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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/orthopedic-implant-coatings-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Orthopedic Implant CoatingsOrthopedic Implant Coating Patents: Filing Trends, Leading Assignees and Open Claim Space
- Filing has cooled from its peak. 2021 to 2024 filings fell 63% (19 to 7), with 2019 as the peak year at 31 published records.
- The top of the field is moderately concentrated. The five leading assignees hold 27.8% of all 406 records in scope, and the leading ten hold 46.3% — well short of a dominant single owner.
- Sterilising and disinfecting claims dominate the class mix. A61L covers 61.1% of records, more than three times the share sitting in implant-specific A61F claims (11.8%).
406
Published Records
28%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-63%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (19 records) with 2024 (7) — 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 406 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 406 published records matched against implant, antibacterial and osteoconductive coating language paired with terms like silver release, hydroxyapatite layer, adhesion strength, biofilm inhibition, coating wear and regulatory pathway. The scope spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, with publication activity concentrated in the years after 2017. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart understate true filing activity rather than reflect a real slowdown.
The assignee ranking behind this page covers the 100 companies the data endpoint returns, not a fixed top-50 or top-100 cutoff by definition. Reading the ranking alongside the IPC composition below shows both where filing has clustered and which adjacent branches carry comparatively few claims.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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 numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 406-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Publications rose from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 31 in 2019, then eased; 2021 to 2024 alone shows a 63% decline (19 to 7). 2025 and 2026 are still filling in under the publication lag and should not be read as a continued fall.
IPC subclass composition
A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) carries the largest share at 61.1% of the 406 records, with A61K (medicinal preparations, 19.7%) and C09D (coatings, paints and inks, 15.3%) next. Implant-and-prostheses claims under A61F sit at 11.8%, and surface-deposition-specific C23C and process-specific B05D each hold single-digit shares near 7%.
Shares are the percentage of the 406 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 Orthopedic Implant Coatings covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records and a representative filing
Representative filing
EP3381480B1 — orthopedic implant with a crystalline gallium-containing hydroxyapatite coating
DEPUY SYNTHES PRODUCTS, INC.
Filed by DePuy Synthes Products and granted in 2022, this record claims an orthopedic implant carrying a crystalline, gallium-containing hydroxyapatite coating together with a method for producing it. It sits squarely in the osteoconductive-coating and hydroxyapatite-layer language that defines much of this dataset's search scope.Grant date 2022-05-25.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090208428A1 | Bioactive Glass | 179 |
| 2 | US20030185870A1 | Interfacial biomaterials | 152 |
| 3 | US20090093881A1 | Modified metal materials, surface modifications to improve cell interactions and antimicrobial properties, an… | 114 |
| 4 | US20120237605A1 | Multifunctional Metal Nanoparticles Having A Polydopamine-Based Surface and Methods of Making and Using the S… | 91 |
| 5 | US20050226904A1 | Fibrous composite for tissue engineering | 84 |
| 6 | US20110214728A1 | Electronic devices including transparent conductive coatings including carbon nanotubes and nanowire composit… | 77 |
| 7 | US20100137902A1 | Bioadhesive constructs | 69 |
| 8 | US20110014258A1 | Gradient coating for biomedical applications | 58 |
| 9 | US20140193499A1 | Bioactive glass composition, its applications and respective preparation methods | 57 |
| 10 | US20100137903A1 | Bioadhesive constructs | 56 |
Citation counts favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current commercial importance.
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 Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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 data says
Three read-throughs from the concentration figures, the class mix and the filing curve.
Concentration
27.8% / 46.3%
share of 406 records held by top 5 / top 10
The top of the field is contested, not owned
The five leading assignees together hold 27.8% of all 406 records, and the leading ten hold 46.3%. That leaves more than half the corpus spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants — a field with room for a new entrant to build a defensible position rather than one already locked up by an incumbent.
Based on the full 100-company ranking returned by the dataset.
Class mix
61.1% vs 11.8%
A61L share vs A61F share of 406 records
Sterilising claims outweigh implant-specific claims by more than 5:1
A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) appears in 61.1% of records, while A61F (implants and prostheses specifically) appears in only 11.8%. Most of the claim activity in this dataset is really about the antimicrobial or disinfecting function riding on the coating, not the implant geometry itself.
Classes overlap; shares are against the 406-record total, not against each other.
