Pacemaker Battery & Lead Monitoring Patent Snapshot
This is a highly concentrated, mature niche in which Medtronic commands an outsized share of activity among the largest filers, with the United States as the primary filing jurisdiction. Annual volume has eased back from its 2017 peak, signaling a field that has moved past its peak innovation phase.
Medtronic leads a tightly held field with limited new entrants
Medtronic holds the top position among all ranked filers, followed by LivaNova USA and Cardiac Pacemakers. The top five filers collectively account for 91% of the combined patent records across the ranked applicants visible in this query — an exceptionally high concentration by any standard.
The gap between the leader and the rest is substantial: Medtronic’s count is more than double that of the second-ranked LivaNova USA and nearly triple that of third-ranked Cardiac Pacemakers. Below the top tier, most players appear with only one or two patent records each, confirming a steep drop-off.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medtronic Inc | 25 | |
| 2 | LivaNova USA Inc | 10 | |
| 3 | Cardiac Pacemakers Inc | 9 | |
| 4 | LivaNova PLC | 3 | |
| 5 | Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc | 2 | |
| 6 | BIOTRONIK SE & CO KG | 1 | |
| 7 | Pacesetter Inc | 1 | |
| 8 | Siemens AG | 1 | |
| 9 | Siemens Elema AB | 1 | |
| 10 | Medalert | 1 |
Medtronic’s dominance implies that any challenger seeking to operate in this space must either design around a well-entrenched portfolio or identify adjacent technical angles that the leader has not prioritized — particularly in diagnostics and healthcare informatics, where its relative concentration is lower.
Filings from approximately 2024 onward are subject to publication lag and likely undercount actual activity; trend readings for those years should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Peak activity was in 2017; technology mix is anchored in electrotherapy
Two charts frame the field: how annual filing volume has moved over time, and how the underlying technology branches are distributed across the corpus.
Annual filing trend
Filing volume peaked in 2017 and has trended lower in subsequent years, consistent with a field in decline. Years 2024–2026 reflect publication lag and should not be read as the final count for those periods; actual activity may be higher than shown.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
Electrotherapy and radiation therapy (A61N) is visible in the technology mix, reflecting the core stimulation and pulse-delivery function of pacemakers. Diagnosis and surgery (A61B) and healthcare informatics (G16H) appear as secondary branches, with G16H representing the smallest share — suggesting that software-driven remote monitoring and data analytics remain comparatively under-developed relative to the hardware-centric core.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Leadless cardiac pacemaker providing cardiac resyn…
Methods, systems and devices for providing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) to a patient using a leadless cardiac pacemaker (LCP) implanted in or proximate the left ventricle of a patient. A setup phase is used to establish parameters in the therapy delivery. In operation, the method and/or device will sense at least one non-paced cardiac cycle to… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Automatic electrode configuration of an implantabl… | 354 |
| 2 | Cardiac pacemaker with auto-capture function | 337 |
| 3 | Pacemaker implant recognition | 250 |
| 4 | Atrial synchronized ventricular pacing system usin… | 149 |
| 5 | Combined vagus-phrenic nerve stimulation device | 65 |
| 6 | LCP based predictive timing for cardiac resynchron… | 33 |
| 7 | Leadless pacemaker using pressure measurements for… | 25 |
| 8 | Cardiac pacer and monitor system | 17 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Medtronic
Medtronic leads with 25 patent records, concentrated almost entirely in A61N electrotherapy with a secondary presence in A61B diagnostics. Its momentum has declined by approximately 45% in the recent period versus the prior three years, consistent with the field’s broader maturation. Its portfolio depth in core pacing and lead-monitoring functions means that new entrants must navigate substantial prior art before securing meaningful claims.
patent records: 25LivaNova USA
LivaNova USA is a new entrant in the recent period with 10 patent records and a notably different technology mix: it combines A61N electrotherapy filings with a significant presence in G16H healthcare informatics, spanning both G16H20 and G16H40 sub-classes. This informatics emphasis — largely absent from Medtronic’s visible portfolio in this scope — positions LivaNova as the player most actively exploring software and data-management dimensions of pacemaker monitoring.
patent records: 10Frequently asked questions
The analysis covers 39 patent families in the pacemaker battery and lead monitoring space globally.
Medtronic is the top filer, holding 25 patent records among the ranked applicants — more than double the count of the second-ranked filer, LivaNova USA.
The field is classified as Decline, with annual filing volume having eased back from its 2017 peak. This indicates the core technology is mature and that incremental hardware-focused filings face a dense prior-art environment.
The United States is by far the leading jurisdiction, followed by the European Patent Office and WIPO (PCT) routes. Austria (AT) appears as a minor additional destination, suggesting international coverage is narrower than the US focus.
No co-applicant filings are recorded in the evidence for this scope. All activity has been conducted by individual companies operating independently, with no joint ventures or academic co-filings identified.
Healthcare informatics (G16H) and diagnostic signal processing (A61B) are the two smallest branches in the technology composition. Only LivaNova USA has a notable G16H footprint among the top filers, suggesting that remote monitoring and data analytics dimensions of pacemaker management are less developed in the patent record than core electrotherapy hardware.
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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.