Immunohistochemistry Platform Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentration at the top is modest. the leading ten assignees together hold 27.4% of all 25,364 records in scope, leaving a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
- Filing volume has pulled back from its peak. 2021 filings of 720 fell to 404 by 2024, a -44% move over that three-year span, with 2017 remaining the high-water year at 794.
- Antibody and assay chemistry dominates the claim space. A61K and C07K classes each cover more than a third of all records, while fermentation-route claims under C12P sit under 12%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (720 records) with 2024 (404) — 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 25,364 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the immunohistochemistry platform patent record shows
Immunohistochemistry platforms sit at the intersection of antibody chemistry, chromogenic detection and tissue-preparation protocol design. The dataset covers 25,364 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, spanning antigen retrieval reagents, amplification chemistry, background-staining control and interpretation scoring methods. Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has since eased, though publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one to two years are always undercounted in any raw trend line.
Ownership of the field is not tightly held. A small group of pharmaceutical, diagnostics and academic assignees account for a bit over a quarter of filings, but the remainder is spread thinly across universities, government research bodies and specialty reagent makers — a pattern that typically signals room for new entrants to stake out claims in narrower chemistry or workflow niches rather than head-on against incumbents.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 25,364-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses when a filing touches more than one technical area.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a pullback
Annual filings ran from 794 in 2017 down to 22 in the partial 2026 year. The clearer signal is the complete-year comparison: 720 filings in 2021 fell to 404 in 2024, a -44% move. Years after 2024 are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates, so they should not be read as a continuation of decline.
Technology composition across IPC subclasses
A61K (medicinal preparations) and C07K (peptides and proteins) each appear in more than a third of all records, reflecting how tightly detection reagent chemistry is bound to the antibody or antigen construct itself. G01N (material analysis and testing) and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) follow, while C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) and C07H (sugars and nucleic acids) each sit near or under 12% — a comparatively thin claim layer for downstream production chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 25,364 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Immunohistochemistry Platforms with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about immunohistochemistry platforms and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative record: pretreatment chemistry for staining
Pretreatment solution for immunohistochemical staining and condensed solution thereof
Discloses a pretreatment solution for immunohistochemical staining that elutes paraffin-containing embedding medium from a glass slide holding a tissue specimen and retrieves antigenicity of the specimen, formulated to be reusable three or more times. The solution combines an antigen-retrieving agent with specific nonionic surfactants and cyclodextrin or a derivative, in a predominantly aqueous base. A concentrate form is also disclosed to simplify preparation of the working solution.Filed by Nichirei Biosciences, this record illustrates how reagent stability and reusability claims — not just retrieval chemistry itself — form a distinct patentable layer in antigen retrieval.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2013173223A1 | Cancer immunotherapy by disrupting PD-1/PD-l1 signaling | 1,145 |
| 2 | US20070134251A1 | Assays and methods using biomarkers | 1,096 |
| 3 | WO1993024640A2 | Methods and compositions for in VIVO gene therapy | 1,062 |
| 4 | WO2001077137A1 | Albumin fusion proteins | 810 |
| 5 | US7153507B2 | Human antibodies specific for interleukin 15 (IL-15) | 749 |
| 6 | WO1993025673A1 | In VIVO gene therapy with intron-free sequence of interest | 692 |
| 7 | US7427605B2 | Inhibitors of ribonucleotide reductase subunit 2 and uses thereof | 627 |
| 8 | WO2014100079A1 | Antibodies that bind to human programmed death ligand 1 (PD-l1) | 614 |
| 9 | US20050249667A1 | Process for treating a biological organism | 602 |
| 10 | WO2006122150A1 | Modulators of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and methods of using the same | 542 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field rather than of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three cuts of the same dataset point to where claim density is heaviest, where it is easing, and where influence sits with older, heavily-cited filings.
Ownership is spread, not locked up
The leading ten assignees combined hold 27.4% of all records, with the single leader at 3,472 records. That leaves nearly three-quarters of the corpus spread across the remaining ranked assignees and the unranked tail — a structure that favours focused entrants over broad platform plays.
Volume has eased from its 2017 peak
Complete-year filings fell from 720 in 2021 to 404 in 2024. Several of the most active historical assignees show zero or sharply reduced filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with a maturing rather than an expanding filing cycle for this specific claim set.
