Medical Ultrasound Imaging Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Filings peaked in 2019 at 881 and have since flattened toward the mid-500s, a maturity signal rather than a growth curve.
- Philips entities co-file heavily the strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset links Royal Philips with Philips Image Guided Therapy at 70 shared filings.
- Momentum is broadly negative at the top every major assignee tracked shows a double-digit or near-total YoY drop in latest-year filings, GE Precision Healthcare down 89%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (588 records) with 2024 (432) — 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 11,285 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the ultrasound imaging patent record shows
Medical ultrasound imaging patenting spans 11,285 patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, concentrated under A61B diagnosis and surgery claims but reaching into G01S sonar and positioning, G06T image processing, and B06B mechanical vibration generation. The core claim territory covers beamforming architectures, CMUT transducer arrays, portable form factors and elastography techniques, layered on top of decades-old foundational beamforming and phased-array patents that still draw heavy citation.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2019, and has since declined toward pre-peak levels; because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one or two years in any trend read low and should not be read as a sudden drop-off. The receiving-office spread, led by the United States, Europe and WIPO's PCT route, shows this is a globally contested filing strategy rather than a single-jurisdiction race.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: the year-by-year filing curve, and how records split across the IPC subclasses that define the technology's boundaries.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 532 in 2017 to a peak of 881 in 2019, held near 569 at the 2022 midpoint, and closed at 54 in the partial 2026 year. Read the tail as understated, not as collapse: recency lag means the most recent one to two years will always look thinner than they eventually settle.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) dominates at 10,411 records, confirming this is fundamentally a clinical-device field rather than a pure signal-processing one. G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) at 3,745 and G06T (image processing) at 1,191 mark the two largest adjacent claim zones, with G10K acoustics, B06B vibration generation, G01N material testing, A61N electrotherapy and G16H healthcare informatics rounding out smaller but active pockets.
Shares are the percentage of the 11,285 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Medical Ultrasound Imaging Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about medical ultrasound imaging technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this space
Steerable multi-plane ultrasound imaging system (US20220330914A1, Koninklijke Philips)
The filing describes a steerable multi-plane ultrasound imaging system that adjusts the orientation of intersecting image planes from a beamforming probe by tracking an ultrasound transducer's position in the field of view, maximizing signal magnitude between probe and transducer to keep a target plane aligned as it moves.Abstract condensed from the original filing for readability.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6013032A | Beamforming methods and apparatus for three-dimensional ultrasound imaging using two-dimensional transducer a… | 1,288 |
| 2 | US5997479A | Phased array acoustic systems with intra-group processors | 1,259 |
| 3 | US4936281A | Ultrasonically enhanced RF ablation catheter | 1,186 |
| 4 | US9474506B2 | Apparatus and methods for low-cost intravascular ultrasound imaging and for crossing severe vascular occlusio… | 1,015 |
| 5 | US5181514A | Transducer positioning system | 846 |
| 6 | US6019724A | Method for ultrasound guidance during clinical procedures | 804 |
| 7 | US6425865B1 | Robotically assisted medical ultrasound | 693 |
| 8 | US4896673A | Method and apparatus for stone localization using ultrasound imaging | 587 |
| 9 | US5769790A | Focused ultrasound surgery system guided by ultrasound imaging | 578 |
| 10 | US5722411A | Ultrasound medical treatment apparatus with reduction of noise due to treatment ultrasound irradiation at ult… | 533 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus skew toward older filings by construction; treat this table as a map of foundational influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put in context: where claim density sits, how consolidated ownership is, and what the citation record says about staying power.
Clinical-device claims dominate over pure signal processing
The overwhelming majority of records sit in A61B, the diagnosis and surgery subclass, rather than in G01S or G06T alone. A beamforming or image-processing improvement that isn't tied to a clinical device claim is filing into a smaller, less crowded pocket of the same search string.
The field has passed its filing peak
Growth ran through 2019 and has since flattened or declined at the midpoint year of 2022. High historical filing density means the core beamforming and array-geometry claim space is occupied, not that the underlying technology has stopped evolving.
Co-assignee filing is concentrated in a handful of pairs
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest single pair links two Philips entities. Co-filing between a parent and a therapy-focused subsidiary points to internal cross-licensing structure rather than external partnership as the dominant collaboration model here.
