NPWT Patents: Top Companies, Trends & White Space 2026
- 66.2% concentration. The top five assignees hold 2,003 of the 3,025 records in scope — the field is claimed by a small group, not a fragmented one.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. Annual filings ran from 213 in 2017 to a peak of 261 in 2018, then fell to 110 by 2024 (-48% from 2021's 212) — a genuine slowdown, not a publication-lag artefact.
- Fluid-handling claims dominate the class map. A61M (devices for body fluids) touches 79.2% of records and A61F (implants & prostheses) touches 49.9% — most of the claim activity sits in mechanics, not in informatics or materials.
Filing growth compares 2021 (212 records) with 2024 (110) — 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 3,025 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the negative pressure wound therapy patent record shows
Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) applies controlled sub-atmospheric pressure to a wound site to draw exudate away and promote closure, typically through a sealed dressing, a pump, and a canister or canister-free fluid path. The 3,025 records captured here span pressure-level control, cycling regimes, foam and gauze filler design, exudate handling, seal integrity, instillation therapy and portable pump duration — the mechanical and fluidic core of the technology rather than its downstream clinical use.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 and has since declined through the most recent complete year, a pattern that sits alongside heavy concentration among a handful of long-established medical device manufacturers. That combination — fewer new entrants, most of the claim space already occupied — shapes where a new filer can realistically stake ground.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Filing counts, IPC subclass composition and receiving-office distribution for the 3,025 records in scope, drawn directly from the underlying dataset.
Filing trend: rise, peak, and decline
Annual filings moved from 213 in 2017 to a peak of 261 in 2018, then eased to 110 by 2024 — a -48% move from 2021's 212. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so counts for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not be read as a further drop.
Where the claims concentrate
A61M (devices for body fluids) appears in 79.2% of records and A61F (implants & prostheses) in 49.9%, together forming the mechanical backbone of NPWT filings. A61L (sterilising & disinfecting) at 8.4% and F04B (positive-displacement pumps) at 3.5% are present but comparatively thin, and G16H (healthcare informatics) at 2.2% and C08L (polymer compositions) at 1.5% are thinner still — classes worth checking before assuming they are crowded.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,025 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about negative pressure wound therapy systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents anchoring this field
WO2018150263A1 — Negative pressure wound therapy apparatuses and methods for using the same
Filed by Smith & Nephew Pte. Limited, this application discloses a negative pressure wound therapy apparatus built around a negative pressure source, a connector port, at least one switch, and a controller. The controller reads a signal from the switch to determine whether a canister is present in the fluid flow path — connecting either to a dressing with a canister that stores aspirated fluid, or a canister-free dressing — and adjusts operation accordingly.The claim value sits in the switch-detected canister/canister-free branching logic, not merely in applying negative pressure to a wound.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8715256B2 | Vacuum assisted wound dressing | 1,329 |
| 2 | EP2462908A1 | Medical dressing and negative pressure wound therapy apparatus using the same | 473 |
| 3 | US20110213287A1 | Systems and methods for using negative pressure wound therapy to manage open abdominal wounds | 447 |
| 4 | US20070219532A1 | Pump system for negative pressure wound therapy | 435 |
| 5 | US20100022990A1 | Pump system for negative pressure wound therapy and improvements thereon | 411 |
| 6 | US8974429B2 | Apparatus and method for applying topical negative pressure | 402 |
| 7 | US20120116334A1 | Apparatuses and methods for negative pressure wound therapy | 378 |
| 8 | US20100137775A1 | Device for delivery of reduced pressure to body surfaces | 375 |
| 9 | US7857806B2 | Pump system for negative pressure wound therapy | 355 |
| 10 | US20120136325A1 | Systems and methods for controlling operation of a reduced pressure therapy system | 347 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had longer to accumulate citations inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
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 a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once concentration, filing trend and technology composition are read together.
A small group holds most of the mechanical claim space
With 2,003 of 3,025 records concentrated among five assignees, and 80.8% among ten, most core NPWT mechanics — pump control, canister detection, seal integrity — are already claimed by incumbents. New entrants filing head-on into A61M pump and dressing claims are filing into dense prior art.
