NIR Process Monitoring Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated but not closed. the top 5 of 74 ranked assignees hold 39.7% of all 189 records, yet the tenth-ranked filer has only 6 — leaving room for new entrants below the leaders.
- Growth continued into the most recent complete year. filings rose 14% from 2021 (7) to 2024 (8), with a 2022 peak of 17 — publication lag means 2025-2026 counts will still rise.
- Data-processing classes are a minority footprint. G06F (electric digital data processing) and G16C (computational chemistry) each sit under 7% of the 189 records, well behind the optical and diagnostic classes.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (8) — 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 189 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of near-infrared spectroscopy and the signal-processing steps that turn a raw spectrum into a usable measurement: baseline correction, noise filtering, peak resolution, spectral derivatives, normalization and feature selection. The scope is defined by IPC classes covering optical material analysis (G01N21/359, G01N21/31) alongside enzyme and DNA measurement (C12Q3/00), which pulls in both industrial process monitoring and biomedical analyte prediction as adjacent, overlapping fields.
The 189 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, giving a decade-plus view of how claim activity has moved between optical hardware, chemometric software and application-specific measurement (blood analytes, plant traits, bioreactor monitoring). Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one to two years in any trend chart are still filling in and should be read as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 189 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry that activity.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2022, then to 9 in 2026 (partial). The 2021-to-2024 span shows +14% growth (7 to 8), the most recent period that can be read as complete before publication lag understates later years.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G01N covers all 189 records by construction. Beyond that, A61B (diagnosis and surgery) at 39.2% and G01J (radiation and light measurement) at 28.0% dominate, while C12Q, G06Q, C12M, G06F and G16C each sit under 10% of records — record can carry more than one class, so shares exceed 100% in total.
Shares are the percentage of the 189 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on NIR Process Monitoring Signal Processing with Eureka
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Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
CA2849326A1 — Chemometrics for near infrared spectral analysis
This disclosure concerns systems and methods for identifying and selecting a more accurate chemometric model for the analysis of specific plant samples via near infrared spectrometry. This disclosure further concerns the use of such systems and methods to identify characteristics and traits of interest in plants and plant samples, for example, to facilitate selective breeding, quality control, and/or inventory control.Filed by Dow AgroSciences, this record sits at the software/chemometrics end of the field rather than the optical-hardware end, illustrating how model-selection claims can be scoped around a specific application (plant sample analysis) rather than the spectroscopy method itself.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6280381B1 | Intelligent system for noninvasive blood analyte prediction | 955 |
| 2 | US6788965B2 | Intelligent system for detecting errors and determining failure modes in noninvasive measurement of blood and… | 626 |
| 3 | US6990364B2 | Noninvasive measurement of glucose through the optical properties of tissue | 615 |
| 4 | US6640117B2 | Method and apparatus for minimizing spectral effects attributable to tissue state variations during NIR-based… | 568 |
| 5 | US6675030B2 | Near infrared blood glucose monitoring system | 493 |
| 6 | US6512937B2 | Multi-tier method of developing localized calibration models for non-invasive blood analyte prediction | 345 |
| 7 | US20010021803A1 | Multi-tier method of developing localized calibration models for non-invasive blood analyte prediction | 180 |
| 8 | US9554738B1 | Spectroscopic tomography systems and methods for noninvasive detection and measurement of analytes using coll… | 178 |
| 9 | US6512936B1 | Multi-tier method of classifying sample spectra for non-invasive blood analyte prediction | 168 |
| 10 | US6512577B1 | Apparatus and method for measuring and correlating characteristics of fruit with visible/near infra-red spect… | 167 |
Citation counts favour older records simply by virtue of time in the corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once the records are broken down by year, class and citation weight.
The top of the ranking is not the whole field
The leader holds 20 records and fifth place holds 12 — a real gap, but the top 10 combined only reach 61.4% of all 189 records. More than a third of the field sits with assignees outside the top 10, which matters for anyone assuming a handful of firms have this space locked up.
