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months, so those years are still incomplete in any patent database. The safest complete-year comparison is the 2021-2024 window, which shows clear growth rather than decline.
The A61M classification, covering devices for introducing media into the body, appears on 95.4% of the 131 records in scope, making it by far the densest claim area. Diagnosis and surgery-related claims (A61B) appear on 22.1% of records, a distant second. Everything else, including control systems, healthcare informatics and gas conditioning, sits under 6% each, meaning most of the invention effort has gone into the physical delivery mechanism rather than software or diagnostic layers.
Classes with low record shares point to comparatively open ground: healthcare informatics (G16H) and control of non-electric variables (G05D) each sit at or below 5.3% of the 131 records, and plasma-related gas conditioning (H05H) sits at 2.3%. These low shares suggest closed-loop control algorithms, sensor-integrated humidification and automated weaning logic have not been heavily staked out compared with the mechanical hardware. That said, low filing density in a class does not guarantee an easy path — it may also reflect that fewer inventors have found a technically compelling approach there yet.
The assignee ranking returned by this dataset lists 14 companies and individuals in total, not a top-50 or top-100 cut, and the distribution inside it is steep. The leading assignee holds 116 records while the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked assignees each hold only 1. That pattern — one dominant filer plus a long tail of single-record entrants including individual inventors and at least one university — is typical of a field where an early mover set the core claims and subsequent filers have worked in narrow adjacent niches.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on High Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy 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.