Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 28.3% of all activity sits with five companies. 4,450 of the 15,731 records in scope trace to the top five assignees, with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- Filing cooled after a 2022 peak of 1,164. Volume moved from 1,005 records in 2021 to 692 in 2024, a -31% shift over that span — the last three-year window unaffected by publication lag.
- Image processing now rivals the clinical hardware itself. G06T image data processing appears on 31.0% of records, close behind A61B diagnosis and surgery at 35.6%, and ahead of G01T nuclear radiation measurement at 15.1%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,005 records) with 2024 (692) — 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 15,731 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 15,731 patent records published between 2015 and 2026 that combine nuclear medicine terminology — PET, SPECT, radiotracer workflows — with claims touching patient sample handling, medical image reconstruction, device interfaces, clinical measurement or laboratory instrumentation. The scope is deliberately cross-disciplinary: it captures where imaging hardware, radiochemistry and software reconstruction claims overlap, rather than radiology broadly or diagnostic imaging as a whole.
Filing concentration is real but not extreme: five assignees account for 28.3% of records and ten account for 37.6%, leaving a substantial tail of entrants with a handful of filings each. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the 2025-2026 figures are still filling in, so the true recent trend is understated in any raw year-over-year read.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: the year-by-year filing curve, and the IPC subclasses that carry the claim density. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the subclass shares add up to more than 100% of the 15,731 records — that overlap is itself informative about how tightly imaging, informatics and hardware claims are bundled together.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Volume rose from 861 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,164 in 2022, then eased to 692 by 2024 — a -31% move from the 2021 figure of 1,005. 2025 and 2026 numbers (down to 69 in the most recent partial year) are not yet complete and should not be read as a continuing decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61B (diagnosis and surgery, 35.6% of records) and G06T (image data processing, 31.0%) dominate, followed by G01T (nuclear and X-radiation measurement, 15.1%), A61K (medicinal preparations, 13.9%) and G16H (healthcare informatics, 13.2%). The presence of G06F and G06K at 11.3% and 7.9% respectively confirms that software and pattern-recognition claims are now filed alongside, not instead of, the underlying detection hardware.
Shares are the percentage of the 15,731 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about nuclear medicine & molecular imaging patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US8558176B2 — Medical image diagnosis apparatus and image reconstruction method
A nuclear medicine imaging apparatus detects gamma rays from a nuclide introduced into a subject's body using a PET detector, reconstructs a PET image from the resulting projection data by successive approximation, and adjusts the successive-approximation parameter according to the scanned body region.Filed by Toshiba Medical Systems, published 2013-10-15 — now folded into Canon Medical's portfolio.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6850252B1 | Intelligent electronic appliance system and method | 4,059 |
| 2 | US5526822A | Method and apparatus for automated biopsy and collection of soft tissue | 2,450 |
| 3 | US6400996B1 | Adaptive pattern recognition based control system and method | 2,342 |
| 4 | US6640145B2 | Media recording device with packet data interface | 1,591 |
| 5 | US5875108A | Ergonomic man-machine interface incorporating adaptive pattern recognition based control system | 1,588 |
| 6 | US20070053513A1 | Intelligent electronic appliance system and method | 1,452 |
| 7 | US7006881B1 | Media recording device with remote graphic user interface | 1,218 |
| 8 | US7813822B1 | Intelligent electronic appliance system and method | 1,198 |
| 9 | US20070061393A1 | Management of health care data | 1,132 |
| 10 | US6081750A | Ergonomic man-machine interface incorporating adaptive pattern recognition based control system | 992 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate them — read this table as a map of influential prior art, not as a ranking of current 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 the raw counts are put side by side: where claim density already sits, how citation weight is distributed, and how recent-year momentum has shifted even among the largest filers.
The top is crowded, the tail is long
Five assignees hold 28.3% of all records and ten hold 37.6% — meaningful concentration, but well short of a closed field. The remaining 62.4% of filings spread across the rest of the ranked leaders and a large number of smaller filers, which is where freedom-to-operate work tends to find room.
Volume has cooled from its 2022 peak
Filings rose from 861 in 2017 to a peak of 1,164 in 2022, then fell to 692 by 2024, a -31% move over that three-year window. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, this is the most recent period that can be read reliably; years beyond 2024 will fill in as data catches up.
