Polymeric Heart Valve Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 59.4% of records sit with five assignees, and the top ten account for 94.3% of all 106 records in scope — this is a concentrated field, not a fragmented one.
- Filings fell 50% from 2021 to 2024, the last year the data can be read as complete, after peaking in 2018 at 15 records.
- A61F and A61L cover the bulk of activity, at 65.1% and 62.3% of records respectively, while shaping and moulding classes stay in single digits — a sign that material-processing claims remain comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (10 records) with 2024 (5) — 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 106 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Polymeric heart valve materials sit at the intersection of implant design and polymer science: leaflet and sleeve materials engineered for thrombogenicity, calcification resistance, stress relaxation under cyclic loading, and manufacturing repeatability at scale. The 106 records in scope span siloxane polyurethane chemistries, spun or moulded leaflet constructions, and the preclinical testing regimes used to validate them before a device reaches human trials.
Filing activity runs from 2015 through the middle of 2026, with the most recent one or two years understated because publication typically lags filing by roughly eighteen months. Reading the trend against 2024 rather than the tail years avoids mistaking a data-cutoff artifact for a real slowdown.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 106 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how activity splits across IPC subclasses. Class shares are calculated against the full record count, and because a single record can carry several classes, the shares sum to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Volume peaked at 15 records in 2018, climbed back to 10 in 2021, then declined to 5 by 2024 — a 50% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to fill in as publications catch up with filings.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Implants and prostheses (A61F, 65.1% of records) and sterilising and disinfecting (A61L, 62.3%) dominate. Shaping of plastics (B29C, 13.2%), medicinal preparations (A61K, 8.5%) and man-made filament spinning (D01D, 6.6%) trail well behind, marking the processing and fiber-forming side of the field as comparatively under-filed relative to the device and treatment claims above it.
Shares are the percentage of the 106 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polymeric Heart Valve Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polymeric heart valve materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this field
Polymeric heart valve system and methods of making and using thereof (US20250161033A1)
Polymeric heart valve systems having a supportive frame embedded in a polymeric sleeve and a plurality of polymeric leaflets forming a continuum with the polymeric sleeve are described herein. The polymeric leaflets are designed to possess variable thickness throughout and typically are formed having a semi-open profile to reduce stress. Methods of making and using such polymeric heart valve systems are also described.Filed by The Research Foundation for the State University of New York; published 2025-05-22.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5562729A | Heart valve | 363 |
| 2 | US20140005772A1 | Prosthetic heart valve formation | 114 |
| 3 | US20150196688A1 | Glycosaminoglycan and Synthetic Polymer Material for Blood-Contacting Applications | 96 |
| 4 | US9056006B2 | Prosthetic heart valve formation | 60 |
| 5 | US10433955B2 | Prosthetic heart valve formation | 47 |
| 6 | US9814572B2 | Prosthetic heart valve formation | 47 |
| 7 | US20190374213A1 | Ductus sede-entry and prosthetic disorder response systems | 39 |
| 8 | US20140303724A1 | Polymeric heart valve | 34 |
| 9 | WO2014008207A1 | Prosthetic heart valve formation | 32 |
| 10 | EP3157467B1 | A process of manufacturing a heart valve made of a polymeric material and the heart valve thereby obtained | 25 |
Citation counts favour older filings inside any searched corpus — they mark historical influence on later filings, not necessarily current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and citation data indicate
The ranking, the receiving-office split and the citation table together point to a field where a handful of institutional filers set the terms of engagement, and where the highest-value prior art predates most current applicants.
A narrow leading group, not a fragmented field
With the leader alone holding 18 records and the top ten reaching 94.3% of all records in scope, new entrants are filing into space already staked out by a small group of universities, research foundations and device makers rather than into open ground.
Foundational prior art sits early and deep
The most-cited record, a heart valve patent, draws more than three times the citations of the next entry. Freedom-to-operate work in this space has to clear a citation graph anchored by a small number of very old, very heavily cited documents before newer leaflet-material claims come into view.