Momentum
19 → 7 (2021–2024)
published records, top-line filing count
Filing activity has genuinely thinned since its 2019 peak
From a peak of 31 published records in 2019, activity fell to 19 in 2021 and to 7 by 2024 — a 63% drop across that span. Because 2025–2026 data is still incomplete under the publication lag, this reading should stop at 2024 rather than be extended into the most recent years shown on the chart.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
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 orthopedic implant coatings, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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
Leading assignees and where they sit
The leader in this ranking holds 30 records, with fifth place at 18 and tenth place at 13 — a gradual taper rather than a cliff. Recent-year momentum across the assignees tracked here shows zero new records in the latest year across the board, consistent with the broader publication-lag effect rather than a sign these organisations have stopped filing.
Leader
30
records
A single leader, no runaway dominance
The top-ranked assignee holds 30 of the 406 records in scope. That is a meaningful lead over fifth place (18) and tenth place (13), but nowhere near the majority share that would signal a locked-up field.
Ranking covers 100 companies returned by the data endpoint.
Mid-field
18 → 13
records, fifth to tenth place
A gradual taper from fifth to tenth
The drop from fifth place (18 records) to tenth place (13) is gentle compared with the gap to the leader, suggesting a cluster of similarly sized filers just below the top of the ranking rather than a sharp cutoff.
Figures are record counts, not families outside this ranking.
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee pairings identified
Co-filing is limited and concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest of them is far ahead of the others — a research-institute and foundation pairing that co-files considerably more often than any other pair identified. Most organisations in this space file alone.
Counts reflect shared-record pairings, not total collaboration activity.
Recent-year filing momentum
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Guardian Industries Corp | 0 | — |
| Promimic AB | 0 | — |
| Smith & Nephew Inc | 0 | — |
| Molnlycke Health Care AB | 0 | — |
| AMSilk GmbH | 0 | — |
| Fundacio Institut d'Investigacio Biomedica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL) | 0 | — |
| Institut Quimic de Sarria CETS Fundacio Privada | 0 | — |
| Duke University | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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
What's next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a field with open mid-tier positions and several thinly claimed technical branches rather than one locked up by a single owner.
Map the white space before drafting
The gap between the 61.1% A61L share and the 11.8% A61F share suggests implant-specific adhesion and wear claims are comparatively open even where antimicrobial coating language is dense.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the mid-field, not just the leader
With fifth place at 18 records and tenth at 13, several organisations are close enough in filing volume that a shift in strategy by any one of them could reorder the ranking.
Track assignee movement in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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 orthopedic implant coating patents
This dataset identifies 406 published records matched against implant coating, antibacterial coating and osteoconductive coating search terms combined with technical qualifiers like silver release, hydroxyapatite layer and biofilm inhibition. The assignee ranking behind the page also covers 406 records across 100 ranked companies. Because the search string is scoped to specific technical language, the true worldwide family count for the broader field of orthopedic implant coatings is almost certainly larger than what this particular scope captures.
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 30 records, with a gradual taper down to 18 at fifth place and 13 at tenth. The five leading assignees combined hold 27.8% of all 406 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees hold 46.3% — concentration exists at the top but it is not dominated by a single company. Below the top ten, filing activity spreads across a long tail of organisations with only a handful of records each.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 31 published records and has since declined; between 2021 and 2024 alone, published records fell 63%, from 19 to 7. However, because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the years 2025 and 2026 in this dataset are still filling in and should not be read as evidence that the technology itself has stalled. The safest read is that 2024 is the most recent year with a complete-enough picture to draw a trend conclusion from.
Sterilising and disinfecting claims under IPC class A61L are by far the largest category, appearing in 61.1% of the 406 records in scope. Medicinal-preparation claims (A61K) and general coatings, paints and inks claims (C09D) follow at 19.7% and 15.3% respectively, while implant-and-prostheses-specific claims under A61F sit at only 11.8%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as independent measures of how often each class appears, not as parts of a whole.
EP3381480B1, assigned to DePuy Synthes Products and granted on 2022-05-25, claims an orthopedic implant carrying a crystalline, gallium-containing hydroxyapatite coating along with a method for producing that coating. It is a useful representative filing for this landscape because it sits directly in the osteoconductive-coating and hydroxyapatite-layer language that defines the dataset's search scope. Anyone designing a gallium-doped or similarly modified hydroxyapatite coating for orthopedic use should review its specific claim language before finalising a coating composition or deposition method.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Orthopedic Implant Coatings 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.