Macromolecular Crystallography Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Macromolecular Crystallography Patents: Filing Trends and Who Holds the Claims
57.2% of all 1,067 records sit with just five assignees — this field is concentrated at the top, not evenly spread. Filings ran at 110 in 2017, the peak year in scope, then eased through the early 2020s. The clearest complete-year comparison in the data is 2021 to 2024, where filings dropped from 71 to 15 — a -79% move that predates any distortion from publication lag.
- 1AFFINIUM PHARMACEUTICALS INC197
- 2BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO126
- 3EDWARDS ALED98
- 4DHARAMSI AKIL97
- 5VEDADI MASOUD92
See the full macromolecular crystallography advances 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 field
Who holds the most patents in macromolecular crystallography?
The ranking of 100 assignees in this dataset shows a clear leader with 197 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed assignee at 92. The top five combined account for 57.2% of all 1,067 records in scope, and the top ten reach 91.6%, so the field is concentrated among a small group rather than spread evenly. A new entrant should treat that top group as the primary reference point for freedom-to-operate work rather than trying to survey the full ranked list.
Is patent filing in this area growing or shrinking?
Filings peaked in 2017 at 110 records and declined through the early 2020s, with the most reliable complete-year comparison showing a drop from 71 filings in 2021 to 15 in 2024 — a -79% change. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so they should not yet be read as evidence of further decline or of a turnaround. The 2021-2024 contraction itself, however, is based on complete data and is real.
What does US12031926B2 actually cover?
US12031926B2 covers a mesh-based crystal sample holder for serial crystallography, filed by Korea University Research and Business Foundation and published 2024-07-09. Its claims center on a lower-cost manufacturing process for the holder, a design that avoids physically or chemically affecting surrounding beamline equipment, and support for raster scanning to collect more diffraction images from a small chip. Anyone building a competing sample-delivery device for serial crystallography beamlines should review this claim scope before finalizing a mount design.
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 Macromolecular Crystallography Advances 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.