Fastest
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/respiratory-humidification-and-circuits-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Respiratory TherapyRespiratory humidification and breathing circuit patents: concentration, trend and white space
- 96.4% of the field sits with five assignees. 822 of 853 records in scope belong to the top five filers, leaving almost no room for a mid-tier challenger to build a comparable position from scratch.
- Filing has cooled since the 2020 peak. Annual filings ran from 77 at the 2020 peak down to 17 in 2024, a -50% swing from 2021's 34 filings, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under publication lag.
- A61M dominates; heating and control classes trail far behind. 93.3% of records carry an A61M body-fluid device class, while electric heating circuits (H05B) and temperature measurement (G01K) each sit under 6%, pointing to where claim density is thin.
853
Published Records
96%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-50%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
EP
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (34 records) with 2024 (17) — 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 853 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Respiratory humidification and breathing circuit patents cover the hardware and control logic that keeps gas delivered to a ventilated or CPAP patient at a workable temperature and humidity: heated-wire circuits, heat-and-moisture exchangers, condensate management, and the sensing that ties absolute humidity and circuit compliance back to a control loop. The dataset in scope spans 853 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search built around these mechanisms rather than a single product category. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years of the trend will fill in further as more applications publish.
The record set is heavily weighted toward one lineage of hardware, evident both in the assignee concentration and in the tight clustering of IPC classes around A61M. Newer branches such as flow and volume measurement and material analysis and testing appear as secondary classes rather than as standalone filing clusters, which is where the openings in this landscape tend to sit.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 853-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual filings rose to a peak of 77 in 2020, then eased to 17 by 2024, a -50% move from the 34 filings recorded in 2021. 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 5 so far) are undercounts still catching up with the publication lag rather than evidence of a stalled field.
IPC subclass composition
A61M (devices for body fluids) appears in 93.3% of the 853 records, far ahead of F24F air conditioning and ventilation (10.3%) and G01F flow measurement (9.3%). Because a record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read against the 853-record total, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 853 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 Respiratory Humidification and Circuits covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about respiratory humidification and circuits and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
Most-cited records and a recent grant
Recently Granted
EP3760265B1 — Breathing and humidification system
FISHER & PAYKEL HEALTHCARE LIMITED
Granted to Fisher & Paykel Healthcare on 2025-08-20, this record sits inside the same A61M-dominated cluster that defines the field and illustrates how recent grants continue to build on the incumbent's existing circuit and humidification architecture.Title as filed: "BEATMUNGS- UND BEFEUCHTUNGSSYSTEM"
Most-cited records in the dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6918389B2 | Breathing assistance apparatus | 321 |
| 2 | US6272933B1 | Respiratory humidification system | 315 |
| 3 | US6349722B1 | Respiratory humidification system | 300 |
| 4 | US7428902B2 | Humidifier system for artificial respiration | 252 |
| 5 | US20010050080A1 | Breathing assistance apparatus | 216 |
| 6 | US6584972B2 | Respiratory humidification system | 190 |
| 7 | US5775325A | Two part closed tracheal suction system | 174 |
| 8 | US7146979B2 | Humidifier with parallel gas flow paths | 160 |
| 9 | US20040079370A1 | Respiratory humidification system | 150 |
| 10 | US6694974B1 | Respiratory humidification system | 147 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations; treat the ranking as a signal of influence, not of current commercial weight.
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 Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Insights
What the concentration and trend data mean for strategy
The numbers point to a field with one dominant filer, a cooling but not dead filing rate, and a technology base clustered tightly around a single IPC subclass.
Concentration
96.4%
of 853 records held by top 5
One assignee sets the terms
The leading assignee alone accounts for 797 of the 853 records in scope, with the remaining top-five filers adding little beyond that. A new entrant is not competing against a diffuse field; it is filing around one company's existing claim map.
Based on the assignee ranking of 100 companies
Filing momentum
-50%
2021 to 2024 filings
Activity has eased from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 77 in 2020 and had fallen to 17 by 2024, a -50% move from the 34 filed in 2021. That is a genuine slowdown in the years that have finished publishing, not a claim that the field has gone quiet in 2025-2026.
2024 is the most recent complete filing year
Technology spread
93.3%
of records carry A61M
Claim space is dense in body-fluid devices, thin elsewhere
A61M appears in the overwhelming majority of records, while H05B electric heating circuits and G01K temperature measurement sit under 6% each. That gap is where control and sensing claims have room to be written without colliding with the core A61M art.
Classes overlap; shares are against the 853-record total
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 respiratory humidification and circuits, with the prior art for and against each one.
