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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/multifocal-and-presbyopia-contact-lenses-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Ophthalmic Devices · Patent LandscapeMultifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lens Patents
- 57.1% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 527 of 923 records in scope — filing here is dominated by a small group of established lens makers, not a fragmented field.
- Filing has cooled since the 2021 peak. Filings ran at 57 in 2021 and fell to 18 by 2024, a 68% drop over that span — though 2025-26 counts are still filling in as publication catches up with filing.
- G02C dominates, A61F is the second track. 88.8% of records sit in spectacles-and-lens classification, while 29.1% also carry implant/prosthesis classification — a signal that IOL-adjacent presbyopia correction is a real second front.
923
Published Records
57%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-68%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (57 records) with 2024 (18) — 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 923 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Multifocal and presbyopia-correcting contact lenses solve a single optical problem — delivering usable near and distance vision from one static or dynamic lens surface — through a narrow set of documented mechanical routes: concentric and aspheric optic zones, pupil-dependent add power, and centration control to manage halo and glare. This landscape covers 923 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that claim these mechanisms, drawn from the intersection of multifocal/presbyopia lens terms with optic-zone, add-power, pupil-dependence, halo-glare and centration language in title, abstract and claims.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart understate real filing activity; 2024 is the last year that can be read as a complete signal.
Records by filing year, receiving office and IPC subclass
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC split together show a field that grew through the late 2010s, peaked in 2021, and has since concentrated its claim activity in two adjacent classification tracks.
Filings rose to a 2021 peak, then pulled back
Annual filings climbed from 41 in 2017 to a peak of 57 in 2021, then fell to 18 by 2024 — a 68% decline over that three-year window. Treat 2025 and 2026 counts as provisional; they will revise upward as pending applications publish.
G02C carries the field; A61F is the meaningful second track
88.8% of the 923 records in scope carry a G02C (spectacles and lenses) classification, confirming this is fundamentally a lens-optics field. A61F (implants and prostheses) appears on 29.1% of records, pointing to real overlap with intraocular and surgical presbyopia correction rather than a purely contact-lens conversation. G02B, B29D and A61B each sit under 14%, marking optical-systems, manufacturing and diagnostic claims as smaller but present adjacent tracks.
Shares are the percentage of the 923 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about multifocal and presbyopia contact lenses and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
US20180024380A1 — Progressive multifocal contact lens and producing method thereof
NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
A progressive multifocal contact lens and producing method thereof are provided. The progressive multifocal contact lens includes a first optical region of a front optical surface and a second optical region of a back optical surface. The first optical region includes a center zone, an outer zone and an intermediate zone connected between the center zone and outer zone where the center zone and outer zone are selected from a distance vision power and a near vision power and the intermediate zone is configured to adjust the optical power of the distance vision power and the near vision power so that the optical power or add power of the first optical region on the front optical surface forms a progressive transition.Filed by National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, published 2018-01-25.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6457826B1 | Multifocal aspheric lens | 447 |
| 2 | US6808262B2 | Multifocal contact lens with aspheric surface | 389 |
| 3 | US5715031A | Concentric aspheric multifocal lens designs | 316 |
| 4 | US20060034003A1 | Optical method and system for extended depth of focus | 309 |
| 5 | US7061693B2 | Optical method and system for extended depth of focus | 283 |
| 6 | US5056908A | Optic zone phase channels | 251 |
| 7 | US5054905A | Progressive intensity phase bifocal | 196 |
| 8 | US4881804A | Multifocal phase plate with a pure refractive portion | 195 |
| 9 | US20030076478A1 | Presbyopic vision improvement | 187 |
| 10 | US20090268155A1 | Diffractive lens exhibiting enhanced optical performance | 178 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three figures from this dataset carry direct implications for where a new filing is likely to find open claim space and where it will collide with dense prior art.
Concentration
57.1%
of 923 records held by top 5 assignees
Five assignees set the boundaries of the core claim space
With 527 of 923 records concentrated among five assignees, core optic-zone and add-power geometries are heavily staked out. A new entrant's freedom to operate depends less on novelty of the underlying optical principle and more on finding a genuinely distinct zone geometry or centration mechanism the leaders have not already claimed.
Top 10 combined reach 70.1% of all records.
Momentum
-68%
filings 2021 → 2024 (57 → 18)
The 2021 peak has not been sustained
Annual filings fell from 57 in 2021 to 18 in 2024. That is a real pullback in disclosed activity among the assignees tracked here, though it should not be read as the technology closing out — publication lag means 2025-26 figures are still incomplete.
2024 is the last year treatable as a complete count.
