Infusion Pump Occlusion Detection Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One assignee family dominates the ranking. the leader sits at 44 records against a fifth-place figure of just 11, and the tenth-ranked company holds only 2 — a steep drop-off rather than a gradual one.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak of 25. the 2021→2024 span shows a -20% change (10 to 8), and 2025–2026 figures are still filling in given the roughly 18-month publication lag.
- Claims cluster tightly in body-fluid devices. A61M covers 69.3% of the 137 records in scope, while healthcare informatics (G16H, 29.9%) and digital processing (G06F, 17.5%) show where detection logic is increasingly being claimed instead.
Filing growth compares 2021 (10 records) with 2024 (8) — 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.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 137 published records at the intersection of infusion pump occlusion detection and the pressure-sensing, alarm-threshold and tubing-compliance mechanisms that make detection work in practice. The scope spans filings from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, drawing on receiving offices across Europe, the United States, Australia, Canada and the WIPO PCT route.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity. The picture below should be read with that lag in mind, particularly when judging whether the field is still active.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 137 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing activity peaked in 2019, then eased
Filings rose to a peak of 25 in 2019 before settling lower. Using only the complete-year window the evidence supports, 2021 filings (10) fell to 8 by 2024 — a -20% change. Figures from 2025 onward are still incomplete because of publication lag and should not be read as a further decline.
A61M dominates; informatics classes are rising
A61M (devices for body fluids) appears in 69.3% of the 137 records, confirming that most claims still anchor on the physical pump and sensing hardware. G16H (healthcare informatics, 29.9%) and G06F (digital data processing, 17.5%) show a meaningful share of records also claiming the software and data-handling layer around detection, while F04B (positive-displacement pumps, 10.9%) covers the mechanical pumping element. AI-specific classes (G06N) and alarm-signalling classes (G08B) each sit at just 1.5%, suggesting these framings are still lightly claimed relative to the core hardware and informatics classes.
Shares are the percentage of the 137 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Infusion Pump Occlusion Detection with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about infusion pump occlusion detection and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
Infusion pump security system (US20230211073A1)
A system and method for securing a pump are disclosed. The system includes a pump that contains a medicament delivery system, a processor operably coupled to the pump, a user interface in operable communication with the processor, a plurality of sensors in operable communication with the processor, and a housing. The housing includes a frame, a door, and a locking mechanism that can be selectively unlocked to allow the door to partially detach from the frame. The security system includes a swivel door assembly, which includes physical redundancies to selectively prevent access to the internal space of the swivel door assembly and a plurality of alarms.Filed by Baxter International, published 2023-07-06 — the claims center on physical access security and alarm response rather than the occlusion-sensing element itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5695473A | Occlusion detection system for an infusion pump | 644 |
| 2 | US20090270833A1 | Software Features for Medical Infusion Pump | 289 |
| 3 | US20080172027A1 | Insulin pump having basal rate testing features | 188 |
| 4 | US5522799A | Fluid infusion pump capable of detecting erroneous tube displacement | 155 |
| 5 | US4850807A | Disposable cassette for fluid delivery pump systems | 155 |
| 6 | US4845487A | Pump system for enteral/parenteral fluid control and delivery | 154 |
| 7 | US4672997A | Modular, self-diagnostic mass-flow controller and system | 129 |
| 8 | US5237309A | Pump cassette and method of pumping | 122 |
| 9 | US20130012879A1 | Software features for medical infusion pump | 80 |
| 10 | US5943633A | Automatic infusion pump tester | 79 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
One assignee has built a wide lead
The leading assignee's family count of 44 is roughly four times the fifth-ranked company's 11, and the count keeps falling fast down the ranking to just 2 at tenth place. That shape points to a single dominant portfolio rather than a crowded competitive middle.
Activity has eased from its 2019 high
After peaking at 25 filings in 2019, the field's complete-year data shows filings dropping from 10 in 2021 to 8 in 2024. That is a real, moderate pull-back, not a collapse — and it says nothing about 2025 or 2026, which are still being backfilled by the publication lag.
