Pacemaker Remote Monitoring & Telemetry Patent Landscape
The pacemaker remote monitoring and telemetry space is a mature, highly concentrated field with 91 patent families on record, dominated by a small group of established cardiac device manufacturers. The field reached a peak in 2022 and has since plateaued, with the United States remaining the primary filing jurisdiction by a substantial margin.
Pacesetter leads a tightly held field with five players controlling nearly half of the top-100 filers’ output
Pacesetter Inc holds the top position with the largest share among all ranked applicants, followed by Biotronik SE & Co KG and Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc. The top five filers together account for 49% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, signaling a high-concentration competitive structure.
The tier gap between first and fifth place is pronounced: Pacesetter Inc’s patent record count is more than double that of Medtronic Inc at rank five, indicating a two-tier structure of dominant incumbents and secondary challengers with meaningfully smaller portfolios.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pacesetter Inc | 23 | |
| 2 | BIOTRONIK SE & CO KG | 17 | |
| 3 | Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc | 16 | |
| 4 | Cardiac Pacemakers Inc | 13 | |
| 5 | Medtronic Inc | 9 | |
| 6 | Impulse Dynamics NV | 7 | |
| 7 | Sun Medical Sci Shanghai | 5 | |
| 8 | Cirtec Medical Corp | 4 | |
| 9 | Stimwave Technologies Inc | 4 | |
| 10 | Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corp | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Beijing Anzhen Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University | 2 | |
| 12 | GLA University Mathura | 2 | |
| 13 | Thompson David L | 2 | |
| 14 | University of South Florida | 2 | |
| 15 | Draeger Medical Systems Inc | 2 | |
| 16 | Hettrick Douglas A | 2 | |
| 17 | Markowitz H Toby | 2 | |
| 18 | Sheldon Todd J | 2 | |
| 19 | Wanasek Kevin A | 2 | |
| 20 | Ghanem Raja N | 2 |
The sustained concentration around a handful of large cardiac-device incumbents suggests that foundational telemetry IP is well-defended. New entrants seeking freedom to operate must either design around core implant-communication and antenna architectures or focus on adjacent application layers such as healthcare informatics or wireless protocol stacks.
Filing counts for the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and likely understate actual activity; the apparent softness in 2023–2026 data should not be read as a structural change in competitive intent.
Activity peaked in 2022 and has plateaued; electrotherapy dominates the technology mix with informatics and wireless as thin adjacent branches
The annual filing trend reveals a field that built momentum through the late 2010s and crested in 2022, while the technology composition chart shows overwhelming concentration in electrotherapy and diagnosis IPC classes, with healthcare informatics and wireless communication classes representing a comparatively thin share of the corpus.
Annual filing trend
Filings climbed from single digits in 2017–2019 to a clear peak in 2022, after which recorded activity fell sharply—though 2023–2026 figures are subject to publication lag and undercount recent filings. The overall picture is a field that expanded through the early 2020s and has since plateaued near its peak rather than entered a new growth phase.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
Electrotherapy and radiation therapy (A61N) accounts for the largest share of IPC classifications, followed at a distance by diagnosis and surgery (A61B). Healthcare informatics (G16H), wireless communication networks (H04W), and digital data processing (G06F) each represent small fractions, confirming that the bulk of inventive activity remains anchored in core device architecture rather than software or connectivity layers.
↗ 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.
Communication adapter and method for transferring …
A communication adapter and a computer implemented method for use with an implantable medical device, in particular a pacemaker, a defibrillator and/or a neuro-stimulator, for transferring data between the implantable medical device and a mobile device, in particular a smartphone or tablet computer. In addition, the invention relates to a protective case, a… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Implant with close and long-range telemetry | 407 |
| 2 | Apparatus and method for providing dual output sig… | 315 |
| 3 | Non-contact EKG | 276 |
| 4 | Transmitter of the telemetry device of an implant | 276 |
| 5 | External patient alerting system for implantable d… | 234 |
| 6 | Apparatus for the transmission of data in particul… | 184 |
| 7 | Apparatus and method for providing dual output sig… | 169 |
| 8 | Cardiac patient remote monitoring using multiple t… | 149 |
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.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural dimensions—life-cycle stage, concentration, collaboration patterns, and geographic footprint—each carry direct implications for where an entrant or challenger should focus engineering and IP resources.
Field is at maturity: annual volume has plateaued near its 2022 peak
The lifecycle assessment places pacemaker remote monitoring and telemetry firmly in the maturity stage, with annual filings having plateaued near their 2022 peak rather than continuing to climb. This implies that the lowest-hanging device-architecture claims are already filed, and incremental improvements to established implant telemetry designs face crowded prior art. R&D investment is most defensible in differentiated sub-areas—particularly software-defined monitoring, AI-driven diagnostics, or novel wireless protocols—where the prior-art density remains comparatively low.
Lifecycle: MaturityTop five filers hold 49% of the leading hundred applicants’ output
The five largest filers—Pacesetter Inc, Biotronik SE & Co KG, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc, and Medtronic Inc—collectively hold 49% of the combined patent records of the top hundred applicants. This level of concentration means that the primary incumbents set the freedom-to-operate contours for the entire field. Challengers with smaller portfolios, such as Impulse Dynamics NV at rank six, must build strategically around the dominant players’ core A61N and A61B claim clusters.
High concentrationLimited co-filing activity; Sorin CRM is the sole identified co-applicant hub
The collaboration data shows two joint filings, both involving Sorin CRM alongside the University of Western Brittany and the Regional University Hospital Centre of Brest respectively. This represents a very narrow ecosystem of recorded co-development, concentrated in a single European academic-industry pairing. For new entrants, the near-absence of broad cross-institutional co-filing suggests limited established consortium structures to join, but also that partnering with academic medical centers on connected-device or data-analytics work remains a relatively open pathway.
