Lubricious Coatings for Interventional Devices Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 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.
- Volume has pulled back from its 2019 peak. filings ran 383 in 2021 down to 207 in 2024, a 46% drop over that span, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
- Sterilisation and fluid-handling claims dominate. A61L (sterilising & disinfecting) and A61M (devices for body fluids) each cover roughly a quarter to a third of records, far ahead of dedicated coating-process classes like B05D.
Filing growth compares 2021 (383 records) with 2024 (207) — 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 9,553 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of hydrophilic and lubricious coating chemistry and the interventional devices they are applied to — catheters, guidewires, sheaths and related tools — where claims turn on properties like particulate shedding, friction coefficient, coating adhesion, dip-coating process parameters, hydration time and biocompatibility testing. The scope spans 9,553 published records filed between 2015 and 2026, drawn from a search string that pairs coating-type terms with the specific test and process language examiners and drafters actually use.
The dataset gives a fair read on where claim space is dense and where it is thin, but not on device safety or clinical performance. Family counts, not raw document counts, are the unit used throughout for cross-jurisdiction comparisons, since a single invention filed in the US, Europe and via PCT would otherwise be counted several times.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 9,553 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
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.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61L (sterilising & disinfecting) leads at 30.9% of the 9,553 records, followed by A61M (devices for body fluids) at 25.1%, A61B (diagnosis & surgery) at 22.1% and A61F (implants & prostheses) at 21.6%. Dedicated coating classes — C09D (coatings, paints & inks) at 12.9%, C08J (polymer processing) at 6.6% and B05D (coating processes) at 6.2% — trail well behind, since most records claim the coated device or its clinical use rather than the coating process alone. Records can carry multiple classes, so these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 9,553 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Lubricious Coatings for Interventional Devices with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about lubricious coatings for interventional devices and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Coating composition and hydrophilic coating method for medical devices
The disclosure describes a coating composition built on a polymerizable compound with a hydrophobic hydroxy-functional oligomer backbone, combined with a hydrophilic polymer, a photo-initiator and solvent. The polymerizable compound typically makes up 2.0-30 mass % of the total dry composition. The claimed benefit is a well-adhering single-layer hydrophilic coating applied directly to a device substrate.Filed by DSM IP Assets B.V., published 2023-06-15 as US20230183596A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20040167572A1 | Coated medical devices | 1,968 |
| 2 | US7160296B2 | Tissue ablation apparatus and method | 1,963 |
| 3 | US6962587B2 | Method for detecting and treating tumors using localized impedance measurement | 1,930 |
| 4 | US7108701B2 | Drug releasing anastomosis devices and methods for treating anastomotic sites | 1,778 |
| 5 | US20060016700A1 | Transcutaneous analyte sensor | 1,715 |
| 6 | US20080287944A1 | Tissue ablation apparatus and method | 1,702 |
| 7 | US7344533B2 | Impedance controlled tissue ablation apparatus and method | 1,619 |
| 8 | US20060222566A1 | Transcutaneous analyte sensor | 1,617 |
| 9 | US20070203966A1 | Transcutaneous analyte sensor | 1,563 |
| 10 | US6153252A | Process for coating stents | 1,533 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside this searched corpus, so older records lead by default — treat this as a measure of influence on later filings, not of current 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 stand out once family counts, class shares and the co-filing map are put side by side.
No single assignee controls the field
The leader holds 425 records, but the top 5 combined account for only 15.2% of the 9,553 records in scope, and the top 10 for 25.0%. That leaves roughly three-quarters of filing activity spread across a long tail of single- and low-volume filers, which is unusual for a field this mature.
Volume has cooled from its 2019 peak
Filing peaked at 473 in 2019 and has since eased to 207 by 2024, a 46% decline across the last complete three-year window. Recent-year assignee momentum is mixed rather than uniformly falling — some names show sharp upticks in the latest year while others drop to zero — so the slowdown is not evenly distributed.
Sterilisation and fluid-handling claims dominate over coating-process claims
A61L and A61M together touch roughly half of all records when counted separately, while the coating-specific classes C09D, C08J and B05D each sit under 13%. Most applicants are claiming the coated device, its sterilisation or its clinical function, not the coating process itself.
Co-assignee links are narrow and inventor-anchored
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest links all centre on one organisation paired with named individual inventors at 34 shared records each. This points to concentrated inventor teams within a single filer rather than cross-company joint development.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to lubricious coatings for interventional devices, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The leader board is broad rather than dominated by one name, and recent-year momentum has shifted markedly even among established filers.
The top spot is well ahead but not a monopoly
The leading assignee's 425 records sit comfortably above fifth place (211) and tenth place (178), but the gap narrows quickly after the top few names, and the top 5 combined still represent only 15.2% of all 9,553 records in scope.
Recent-year activity is uneven across established filers
Edwards Lifesciences shows 4 filings in the latest year, up 100% year over year, while several other long-standing filers — including Gore, Hollister and 3M Innovative Properties — show zero filings in the latest year, a full drop from prior activity. Dexcom sits in between at 1 filing, down 67%.
Filing is US-anchored with a strong European and PCT presence
The United States receives the largest share of filings at 2,996, ahead of the EPO at 1,903 and WIPO/PCT at 995. Canada (617) and Australia (552) trail, showing this is primarily a US/Europe-centred filing strategy with selective extension elsewhere.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Edwards Lifesciences | 4 | +100% |
| Dexcom Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| W.L. Gore & Associates | 0 | -100% |
| Cordis Corporation | 0 | — |
| Hollister Incorporated | 0 | -100% |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co. | 0 | -100% |
| Novartis AG (Switzerland) | 0 | — |
| SurModics Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to next steps for both freedom-to-operate review and white-space scoping.
Check claim scope against the leading families
With concentration this low, a freedom-to-operate check needs to look well past the top 5 assignees — the long tail holds most of the field's claim density.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaScope the under-claimed sub-areas
Dip-coating process parameters and particulate shedding protocols sit under the dominant A61L/A61M classes with comparatively thin dedicated coverage — worth a closer claim-by-claim read before drafting.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
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.
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.
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.
The technology composition data shows that dedicated coating-process classes like B05D (6.2% of records) and polymer processing under C08J (6.6%) carry much lower claim density than the device- and sterilisation-focused classes that dominate the field. Sub-areas like dip-coating process parameters, hydration time optimisation and particulate shedding test methodology appear less saturated than the core coated-device claims, making them worth a closer look for new filings.
Collaboration between separate organisations is limited in this landscape: the dataset contains only 10 co-assignee pairs across the ranked set. The strongest pairs are not cross-company joint ventures but a single organisation paired with named individual inventors, each sharing 34 records. This suggests that most development work happens within individual companies' internal inventor teams rather than through formal co-filing partnerships.
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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.