Software claims sit on top of hardware claims
Nearly 70% of records claim the physical A61M hardware, but almost 30% pair that with healthcare informatics claims and 17.5% add digital data processing — evidence that detection logic itself, not just the sensor, has become a separate claim target.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to infusion pump occlusion detection, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the strongest positions
The ranking is dominated at the top, with recent-year filing activity concentrated in the same lead group rather than spreading to challengers.
A single portfolio anchors the field
The top-ranked assignee's 44 families are tied closely to a co-assignee pairing that appears 41 times, indicating the bulk of that portfolio was filed jointly across a parent-and-subsidiary structure rather than as scattered individual filings.
Even the leaders have slowed
The two entities behind the strongest co-assignee pair each show only 1 filing in the latest tracked year, and several other ranked assignees show 0. That is consistent with the broader -20% momentum figure rather than a sign any single company has pulled ahead recently.
A steep drop-off past the leaders
By the tenth position in the ranking, family counts have fallen to just 2, pointing to a long tail of companies with a handful of filings each rather than a broad second tier of active competitors.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Baxter International Inc. | 1 | — |
| Baxter Healthcare SA | 1 | — |
| CareFusion 303 Inc. | 0 | — |
| Smiths Medical ASD Inc. | 0 | — |
| FRANTZ MEDICAL DEVELOPMENT LTD | 0 | — |
| Fresenius Vial | 0 | — |
| Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC | 0 | — |
| ZALESKY LARRY R | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trends and gaps above are a starting point. Confirming freedom-to-operate or scoping a new filing needs claim-level review.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 44 of the ranked families, a design-around review should start there before checking the long tail of smaller filers.
Explore the assignee portfolio in EurekaProbe the informatics and AI classes for open claim space
G06N and G08B sit at 1.5% of records each — worth a closer read to see whether that reflects genuine white space or simply under-indexing in this search string.
Run a deeper IPC breakdown in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The ranking in this dataset is led by a single assignee family with 44 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 11 and the tenth-ranked company at just 2. This is not a gradual drop-off — it is a steep concentration at the very top, with the strongest co-assignee pairing in the data appearing 41 times, suggesting most of that lead portfolio was filed jointly across related corporate entities. Anyone assessing competitive risk in this space should treat that top position as the primary reference point for freedom-to-operate review.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 25 records and has since eased; the most recent complete-year comparison in this dataset shows a drop from 10 filings in 2021 to 8 in 2024, a -20% change. Because patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any raw chart will look artificially low and should not be read as evidence of a further decline. The honest read is a moderate pull-back from a 2019 high, not a collapsing field.
The core hardware claim area is IPC class A61M, covering devices for body fluids, which appears in 69.3% of the 137 records in scope. A substantial share of records also claim the software layer: G16H (healthcare informatics) at 29.9% and G06F (digital data processing) at 17.5%. Mechanical pump elements fall under F04B at 10.9%, while AI-specific claims (G06N) and dedicated alarm-signalling claims (G08B) remain small at 1.5% each, which points to those framings still being lightly explored relative to the dominant hardware and informatics classes.
US20230211073A1, filed by Baxter International and published 2023-07-06, describes a pump security system built around a lockable swivel door assembly, physical access redundancies and a set of alarms tied to that access-control mechanism. Its claims center on the physical housing and locking hardware plus the alarms triggered by unauthorized access, not on the pressure-sensing or flow-continuity logic that defines occlusion detection itself. A team working purely on sensor-based occlusion detection algorithms is unlikely to be blocked by this filing, though anyone designing a pump enclosure with alarm-linked access control should review its claims closely.
The IPC composition shows heavy claim density in A61M hardware and a meaningful but smaller footprint in informatics and digital-processing classes, while AI-modeling (G06N) and dedicated alarm-signalling (G08B) sit at only 1.5% of records each. That gap suggests sub-areas such as AI-based occlusion prediction, alarm-delay calibration logic, tubing-compliance drift compensation and multi-sensor fusion for false-alarm reduction are comparatively under-claimed relative to the core sensor hardware. These are reasonable starting points for a novelty search before drafting new claims, though a full clearance check against the leading assignee's portfolio is still required.
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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.