Ligament Reconstruction Grafts Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 36.2% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 1,021 of 2,824 records in scope, but a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants fills the rest of the ranking.
- Filings cooled from a 2017 peak. 135 records published in 2017 versus 10 so far in 2026, with the comparable complete-year window showing a 38% drop from 2021 to 2024.
- Surgical and implant classes dominate. A61B and A61F each cover roughly two-thirds of records, while image processing and hand-tool classes stay under 2% — a sign of where claim space is thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (86 records) with 2024 (53) — 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 2,824 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about ligament reconstruction grafts
Ligament reconstruction graft patents cover the mechanics of restoring a torn ligament, most often the ACL: how a graft is tensioned, how a bone tunnel is placed, how the graft is fixed with an interference screw or comparable hardware, and how outcomes such as laxity and return to sport are measured. The dataset behind this page spans 2,824 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search built around graft fixation, tunnel placement and healing terms rather than a single device category.
The technology sits at the intersection of surgical technique and implant hardware, which is why the two largest IPC subclasses in this set are diagnosis-and-surgery and implants-and-prostheses. That overlap matters for freedom-to-operate work: a single graft fixation device can draw claims from both classes at once, and reviewers should expect to search both when clearing a design.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,824 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records split across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry more than one classification, the subclass shares add up to well over 100% of the record total.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a pullback
Published filings ran from 135 in 2017 down to 10 in the still-filling 2026 window. The most reliable comparison uses complete years only: 2021 to 2024 shows an 86-to-53 record decline, a 38% drop. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in the chart will fill in further and should not be read as a continued decline yet.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) and A61F (implants and prostheses) each touch roughly two-thirds of all records, confirming that most filings combine a surgical method with a physical implant claim. A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) appears in 13.0% of records, reflecting graft-processing and tissue-handling claims. The smaller subclasses — image processing, presses, hand tools and therapeutic compounds — each sit under 3%, marking areas where claim density is comparatively light.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,824 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Ligament Reconstruction Grafts with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about ligament reconstruction grafts and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US10034675B2 — Systems and methods for pre-operative planning and precise bone tunnel placement for ligament reconstruction
Methods and systems to optimize ligament reconstruction surgical outcomes by enabling bone tunnel(s) to be precisely and optimally placed through the use of pre-operative planning systems coupled with precision control bone evacuation machines, such as robotic drills. The methods generally include receiving and processing scan data of a patient's bone(s); pre-determining optimal tunnel placement parameter(s); placing registration marker(s) percutaneously; and creating a tunnel according to the pre-determined parameters.Filed by Think Surgical, Inc., published 2018-07-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US9861446B2 | Devices and methods for surgery | 981 |
| 2 | US20070198022A1 | Patient Selectable Joint Arthroplasty Devices and Surgical Tools | 898 |
| 3 | US8133500B2 | Compressed high density fibrous polymers suitable for implant | 834 |
| 4 | US5306301A | Graft attachment device and method of using same | 833 |
| 5 | US20080243127A1 | Surgical Tools for Arthroplasty | 716 |
| 6 | US5505735A | Surgical anchor and method for using the same | 709 |
| 7 | US20170258526A1 | Devices and methods for surgery | 704 |
| 8 | US5769894A | Graft attachment device and method of attachment | 650 |
| 9 | US5918604A | Method of loading tendons into the knee | 647 |
| 10 | US5211647A | Interference screw and cannulated sheath for endosteal fixation of ligaments | 636 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records are structurally favoured — treat this as a measure of influence within the corpus, 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 a filing decision
Three findings that shape where a new filing or design-around effort should focus.
Leadership is real but not overwhelming
The five leading assignees combine for 1,021 of 2,824 records, and the top ten reach 47.8%. That leaves more than half the field split across a long tail of smaller filers, including single-patent entrants such as Think Surgical's tunnel-placement filing.
Activity has cooled from its 2017 peak
Published filings hit 135 in 2017 and have not returned to that level since. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent stretch treatable as complete, shows an 86-to-53 decline. Years after 2024 will still fill in as publication catches up with filing.