Filing strategy centres on the US and Europe
The United States and the European Patent Office together account for the majority of receiving-office activity, with WIPO PCT filings a distant third. Germany, Austria and India appear as secondary jurisdictions, suggesting most applicants are protecting core markets rather than filing broadly.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polymeric heart valve materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
Forty assignees appear in the ranking that the data endpoint returns for this search — this is the complete ranked set, not a top-50 or top-100 cut. Activity is heavily front-loaded: the leader files nearly double the fifth-place count, and the gap widens further by tenth place.
A clear single leader
The top-ranked assignee holds 18 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 10 and the tenth-place holder at 6 — a steep drop-off rather than a gradual one.
Clustered co-development ties
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, with one applicant repeatedly co-filing alongside the same small set of partner organisations — a pattern consistent with a coordinated device-development programme rather than incidental collaboration.
Leading filers have gone quiet recently
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year captured. Given publication lag, this likely reflects filings still working through the pipeline rather than an actual halt in R&D — but it means the visible leaderboard understates who is active today.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado State University Research Foundation | 0 | — |
| INNOVATIONS FOR HEART & VESSELS | 0 | — |
| Boston Scientific Corporation | 0 | — |
| Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council) | 0 | — |
| Humanitas Mirasole S.p.A. | 0 | — |
| ZAKAD DOSWIADCZALNY INSTU ZOOTECHN PANSTWOWY INST BADAWCZY GRODZIEC SLASKI SP ZOO | 0 | — |
| HEART TEAM SP ZOO | 0 | — |
| AMERICAN HEART OF POLAND SPOKA AKCYJNA | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated core and a thinner processing layer around it. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new filing strategy.
Map claims against the leading assignees
Start with the top five assignees' full claim sets before drafting into leaflet-material or calcification-resistance space, since they cover 59.4% of all records.
Explore assignee claim maps in EurekaTest white-space chips against live filings
Run the under-claimed sub-areas — spinning processes, variable-thickness profiles, surface treatments — against recent publications to confirm they remain open before committing R&D budget.
Search white space in EurekaTrack the momentum gap
Every leading assignee shows zero filings in the latest tracked year; watching publication catch-up over the next 12-18 months will show whether leadership is shifting.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 40 assignees, and it is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee holds 18 records, compared with 10 at fifth place and 6 at tenth place. Together the top five account for 59.4% of all 106 records in scope, and the top ten reach 94.3%. That means most of the field's claim space is already staked out by a small group of universities, research foundations and device companies rather than spread thinly across many independent filers.
Filings peaked at 15 records in 2018, and the most recent complete year of data shows a 50% decline from 10 records in 2021 to 5 in 2024. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in the raw trend are still filling in and should not be read as evidence of a continued drop. The honest read is a real decline through 2024, with the very latest years simply too new to judge yet.
Implants and prostheses (IPC class A61F) appear in 65.1% of the 106 records, and sterilising and disinfecting (A61L) appears in 62.3% — the two largest categories by a wide margin. Shaping of plastics, medicinal preparations and man-made filament spinning each appear in under 15% of records, which points to leaflet and sleeve manufacturing processes as comparatively less claimed than the device and treatment side of the technology.
The thinnest filing density sits in the plastics-processing and fiber-forming classes: shaping of plastics, plastics moulding materials, plastic products, and man-made filament spinning all sit under 14% of records, against implant and sterilisation classes above 60%. Specific candidates include siloxane-polyurethane leaflet spinning methods, variable-thickness leaflet profiles, and manufacturing-repeatability process controls, each of which appears in the evidence as a described technique rather than a heavily claimed one.
Citation counts inside any searched patent corpus tend to favour older documents simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations, so a high count signals historical influence rather than current commercial importance. The most-cited record in this dataset draws 363 citations, several times more than the next entries, which is consistent with an early, foundational filing rather than a recently active one. Use citation rank to understand what shaped the field's prior art, and pair it with recent filing and assignee data before drawing conclusions about who matters today.
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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.