Filing volume has genuinely cooled since the 2018 peak
Volume ran from 213 in 2017 up to a 2018 peak of 261, then down to 110 by 2024. That is a real three-year contraction, not a lag artefact, since 2024 is the last year that can be treated as complete.
Informatics and polymer claims are comparatively open
Against A61M's 79.2% and A61F's 49.9%, classes like G16H (2.2%), C08L (1.5%) and A61K (1.2%) carry far fewer records. That gap suggests connected-therapy monitoring and dressing material chemistry are less thoroughly staked than the pump and dressing mechanics.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to negative pressure wound therapy systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where it is still open
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the full set of 3,025 records — not a curated top-50 or top-100 shortlist, but the whole ranking the dataset returns.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 819 records against 190 at fifth place and 49 at tenth — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-cluster market rather than an evenly spread one.
Even active filers are pulling back
Recent-year filing counts by assignee are small in absolute terms and mostly declining year-on-year, consistent with the broader 2021-2024 contraction rather than any single company retreating from the space.
Co-filing is limited and clusters around a few pairs
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairs linking a handful of established device makers and materials partners — collaboration exists but is not a broad pattern across the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| T.J. Smith & Nephew Limited | 4 | -56% |
| DeRoyal Industries Inc | 3 | — |
| Smith & Nephew plc | 1 | 0% |
| Smith & Nephew Inc | 1 | -75% |
| Molnlycke Health Care AB | 1 | -90% |
| KCI Licensing Inc | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co | 0 | — |
| Solventum Intellectual Properties Co | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy, or identifying an entry point.
Map claim boundaries on the leading pump and dressing patents
Given the concentration in A61M and A61F classes, a freedom-to-operate review should start with the most-cited records and the top assignees' recent continuations before any new pump or dressing design is finalised.
Explore claims in Eureka →Test white space in informatics and instillation cycling
The thinner G16H and canister-free instillation branches warrant a claim-drafting exercise to see whether a defensible first position still exists ahead of incumbents extending into those areas.
Run a white space search →Common questions about NPWT patents
Filing in this space is concentrated: the top-ranked assignee alone holds 819 of the 3,025 records in scope, and the top five combined hold 2,003 records, or 66.2% of the field. That concentration extends to the top ten, which together hold 80.8% of all records. Well-established wound care and medical device manufacturers account for most of this activity, so a new entrant should expect to compete against a small number of large, entrenched portfolios rather than many small ones.
Filing peaked in 2018 at 261 records and has declined since; by 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete, annual filings had fallen to 110, down 48% from 212 in 2021. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still in the raw data, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those most recent years understate true activity and should not be read as confirming a further drop. Taken together, the multi-year trend through 2024 is a genuine slowdown from the 2018 peak.
The bulk of filings sit in A61M (devices for body fluids), which touches 79.2% of the 3,025 records, and A61F (implants & prostheses), touching 49.9%. Sterilising and disinfecting technology (A61L) and positive-displacement pumps (F04B) appear far less often, at 8.4% and 3.5% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they should be read as coverage rates against the full record set rather than as a breakdown that sums to a whole.
The classes with the lowest coverage relative to the core mechanical claims are the more promising areas to examine: G16H healthcare informatics sits at just 2.2% of records, C08L polymer compositions at 1.5%, and A61K medicinal preparations at 1.2%. Specific sub-areas worth investigating include exudate volume sensing, canister-free instillation cycling, portable pump battery duration and seal integrity feedback, all of which sit adjacent to the dense pump-and-dressing claim space without being as thoroughly claimed themselves.
WO2018150263A1, filed by Smith & Nephew Pte. Limited, discloses an NPWT apparatus with a negative pressure source, connector port, at least one switch, and a controller that determines from the switch signal whether a canister is present in the fluid path and adjusts operation accordingly. The value in the claim sits specifically in that switch-detected canister versus canister-free branching logic, not in the general act of applying negative pressure to a wound. A new design that avoids automatic canister-presence detection via a switch-and-controller scheme, or that uses a materially different detection mechanism, has a plausible path around this particular claim, though a full freedom-to-operate review should check the full claim set and family members directly.
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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.