Portable Ultrasound Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One company holds 14 of 23 records in scope, with the remaining four ranked assignees splitting the rest of a field that never grew wide.
- Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 8 records and 2021-to-2024 filings show a -100% swing, though the two most recent years are still filling in under publication lag.
- 95.7% of records sit in A61B diagnosis and surgery, leaving adjacent classes like data processing and healthcare informatics claimed by only one record each.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (0) — 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 23 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing handheld and point-of-care ultrasound devices where the claims engage practical constraints: probe power consumption, thermal limits, image quality tradeoffs, wireless transfer, battery life, or user guidance software. These are the engineering compromises that separate a device that works on a cart from one that works in a clinician’s hand for a full shift. 23 published records fall within scope for the 2015-2026 window.
The field is small and concentrated rather than sprawling. A single leader accounts for more than half the record set, and the technology composition shows most activity clustered in one IPC subclass, which makes the remaining classes worth a closer look for anyone deciding where a new filing might actually clear prior art.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 23-record set: how filings moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing activity peaked early, then thinned out
Filings rose to a peak of 8 in 2019, then fell sharply; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a -100% change on the figures in scope. Treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted rather than as evidence of a stalled field, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Diagnosis and surgery claims dominate
A61B covers 95.7% of the 23 records, far ahead of any other subclass. Material analysis (G01N) and mechanical supports (F16M) each cover a modest fraction, while dentistry, electric measurement, positioning, data processing and healthcare informatics each appear in a single record — an indicator of how little of the adjacent claim space has been staked out.
Shares are the percentage of the 23 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Portable and Handheld Ultrasound Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about portable and handheld ultrasound systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this field
Handheld Ultrasound Device and Replaceable Tips Therefor
Handheld ultrasound devices and replaceable tips for such devices are provided. For example, a handheld ultrasound device comprises a handle and a tip that includes a sensor for transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves. The handle and the tip may be a single, integral, unit or the tip may be separable from the handle. In either embodiment, the handle and tip together are a fully self-contained unit. Also provided are handheld ultrasound sterile assemblies, comprising a handheld ultrasound device and a sheath that fully covers the device to provide a sterile barrier for the device.Filed by Remington Medical; published 2019-12-12.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20230101257A1 | Handheld ultrasound scanner with display retention and associated devices, systems, and methods | 10 |
| 2 | US20190374201A1 | Handheld Ultrasound Device and Replaceable Tips Therefor | 9 |
| 3 | US20170049339A1 | Mobile System For Comprehensive Medical Examination | 8 |
| 4 | US20210282747A1 | Acquisition workflow and status indicators in a handheld medical scanning device | 7 |
| 5 | US20190374199A1 | Handheld Ultrasound Device and Replaceable Tips Therefor | 7 |
| 6 | US20190374200A1 | Handheld Ultrasound Device and Replaceable Tips Therefor | 5 |
| 7 | WO2021175895A1 | Handheld ultrasound scanner with display retention and associated devices, systems, and methods | 4 |
| 8 | WO2020016069A1 | Acquisition workflow and status indicators in a handheld medical scanning device | 4 |
| 9 | US12059298B2 | Acquisition workflow and status indicators in a handheld medical scanning device | 2 |
| 10 | US20160190844A1 | Optimization of a battery driven ultrasound device | 2 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the record set that matter more than the raw counts.
The whole field sits with five companies
Every record in scope traces to one of five ranked assignees, with the leader alone holding 14. There is no long tail of small independent filers here to route around — freedom-to-operate analysis in this space is really an analysis of five companies' portfolios.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet on paper
Every ranked assignee shows zero filings in the latest complete year, and the 2021-to-2024 span shows a full reversal. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as a data-visibility gap for 2025-2026 rather than a confirmed slowdown in R&D.
Claims cluster in one subclass, leaving edges open
Diagnosis-and-surgery claims dominate, but subclasses like G06F (digital data processing) and G16H (healthcare informatics) each carry only one record. A device-level claim strategy built around workflow software or connectivity, rather than the transducer or handle itself, faces far less prior art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to portable and handheld ultrasound systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
A five-company field with one dominant filer and several under-claimed sub-areas that none of them has staked out yet.
One company holds the majority position
The leading assignee's 14 records outnumber the other four ranked assignees combined, concentrating both the prior art and the design-around burden on a single portfolio for anyone entering this space.
The rest of the field files thinly
Below the leader, filing counts drop quickly to single-digit and single-record positions. That pattern suggests smaller specialist entrants rather than a broad competitive race for this particular claim set.
US filing dominates, PCT and EPO trail
The United States accounts for the largest share of receiving-office filings, with WIPO (PCT), Europe and India each carrying a handful. A portfolio built for global reach in this field is still the exception rather than the rule.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) | 0 | -100% |
| REMINGTON MEDICAL | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| YOR LABS INC | 0 | — |
| RIJUVEN CORP | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated field with specific open branches — the next step is testing a draft claim against that white space.
Map a claim against the leader's portfolio
Run a full freedom-to-operate check against the 14-record leading portfolio before drafting anything in the A61B core, since that is where prior art density is highest.
Explore in EurekaDraft around the under-claimed branches
Sub-areas like guidance software and wireless transfer show only single-record coverage; a first-mover claim there faces far less crowded prior art than the transducer or handle mechanics.
Explore in EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 filing catch-up
Recent-year counts look flat only because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; revisit the trend once 2025 filings finish publishing before concluding the field has cooled.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on handheld ultrasound patents
Within this dataset of 23 published records, one assignee holds 14 of them, making it the clear leader by a wide margin. The remaining four ranked assignees hold far smaller counts, down to a single record for the fifth-ranked company. This concentration means any competitive or freedom-to-operate review in this space should start with that leading portfolio rather than treating the field as fragmented.
Filing peaked at 8 records in 2019 and the 2021-to-2024 span shows a -100% change on the figures currently in scope. However, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the low counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are very likely undercounted rather than a genuine drop in activity. A fair read is that the field cooled through the early 2020s, with the most recent picture still incomplete.
This Remington Medical filing covers a handheld ultrasound device with a handle and a replaceable, sensor-bearing tip, plus sterile-barrier sheath assemblies for the device. It is one of the more heavily cited records in this dataset, cited 9 times. Anyone designing a device with a detachable or replaceable transducer tip and an integrated sterile cover should review its claim scope closely, since that combination sits close to the filing's core claims.
The technology composition shows 95.7% of the 23 records sitting in the A61B diagnosis-and-surgery subclass, while adjacent areas like healthcare informatics, digital data processing, and electric measurement each carry only a single record. That imbalance points to guidance software, wireless image transfer, and battery-management logic as areas with thinner prior art than the core transducer and handle mechanics. A claim built around workflow or connectivity features, rather than the physical probe, is likely to face a less crowded field.
Five assignees account for the entire 23-record dataset in scope, led by one company holding 14 records. The other four hold progressively smaller shares, with the smallest ranked assignee holding just one record. This is a small, concentrated field rather than one with a long tail of independent filers, so competitive monitoring can reasonably focus on this short list.
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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.