The dataset’s leading assignee holds 35 of the 450 records in scope, noticeably ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 15 and the tenth-ranked holder at 10. That said, the top 5 assignees combined account for only 26.0% of all records and the top 10 for 38.9%, so the majority of filings sit outside the ranked leaders in a long tail of smaller filers. Anyone entering this space should check both the leader’s portfolio and the surrounding tail, since a single dominant player does not mean the field is closed.

Filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 22 in 2024, a +450% increase over that three-year span, with the highest single-year total so far at 37 filings in 2022. Because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as the trend cooling off. Based on the complete years through 2024, this is an actively growing filing area rather than a mature or declining one.

All 450 records in this dataset carry a G01N material-analysis-and-testing classification by construction of the search, but a substantial share also carry adjacent classes: 32.4% carry A61B (diagnosis and surgery) and 26.7% carry G01J (radiation and light measurement). Smaller but notable shares appear in G02B optical elements (5.6%), B27N particle or fibre board (4.7%), E21B drilling (3.8%), G06F data processing (3.6%) and B01L lab apparatus (3.3%). Because a single record can carry several classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed.