Sample Tracking Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Sample tracking and laboratory information patents: who holds the ground and where it opens up
16.8% concentration at the top. The five most active assignees combined account for 353 of 2,107 records in scope — a leader well ahead of the field but no single company close to dominant. Annual filings rose from 124 in 2017 to a peak of 243 in 2025 before the partial 2026 count of 97. The 2021-to-2024 window, the last stretch that can be read as complete, moved from 158 to 149 records — a -6% shift that is better described as a plateau than a downturn, since 2025 and 2026 are still accumulating publications.
- 1METHODICAL MIND LLC5.1%
- 2EORIGINAL INC4.7%
- 3NANT HOLDINGS IP LLC2.7%
- 4INTRALINKS INC2.3%
- 5VENTANA MEDICAL SYSTEMS INC1.9%
See the full sample tracking and laboratory information analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in sample tracking and laboratory information management?
The dataset ranks 100 companies by patent family count, with the leading assignee holding 107 records against 40 at fifth place and 28 at tenth. The top 5 combined account for 16.8% of all 2,107 records in scope, and the top 10 for 24.5%, which means that even the most active filers leave the large majority of the field to a long tail of smaller entrants. No single company controls the space outright, so a freedom-to-operate check needs to look well past the first few names.
Is patent filing in this space growing or slowing down?
Filings moved from 158 in 2021 to 149 in 2024, a modest -6% over that span, which reads as a plateau rather than a clear decline. The apparent peak of 243 in 2025 and the lower partial count of 97 in 2026 should be treated cautiously, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months and those years are still being filled in. The safest complete-year comparison currently available is the 2021-to-2024 window.
What technology areas get the most patent claims in this field?
G06F (electric digital data processing) covers 45.8% of the 2,107 records, followed by G06Q (business and admin data processing) at 36.6% and H04L (digital information transmission) at 31.6%. Healthcare informatics (G16H) and material analysis and testing (G01N) are much smaller at 14.3% and 6.8% respectively. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than summing to 100%, and they show that most protected work here is software and workflow-oriented rather than physical-handling-oriented.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sample Tracking and Laboratory Information covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.