Software claims now sit beside the hardware
G06T image data processing appears on 31.0% of records, nearly matching A61B's 35.6%, while G06F and G06K (11.3% and 7.9%) add digital-processing and pattern-recognition claims into the same filings. Reconstruction algorithms and detection hardware are increasingly claimed together rather than separately.
Citation weight sits with older interface and control patents
The most-cited records in this corpus are not recent imaging patents but older filings on adaptive control systems and device interfaces, some carrying citation counts in the thousands. That reflects age and searchability more than current relevance — useful for tracing prior art lineage, not for judging what matters today.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nuclear medicine & molecular imaging patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Players and recent momentum
The leading assignees span imaging OEMs, a chipmaker with a strong recent-year presence, and legacy medical-systems units that have since been absorbed into larger portfolios. Recent-year momentum has softened across nearly all of them, though that softening should be read against the publication-lag caveat above.
Platform incumbents hold the largest single share
The leading assignee's 1,649 records reflect decades of continuous filing across PET/SPECT hardware, reconstruction software and clinical workflow claims — the kind of breadth that comes from owning the full imaging stack rather than one component.
A non-traditional imaging player still shows up
A chipmaker appears among the more active recent filers, with 11 records in the latest year despite a sharp year-over-year pull-back — a sign that GPU-adjacent reconstruction and inference claims are being staked out even as overall volume in the category cools.
Corporate restructuring shows up directly in the assignee data
The strongest co-assignee pair in this dataset links two related medical-systems entities with 266 joint filings, and a Philips-linked pair follows with 235 — a reminder that ownership records here trace group history as much as they trace invention.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Corporation | 11 | -73% |
| GE Precision Healthcare LLC | 4 | -82% |
| Canon Medical Systems Corporation | 3 | -75% |
| Brainlab AG | 2 | -60% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 1 | -80% |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing strategy or R&D prioritisation.
Map claim scope against your own reconstruction pipeline
With G06T and A61B claims now heavily bundled, a component-by-component comparison against the leading assignees' recent filings is more useful than a single novelty search.
Run a claim comparison in Eureka →Track the compute-sector entrants
The presence of a chip-sector filer among the more active recent assignees suggests reconstruction and inference claims are migrating toward general-purpose compute vendors — worth monitoring even at reduced year-over-year volume.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Stress-test the under-claimed branches
Sub-areas like radiotracer dose calibration and edge-device reconstruction show thinner claim density than the core imaging classes — a first-mover claim there faces less prior art to design around.
Explore white space in Eureka →Frequently asked questions
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 1,649 of the 15,731 records in scope, drawn from decades of continuous filing across PET and SPECT hardware, reconstruction software and clinical workflow claims. The next four assignees combined bring the top-five share to 4,450 records, or 28.3% of the field. Beyond the top ten, which together hold 37.6% of records, filing spreads across a long tail of companies with far smaller portfolios, so no single company controls the space outright.
Filing rose from 861 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,164 in 2022, then declined to 692 by 2024 — a -31% move over that three-year window. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures shown in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continuing slowdown. The 2021-2024 window is the most recent period that can be treated as a reliable signal.
A61B, covering diagnosis and surgery, appears on 35.6% of the 15,731 records, with G06T image data processing close behind at 31.0%. G01T nuclear and X-radiation measurement (15.1%), A61K medicinal preparations (13.9%) and G16H healthcare informatics (13.2%) round out the next tier. Because a single patent can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%, which itself shows how tightly hardware, software and clinical-informatics claims are now bundled together.
US8558176B2 claims a PET imaging apparatus that detects gamma rays with a PET detector, reconstructs the image by successive approximation, and varies the successive-approximation parameter based on the scanned body region. It is a Toshiba Medical Systems filing from 2013 that has since moved into Canon Medical's portfolio. Anyone building adaptive-parameter PET reconstruction should check this claim scope specifically, though the broader IPC data shows plenty of image-processing filing activity around it that may offer alternative technical routes.
Relative to the dense core classes — A61B diagnosis claims at 35.6% and G06T image processing at 31.0% — several adjacent branches carry comparatively thin claim density, including radiotracer-specific dose calibration workflows, cross-modality PET/MRI registration, and edge-device reconstruction for point-of-care scanners. These are not unclaimed, but the filing density is markedly lower than in the core imaging hardware and reconstruction classes. A first claim in these branches would face less crowded prior art than one filed directly against the leading assignees' core portfolios.
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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.