Lubricious Coatings for Interventional Devices Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Lubricious coatings for interventional devices: who holds the patents and where the field is still open
Filing is broad, not concentrated. the ranked leaders' top 5 combined hold only 15.2% of all 9,553 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 25.0% — a long tail does most of the filing. Filings rose to a peak of 473 in 2019, then eased; the comparable complete-year window shows 383 filings in 2021 falling to 207 in 2024, a 46% decline. 2025 and 2026 figures (21 for 2026, partial) will revise upward as publications catch up with the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
- 1WL GORE & ASSOC INC4.4%
- 2HOLLISTER INCORPORAED3.2%
- 3DEXCOM INC2.8%
- 4CORDIS CORPORATION2.5%
- 53M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES CO2.2%
See the full lubricious coatings for interventional devices analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in lubricious catheter coatings?
No single company dominates this field. The leading assignee holds 425 records out of 9,553 in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined account for only 15.2% of all records, with the top 10 reaching 25.0%. That means most of the filing activity comes from a long tail of companies with smaller portfolios, so a competitive review needs to look beyond the handful of largest names to get a full picture of claim coverage.
Is patent filing in this space growing or slowing down?
Filing peaked in 2019 at 473 records and has declined since, with the last complete comparison window showing 383 filings in 2021 falling to 207 in 2024, a 46% drop. However, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent two years will revise upward and should not be read as confirmation of a continued slowdown.
What technology areas get the most patent claims in this field?
Sterilising and disinfecting technology (IPC class A61L) covers 30.9% of the 9,553 records in scope, the largest single share, followed by devices for body fluids (A61M) at 25.1% and diagnosis and surgery (A61B) at 22.1%. Dedicated coating-process and coating-material classes such as C09D, C08J and B05D each cover well under 15% of records, indicating that most patents claim the coated device or its use rather than the coating process itself.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Lubricious Coatings for Interventional Devices covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.