Co-filing pattern
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| OOSTHUYSEN HELGARD | WILSON MATTHEW ROBERT | 17 |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | OOSTHUYSEN HELGARD | 13 |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | WILSON MATTHEW ROBERT | 10 |
| LIU PO YEN | SEEKUP PETER ALAN | 10 |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | MILLAR GAVIN WALSH | 9 |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | BUSWELL MATTHEW LIAM | 9 |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | BARKER DEAN ANTONY | 9 |
| OOSTHUYSEN HELGARD | TONKIN PAUL JAMES | 9 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing links two individual inventors rather than two companies, suggesting most of the field's IP is held and prosecuted by a single organisation rather than built through joint filings.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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
Players
Who holds the ground, and where it is open
The assignee ranking is dominated by one company, with the rest of the ranked leaders holding a long tail of single-digit filing counts.
Incumbent
797 records
leading assignee
The dominant filer sets the baseline art
With 797 of 853 records, the leading assignee's portfolio functions as the prior art baseline for nearly any new humidification or breathing-circuit filing. Its most recent-year momentum shows a -71% year-on-year drop, consistent with the field-wide slowdown rather than a retreat from the space.
Recent-year momentum: -71% YoY for the leader
Long tail
5 records
fifth-ranked assignee
A steep drop-off after the leader
Fifth place holds 5 records and tenth place holds 3, meaning nearly all of the remaining ranked leaders are single or low-digit filers. This is a field where a handful of individual inventors and small filers hold narrow, specific claims rather than broad platforms.
Tenth place: 3 records
Co-filing
10 pairs
co-assignee pairs
Inventor-led co-filing, not corporate alliances
The strongest co-assignee pairing (17 shared records) links two named inventors rather than two companies, and the next two strongest pairs both include the leading assignee alongside one of those inventors. Collaboration in this dataset looks like inventor-to-employer filing, not cross-company joint ventures.
Strongest pair: 17 shared records
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited | 5 | -71% |
| Fisher & Paykel Appliances Limited | 0 | — |
| OOSTHUYSEN HELGARD | 0 | — |
| WILSON MATTHEW ROBERT | 0 | — |
| SMITH MALCOLM DAVID | 0 | — |
| LIU PO YEN | 0 | — |
| SEEKUP PETER ALAN | 0 | — |
| TONKIN PAUL JAMES | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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 analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated field with specific openings rather than a wide-open market; the next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or new filing.
Map claims against the leading assignee's portfolio
With one filer holding 797 of 853 records, any freedom-to-operate review should start by mapping proposed claims directly against that portfolio rather than the field as a whole.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest claim language in the under-claimed classes
H05B and G01K classes carry low record shares relative to A61M; drafting claims that sit primarily in those classes may face less crowded prior art.
Run a claim search in EurekaTrack the 2025-2026 filings as they publish
The most recent two years remain undercounted due to publication lag; revisit the trend once 2025 filings finish publishing to see whether the slowdown from 2024 continues.
Set up a monitoring alert in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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 about this landscape
One assignee holds 797 of the 853 records in scope, making it the clear leader by a wide margin. The next four ranked leaders together bring the top-five combined total to 822 records, or 96.4% of all records in scope. Beyond that, the ranking falls off quickly: fifth place holds 5 records and tenth place holds only 3, so most of the remaining ranked companies are low-volume filers rather than active competitors to the leader.
Filing peaked at 77 records in 2020 and has since declined, falling to 17 by 2024, a -50% drop from the 34 filed in 2021. That is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete count. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine collapse in activity, so those final years should not be read as confirming the slowdown continued.
A61M, the IPC subclass covering devices for introducing media into or onto the body, appears in 93.3% of the 853 records in scope, making it by far the dominant classification. Air conditioning and ventilation (F24F) and flow measurement (G01F) trail well behind at 10.3% and 9.3% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should each be read against the 853-record total rather than against one another.
The secondary IPC classes with the lowest record shares are the clearest signal of open claim space: H05B electric heating circuits sits at 5.7% and G01K temperature measurement at just 2.0%, both far below the dominant A61M class. That gap suggests sensing and control claims tied to humidification, such as absolute humidity feedback loops or circuit compliance monitoring, are comparatively under-claimed relative to the core hardware. A first claim there would need to sit outside the dominant assignee's existing A61M architecture to have room to stand.
EP3760265B1 is a breathing and humidification system granted to Fisher & Paykel Healthcare on 2025-08-20, filed under the German title "BEATMUNGS- UND BEFEUCHTUNGSSYSTEM". It matters less as an isolated grant and more as evidence that the dominant assignee continues to secure new claims inside the same A61M-heavy architecture that already defines most of the 853-record dataset. Anyone drafting in this space should check new claims against this and other recent grants from the same assignee before assuming a gap is genuinely open.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Respiratory Humidification and Circuits 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
Research Respiratory Humidification and Circuits in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole respiratory humidification and circuits corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.