Filing strategy still centres on the US
United States receiving-office records outnumber the next jurisdiction, EPO, by more than double, with WIPO PCT and Australia forming a second tier. AT and Canada trail further behind, suggesting most applicants treat the US as the primary market before deciding on wider coverage.
Instrumentation classes stay thin
While the surgical-method and implant classes are dense, ancillary classes covering hand tools (0.9%), presses (1.1%) and image processing (1.2%) remain lightly claimed. That pattern points to instrumentation and imaging-support tooling as areas with room for new claims rather than crowded prior art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to ligament reconstruction grafts, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how tightly they cluster
The assignee ranking spans 100 companies counted by patent family. A handful of pairs file jointly often enough to register as a pattern, but recent-year activity among the named leaders looks flat to declining rather than accelerating.
Hospital-and-research-centre pairs cluster tightly
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset files together 47 times, well ahead of the next pairs at 40 and 34. These pairings typically involve a children's medical centre alongside an affiliated hospital, or a device maker alongside its own subsidiary, rather than arm's-length collaboration between competitors.
No leader is accelerating right now
Named leaders each show only one filing in the latest year, with year-over-year changes ranging from flat to down sharply. None of the tracked assignees show the kind of renewed filing push that would signal a new product cycle starting.
Most of the field sits outside the ranked leaders
With the top ten assignees holding 47.8% of 2,824 records, the remainder is distributed across the rest of the 100-company ranking and unranked filers. That is where niche fixation hardware and single-procedure filings tend to originate.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Smith & Nephew, Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Arthrex, Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| Children's Medical Center Corporation | 1 | 0% |
| Rhode Island Hospital | 1 | 0% |
| ConforMIS, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Ethicon, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Cayenne Medical, Inc. | 0 | — |
| DePuy Mitek, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing new claims, or tracking a competitor.
Clear a design against the most-cited records
The highest-cited records in this set date back well over a decade, meaning their citation weight reflects historical influence rather than current enforcement risk. Any new fixation or implant design should still be checked against them directly rather than assumed clear.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaProbe the under-claimed instrumentation classes
Hand-tool, press and image-processing subclasses each sit under 2% of records, well below the surgical and implant classes. That gap is worth testing with a targeted prior-art search before committing to a claim strategy in tunnel-guidance or tensioning hardware.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch for a rebound past the 2024 data
The 2021-to-2024 decline is the most complete trend available, but 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as publication catches up with filing. Re-checking this trend in six to twelve months will give a truer read on whether activity is actually falling or just under-reported.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on ligament reconstruction graft patents
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by patent family count, and the top five together hold 1,021 of 2,824 records in scope, or 36.2%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of smaller companies, hospitals and individual inventors. No single company holds a majority share, so freedom-to-operate work needs to check across several leading filers rather than just one.
Filings peaked in 2017 at 135 published records and have not returned to that level. Comparing the two most recent complete years available, 2021 and 2024, records fell from 86 to 53, a 38% decline. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in any chart are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued slide.
US10034675B2, assigned to Think Surgical, Inc., claims a pre-operative planning system that uses patient scan data to determine optimal bone tunnel placement, then guides a precision drilling system to execute that placement using percutaneously placed registration markers. It sits at the intersection of surgical planning software and robotic drilling hardware rather than the graft or fixation device itself. Anyone building a competing tunnel-placement tool should review its specific claim language on registration-marker use and pre-determined parameter calculation.
IPC classes covering hand tools, presses and image data processing each account for under 2% of the 2,824 records in scope, far below the roughly two-thirds covered by core surgical and implant classes. That gap suggests instrumentation such as tensioning sensors, drill-alignment tooling and laxity-measurement devices carries comparatively light claim density. Light density is not a guarantee of openness, but it is a reasonable starting point for a targeted prior-art search.
The receiving-office data shows the United States as the dominant venue with 1,172 records, more than double the EPO's 465. WIPO PCT filings (285) and Australia (259) form a second tier, with AT and Canada further behind. This pattern suggests most applicants secure US coverage first and expand selectively rather than filing broadly across all jurisdictions from the outset.
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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.