Growth held through the last complete filing year
Filings grew from 7 in 2021 to 8 in 2024, after a peak of 17 in 2022. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounts and should not be read as a slowdown.
Optical measurement outweighs software classes
G01J (radiation and light measurement) covers 28.0% of records and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) covers 39.2%, while the explicitly computational classes — G06F and G16C — sit at 6.3% and 5.3% respectively. Most of the claim density is still in the optical and application layers, not in the algorithmic layer.
Early blood-analyte patents anchor the citation graph
The most-cited records in this dataset are older noninvasive blood-analyte measurement patents, cited well into the hundreds. That reflects their age and foundational position, not that blood-analyte monitoring is where current filing activity is concentrated.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nir process monitoring signal processing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The assignee ranking spans 74 companies across academic, industrial and instrumentation players, with co-filing activity concentrated in a small number of recurring pairs.
A single leader, then a fast drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 20 records against 12 at fifth place and 6 at tenth — the gap from first to fifth is steep, then the ranking flattens into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Collaboration is narrow and recurring
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairing recorded at 7 shared records between an optical-sensor maker and a materials chemistry firm — a signal of a specific hardware-plus-formulation partnership rather than broad industry collaboration.
Momentum has cooled among several established filers
Multiple previously active assignees, including a leading optical-sensor firm that dropped -100% year-on-year, show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Read cautiously given publication lag, but it is consistent with claim activity shifting toward newer or smaller filers.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SensysMedical Inc | 0 | — |
| Zyomed Holdings Inc | 0 | — |
| Instrumentation Metrics Inc | 0 | — |
| trinamiX GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| Evonik Operations GmbH | 0 | — |
| University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| FPS Food Processing Systems BV | 0 | — |
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 a first-mover gap.
Map the white space against your own claims
The gate chips above name sub-areas with thin record density relative to the optical and biomedical core of this field — worth checking against any draft claim before filing.
Explore in EurekaWatch the flattened tail below the top 10
With 38.6% of the 189 records held outside the top 10 assignees, the competitive picture is more open than the leader's 20 records alone would suggest.
Run a custom assignee searchCommon questions about this landscape
Among the 74 ranked assignees, the leader holds 20 records, with a steep drop to 12 at fifth place and 6 at tenth. The top 5 assignees together account for 39.7% of all 189 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 61.4% — meaning over a third of the field is held by assignees outside the top 10. This is a moderately concentrated field rather than a field dominated by one or two firms.
Filings grew 14% from 2021 (7 records) to 2024 (8 records), with a peak of 17 in 2022, and 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect that lag rather than an actual slowdown. Anyone reading the most recent one to two years of the trend chart should treat those figures as a floor.
Within the 189 records in scope, A61B (diagnosis and surgery) covers 39.2% and G01J (radiation and light measurement) covers 28.0%, making optical measurement and biomedical application the two largest footprints. Explicitly computational classes are smaller: G06F (electric digital data processing) sits at 6.3% and G16C (computational chemistry) at 5.3%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as mutually exclusive categories.
CA2849326A1, filed by Dow AgroSciences, covers systems and methods for selecting a chemometric model to analyze plant samples using near-infrared spectrometry, aimed at identifying plant traits for breeding, quality control and inventory purposes. Its scope is tied to the model-selection step and the plant-sample application rather than to NIR spectroscopy or signal processing generally. That framing narrows what it can block: a system built around a different application domain, or one that does not perform model selection in the way claimed, sits outside its reach.
The technology composition data shows computational classes such as G06F and G16C sitting under 7% of the 189 records, well behind the optical and diagnostic classes above 28%, which suggests the algorithmic and calibration-transfer layer is comparatively under-claimed relative to the hardware and application layers. Co-assignee data also shows only 10 documented collaboration pairs across the whole field, indicating limited cross-firm partnership activity outside a couple of recurring pairs. Both patterns point toward feature-selection and calibration-transfer claims as areas worth checking before assuming the space is occupied.
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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.