Low collaboration densityUS-centric filing with selective EPO and PCT coverage; Asia remains thin
The United States is the dominant filing jurisdiction, with Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT) providing the next tier of coverage. Australia and India appear as secondary markets, while China holds only a small number of records and Japan just one. This geographic distribution suggests that most incumbents treat the US as the primary battleground, with European patents providing supplementary protection. The relative thinness of Asian filing—particularly China—could represent either a strategic gap or a signal that incumbents are not yet prioritizing those markets for telemetry-specific IP.
US-dominant geographyGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Sorin CRM | University of Western Brittany | 1 |
| Sorin CRM | CENT HOSPITALER REGIONAL & UNIV DE BREST | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Pacesetter and Biotronik lead on volume; Biotronik and Impulse Dynamics show new-entrant momentum in the recent window
The two dominant positions in this landscape belong to long-established cardiac device companies with deep A61N electrotherapy portfolios. However, momentum data reveals a shift: Pacesetter’s recent filings have declined sharply from their earlier pace, while Biotronik and Impulse Dynamics have both entered the recent filing window as new contributors.
Pacesetter Inc
Pacesetter Inc holds the top position in the ranking with 23 patent records, concentrated in electrotherapy (A61N 1), diagnosis (A61B 5), and antenna-related (H01Q 1) classes. This breadth across device, diagnostic, and antenna IP indicates a portfolio built around the full implant communication stack. However, recent filing momentum shows a sharp decline of 83% versus the prior period, suggesting the company’s active prosecution focus may have shifted or slowed.
patent records: 23Biotronik SE & Co KG
Biotronik SE & Co KG ranks second with 17 patent records, focused almost entirely on electrotherapy (A61N 1) and diagnosis (A61B 5), with a small representation in digital data processing (G06F 13). The applicant momentum data classifies Biotronik as a new entrant in the recent filing window, indicating that its portfolio in this specific telemetry topic is actively growing from a recent starting point and warrants close monitoring for claim scope expansion.
patent records: 17| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Pacesetter Inc | 2 | ▼ -83% |
| Biotronik SE & Co KG | 13 | ▲ new entrant |
| Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc | 2 | ▼ -83% |
| Impulse Dynamics NV | 7 | ▲ new entrant |
| Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corp | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
Healthcare informatics and wireless networking are under-served branches adjacent to the dominant electrotherapy core
Relative to the dominant electrotherapy and diagnosis classes, several IPC branches appear sparsely populated within this corpus. These represent observations of low current filing density rather than validated commercial opportunities, though two carry plausible technical rationale for investment.
G16H · Healthcare informatics
Healthcare informatics (G16H) is the largest of the sparse adjacent branches, with 15 records representing roughly 6% of all IPC classifications in the corpus. Given the industry-wide push toward remote patient monitoring platforms, cloud-based alert systems, and interoperability with electronic health records, this branch has clear technical relevance to next-generation pacemaker telemetry. The entry path is plausible for software-oriented medical device companies or health IT firms that can integrate device-generated data streams into clinical workflow tools, an area where the dominant hardware incumbents have filed comparatively little.
Search this in Eureka →H04W · Wireless communication networks
Wireless communication networks (H04W) appear in only 4 records in this corpus, representing approximately 2% of all IPC classifications. As pacemakers increasingly rely on Bluetooth Low Energy, cellular, and other modern wireless standards for home monitoring and clinic follow-up, the underlying protocol and network-layer IP remains lightly filed in this specific topic space. This branch could be worth examining for companies developing the connectivity infrastructure—repeaters, gateways, or low-power wireless chipsets—that bridges implanted devices to remote monitoring systems, provided they can demonstrate novelty relative to the broader wireless communications prior art.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ in their technology route emphasis across IPC branches
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | A61N 1 · Electrotherapy & radiation therapy | A61B 5 · Diagnosis & surgery | G16H 40 · Healthcare informatics | A61M 21 · Devices for body fluids | G16H 20 · Healthcare informatics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacesetter Inc | Strong · 21 | Strong · 11 | Absent | Absent | Emerging · 1 |
| Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc | Strong · 16 | Absent | Emerging · 3 | Moderate · 7 | Emerging · 3 |
| Biotronik SE & Co KG | Strong · 16 | Moderate · 4 | Emerging · 1 | Absent | Absent |
| Cardiac Pacemakers Inc | Strong · 13 | Moderate · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Medtronic Inc | Strong · 9 | Absent | Emerging · 1 | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence corpus contains 91 patent families in scope for pacemaker remote monitoring and telemetry.
Pacesetter Inc holds the top position with 23 patent records, ahead of Biotronik SE & Co KG at 17 and Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc at 16.
The United States is the dominant filing jurisdiction, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT). China and Japan have comparatively few records in this corpus.
The field is assessed as being at maturity. Annual filings plateaued near their 2022 peak, and the recent-window growth rate is slightly negative at -3%, though the most recent 18–24 months of data are subject to publication lag.
Healthcare informatics (G16H) and wireless communication networks (H04W) are the most notable under-served adjacent branches, representing approximately 6% and 2% of IPC classifications in the corpus respectively, compared with the electrotherapy class (A61N) which dominates the technology mix.
Collaboration is limited. The evidence identifies only two co-filing pairs, both involving Sorin CRM alongside the University of Western Brittany and the Regional University Hospital Centre of Brest. No broader multi-party consortia are recorded in the corpus.
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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.
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