Foundational beamforming patents still anchor the field
The most-cited records are two-decade-old beamforming and phased-array patents, not recent filings. That gap between citation age and filing recency is normal in a searched corpus and signals durable architectural influence rather than current enforceability.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to medical ultrasound imaging technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
Filing activity at the top is dominated by a small set of large medical-device groups, most of them now filing less than they were during the 2019 peak. That retreat, combined with dense IPC coverage in the core subclasses, is what opens room for a first mover in the less-crowded adjacent branches.
The largest filer is also pulling back the fastest in absolute terms
Royal Philips leads latest-year filing volume among tracked assignees at 9, but that is down 79% year-on-year. Philips Image Guided Therapy, its frequent co-filer, held flat at 6 filings with 0% YoY change, suggesting the group is consolidating filing activity rather than exiting the space.
GE and Siemens show the steepest declines among major filers
GE Precision Healthcare fell to 4 latest-year filings, down 89% year-on-year; Siemens Healthineers USA fell to 2, down 75%. Both remain active but at a fraction of prior output, consistent with a field past its filing peak rather than one being abandoned.
Chinese manufacturers are slowing from a lower base
Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics filed 2 records in the latest year, down 85% YoY, while its affiliate Shenzhen Mindray Technology appears as a co-assignee pair partner at 20 shared filings. The pattern mirrors the Philips structure: a parent and a closely held subsidiary filing jointly rather than independent competitors entering the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) | 9 | -79% |
| Philips Image Guided Therapy, Inc. | 6 | 0% |
| GE Precision Healthcare LLC | 4 | -89% |
| Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. | 2 | -75% |
| Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. | 2 | -85% |
| Maui Imaging, Inc. | 1 | -83% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Samsung Medison Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with occupied core claims and a shrinking group of active large filers. Two directions follow from that.
Map the white space branches in detail
The under-claimed subclasses named above are starting points, not conclusions. A freedom-to-operate review of any one of them needs claim-by-claim comparison against the densest A61B and G01S filings, not just IPC counts.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack the Philips and Mindray filing structures
Both groups file jointly between a parent and a closely affiliated entity. Watching how that internal split shifts over the next filing cycle will signal whether consolidation or renewed investment is coming.
Set up assignee monitoring in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about ultrasound imaging patents
Royal Philips and its affiliated entity Philips Image Guided Therapy are the most consolidated filing group in this dataset, with the strongest co-assignee pair in the corpus linking the two at 70 shared filings. Other major medical-device manufacturers including GE Precision Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers and Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics also appear among active filers, though all are filing fewer records year-on-year than during the 2019 peak. Ranking by raw document count can overstate a single group's position, so treating families and co-filing structure together gives a fairer read.
The filing trend peaked in 2019 at 881 records and has since flattened, with the 2022 midpoint at 569 and a partial-year 2026 figure of 54. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years always understate true activity, so the decline looks steeper on a chart than it likely is in practice. Even accounting for that lag, the trajectory from 2019 onward reads as flat-to-declining rather than continued growth.
A61B, the diagnosis-and-surgery IPC subclass, accounts for 10,411 of the 11,285 total records, making this predominantly a clinical-device field rather than a signal-processing one. G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) and G06T (image data processing) are the next-largest zones, covering beamforming logic and image reconstruction respectively. Smaller pockets in G10K acoustics, B06B vibration generation, A61N electrotherapy and G16H healthcare informatics show where the field intersects adjacent disciplines.
Relative to the dense A61B and G01S claim territory, subclasses tied to CMUT array fabrication, portable-probe power management, elastography algorithms and healthcare-informatics data pipelines carry comparatively fewer records. That does not guarantee an easy filing, since foundational beamforming and phased-array patents from decades ago still draw heavy citation and shape what counts as novel nearby. A proper freedom-to-operate check against the highest-cited records in the target subclass is the necessary next step before relying on a raw count gap.
US20220330914A1, assigned to Koninklijke Philips N.V. and published in October 2022, describes a steerable multi-plane ultrasound imaging system that reorients intersecting image planes from a beamforming probe by tracking a transducer's position and maximizing transmitted signal magnitude. It sits within the broader beamforming and probe-steering claim territory that already carries dense prior art, including some of the most-cited records in this dataset. Anyone designing a competing multi-plane steering approach should compare claim scope directly against this filing rather than assuming the surrounding white space extends into probe-steering mechanics.
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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.