Classification split
29.1%
of records also carry A61F (implants/prostheses)
A second front sits in implant-adjacent presbyopia correction
Nearly a third of records carry an A61F classification alongside the dominant G02C lens class, indicating meaningful overlap between contact-lens presbyopia correction and intraocular/implant approaches to the same optical problem. Filers focused purely on soft or RGP contact lens claims should still track the implant literature for competing optical-zone geometries.
G02B, B29D and A61B each appear on under 14% of records.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to multifocal and presbyopia contact lenses, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
A concentrated leader group over a long tail
The ranking covers 100 companies counted in records; the leader holds 227 records against a fifth-place figure of 36 and a tenth-place figure of 21 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader-and-long-tail structure rather than a broad field of equally active filers.
Leader gap
227 vs 36
leader vs fifth place
One assignee's count dwarfs the rest of the top five
The leading assignee's record count is more than six times the fifth-place figure, a gap wide enough that it is worth checking the leader's specific claim scope before assuming any adjacent geometry is open.
Tenth place sits at 21 records.
Recent momentum
0 in latest year
for several previously active leaders
Several established filers show no latest-year activity
More than one assignee that built a substantial record count in prior years shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, including year-over-year declines of -100% for some. That is consistent with the broader post-2021 pullback rather than any single company exiting the field.
Ohio State Innovation Foundation shows 1 filing in the latest year, among the few with continued activity.
Co-filing
10 pairs
co-assignee pairs identified
Co-assignment is limited and mostly intra-group
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest ones link a parent company to its own subsidiary or a named inventor rather than to an external partner — cross-company joint filing is not a notable pattern here.
Strongest pair links a major assignee to its pharma affiliate at 12 shared records.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Ohio State Innovation Foundation | 1 | — |
| Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| CooperVision International Limited | 0 | -100% |
| Novartis AG | 0 | — |
| CooperVision International Holding Company LP | 0 | — |
| Innotech, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Oculentis Holding BV | 0 | — |
| Bausch & Lomb Incorporated | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means pulling the specific claims behind the top assignees and the under-claimed branches identified here.
Map claim scope against the leader group
Pull full claim sets from the five assignees holding 57.1% of records to see exactly which optic-zone and add-power geometries are already occupied before drafting new claims.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the post-2021 pullback by sub-branch
Break the 2021-2024 decline down by IPC subclass to see whether the pullback is uniform or concentrated in specific optic-zone approaches.
Run a trend breakdown in EurekaTest white-space claim language
Draft candidate claims around the under-claimed branches flagged here and check them against the full corpus for prior art collisions.
Test claim language in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
The dataset ranks 100 companies by record count, and the leading assignee alone holds 227 of the 923 records in scope, well ahead of a fifth-place figure of 36. The top five assignees combined account for 57.1% of all records, and the top ten reach 70.1%. That concentration means most of the foundational optic-zone and add-power claim space is already staked out by a handful of established lens and ophthalmic device makers rather than spread evenly across the industry.
Filings peaked at 57 in 2021 and had fallen to 18 by 2024, a 68% decline over that span, based on the years in this dataset that can be treated as complete. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that is expected: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years always understate real activity. The honest read is a real pullback from the 2021 peak, not a technology in active acceleration, but it is too early to call it declining past 2024.
G02C covers spectacles and lens optics and appears on 88.8% of the 923 records, making it the core classification for contact-lens-specific multifocal and presbyopia designs. A61F covers implants and prostheses and appears on 29.1% of records, reflecting overlap with intraocular lens and surgical approaches to presbyopia correction that use similar optical-zone principles. A filer working purely in soft contact lenses should still monitor A61F filings, since optic-zone geometries often migrate between the two approaches.
Based on classification density in this dataset, pupil-dependent add-power modulation, dynamic centration compensation, halo/glare mitigation coatings, and diffractive-refractive hybrid zones show comparatively thin direct claim density relative to the dominant concentric and aspheric optic-zone geometries. These are not confirmed gaps — they are branches where the concentrated leader group has filed less densely, so a new claim there is more likely to clear prior art, but full freedom-to-operate work still requires checking specific claim language.
The most-cited records in this dataset are older filings such as US6457826B1 and US6808262B2, both foundational aspheric multifocal lens patents cited hundreds of times within this corpus. Older patents simply have had more years and more subsequent filings in which to accumulate citations, so a high citation count signals long-run influence on the field's design vocabulary rather than current commercial relevance. A recent filing with few citations may still cover technically important, actively litigated, or actively licensed territory.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Multifocal and Presbyopia Contact Lenses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.