One assignee leads the dataset with 1,825 of the 6,021 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 187. The top five assignees together account for 66.2% of all records, so the field is heavily concentrated rather than evenly spread across many filers. Anyone assessing freedom-to-operate in this space should expect most foundational claim territory to trace back to a small handful of companies, with a long tail of much smaller filers below them.

Filings rose from 275 in 2017 to a peak of 871 in 2022, then fell to 465 by 2024 — a 32% decline over that three-year span. That said, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the lower counts seen in 2025 and 2026 in this dataset understate real activity rather than proving the field has cooled. The fairest read is that 2024 marks the most recent year with a reasonably complete picture, and it still shows a level well above the 2017 starting point.

General digital data processing (G06F) appears in 77.1% of the 6,021 records, which is expected given IR sits inside compiler and runtime infrastructure. Beyond that core, image data processing (G06T, 21.2%) and AI-model computing (G06N, 16.2%) are the two largest secondary classes, reflecting how much IR design work now targets graph-based and accelerator-oriented execution rather than purely scalar CPU code. Smaller shares in printed circuits, digital transmission, video recognition, display control and pictorial communication mark narrower application-specific filings.