Reagent chemistry is crowded; production routes less so
A61K medicinal-preparation claims touch nearly half of all records, while C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims cover just 11.7%. That gap suggests downstream production and scale-up chemistry carries comparatively less claim density than the detection reagent itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to immunohistochemistry platforms, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate is loosening
The ranked assignee list mixes large diagnostics and pharma names with universities and a national health agency, but recent-year momentum has cooled across several of the most historically active filers.
One name well ahead of the pack
The leading assignee holds 3,472 records, more than nine times the tenth-place figure of 233. That gap between first and the rest of the ranked ten is the clearest sign of a single dominant filer rather than a tightly bunched leadership group.
Historic leaders have gone quiet recently
Multiple assignees that built large historical portfolios show zero filings in the latest tracked year, with year-over-year drops of -100% for some. This does not necessarily mean exit from the field — publication lag can mask filings not yet visible — but it does mean their competitive posture cannot be read from recent activity alone.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus, and the strongest of them links two individual inventor names rather than two corporate entities. Formal joint-assignee filing is not a major feature of this field's activity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Genentech | 1 | -50% |
| Human Genome Sciences, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
| Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| ROSEN CRAIG A | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents of the University of Texas System | 0 | -100% |
| RUBEN STEVEN M | 0 | — |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis next
The filing data points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion — each depends on what decision the reader is trying to make.
Map the white space chips to live filings
The under-claimed sub-areas identified here — scoring algorithms, control-tissue standards, protocol harmonization — are starting points, not conclusions. Checking recent filings against each chip narrows the search before drafting a first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the assignees that went quiet
Several previously active filers show zero filings in the latest year. Before assuming exit, check whether recent applications are simply still in the publication pipeline.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaWeigh citation influence against filing recency
The most-cited records in this corpus are all pre-2015 in priority chemistry, which is expected given citation lag. Newer, less-cited filings may carry more commercially relevant claims today.
Compare records side-by-side in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The ranked assignee list for this corpus is led by a single company holding 3,472 records, well ahead of the next several places, with fifth place at 353 and tenth at 233. The leading ten combined account for 27.4% of all 25,364 records in scope, which means the remaining three-quarters of filings are distributed across a long tail of universities, diagnostics companies, government research bodies and smaller specialty filers. This structure suggests the field is not gated by a small cartel of blocking portfolios, though the single leader's position is substantial in absolute terms.
Filings peaked in 2017 at 794 and have since declined on a complete-year basis, falling from 720 in 2021 to 404 in 2024 — a -44% change over that span. Filings for 2025 and 2026 are lower still in the raw count, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than a real collapse in activity, since recent filings have not all published yet. Anyone using this trend to justify entering or avoiding the space should anchor on the 2021-to-2024 comparison, not the most recent one or two years.
A61K (medicinal preparations) covers 48.5% of the 25,364 records and C07K (peptides and proteins) covers 38.5%, making antibody and reagent chemistry the most heavily claimed layer. G01N (material analysis and testing) and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) follow at 34.1% and 27.5% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to well over 100%, so they should be read as coverage density per class, not as slices of a single pie.
The IPC composition shows C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) and C07H (sugars and nucleic acids) each covering roughly a tenth of records, noticeably thinner than the reagent-chemistry classes above them. Combined with the observation that several historically dominant assignees show flat or falling recent-year filings, sub-areas like automated interpretation scoring, control-tissue standardization and protocol harmonization across staining platforms look comparatively under-claimed relative to core antibody and detection chemistry. A freedom-to-operate search focused specifically on those narrower branches, rather than the crowded reagent layer, is the more efficient use of search budget.
US20120295279A1, assigned to Nichirei Biosciences, claims a pretreatment solution for immunohistochemical staining built around an antigen-retrieving agent, specific nonionic surfactants and cyclodextrin or a derivative, formulated so the solution can be reused three or more times, plus a concentrate form for preparing it. It blocks that specific combination of retrieval agent, surfactant class and cyclodextrin component formulated for reuse — it does not block antigen retrieval chemistry generally, nor single-use retrieval solutions, nor formulations built on different surfactant or stabiliser chemistry. Anyone designing around it should look closely at the specific reagent combination and the reusability claim language rather than treating antigen retrieval broadly as blocked.
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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.