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/sequencing-flow-cells-and-surface-chemistry-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Sequencing Flow Cells & Surface ChemistrySequencing flow cell and surface chemistry patents: mapping who controls cluster generation and imaging
- 86.8% concentration. The top five assignees combined hold 2,067 of all 2,380 records in scope — filing here is not fragmented, it is a small group defending a large footprint.
- Filings cooled from a 2020 peak. Activity peaked at 329 records in 2020 and fell -54% from 287 in 2021 to 133 in 2024, the last year with complete publication data.
- C12Q dominates, but adjacent classes are thinner. 72.3% of records touch enzyme/DNA measurement (C12Q), while polymer chemistry (C08F) and combinatorial libraries (C40B) sit well under 10%.
2,380
Published Records
87%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-54%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (287 records) with 2024 (133) — 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 2,380 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families addressing sequencing flow cell design and surface chemistry — the substrates, patterned nanowells, surface primers and reagent-flow mechanics that determine cluster density and imaging-cycle throughput on next-generation sequencing instruments. The scope spans 2,380 published records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off, drawn from filings that combine flow-cell and cluster-generation language with surface-chemistry and imaging-cycle terms. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart understate real filing activity.
The dataset is built around patent families rather than raw document counts, which discounts the effect of continuations and multi-jurisdiction refiling by the same underlying invention. That matters here because a small number of assignees hold outsized portfolios, and family-level counting keeps the concentration figures from being inflated by defensive re-filing in a single family.
Records in scope by publication year
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,380 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 78 in 2017 to a peak of 329 in 2020, then declined -54% from 287 in 2021 to 133 in 2024 — the last year with complete publication data. 2025 and 2026 figures (13 in the most recent year) are still filling in and should not be read as a continued decline.
IPC subclass composition
C12Q (measuring and testing involving enzymes/DNA) covers 72.3% of the 2,380 records, far ahead of C12N (16.1%), G16B bioinformatics (14.5%) and G01N material analysis (13.5%). Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to well over 100% — B01L lab apparatus, B01J catalysis, C40B combinatorial libraries and C08F polymer chemistry each cover under 11% of records, marking them as narrower, more specialised claim territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,380 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 Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about sequencing flow cells and surface chemistry and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Record
Methods for Optimizing Direct Targeted Sequencing (US20200082908A1)
MYRIAD WOMEN'S HEALTH, INC.
Filed by Myriad Women's Health, this record describes hybridizing capture probes to surface-bound oligonucleotides, extending them as a template, then hybridizing and amplifying sequencing-library molecules on that same surface — a workflow tuned around selecting critical parameters like library amount, capture-probe amount and amplification cycle count for direct targeted sequencing.Abstract trimmed for length; see the full record for complete claim language.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130079232A1 | Methods and compositions for nucleic acid sequencing | 920 |
| 2 | US20140079923A1 | Polymer coatings | 577 |
| 3 | WO2012106546A2 | Massively parallel continguity mapping | 496 |
| 4 | US10774374B2 | Spatially distinguished, multiplex nucleic acid analysis of biological specimens | 477 |
| 5 | US20100069250A1 | Digital PCR Calibration for High Throughput Sequencing | 380 |
| 6 | US20120208706A1 | Optimization of multigene analysis of tumor samples | 372 |
| 7 | US20130338042A1 | Kinetic exclusion amplification of nucleic acid libraries | 346 |
| 8 | US20130203605A1 | Massively parallel contiguity mapping | 318 |
| 9 | WO2014108810A2 | Sample preparation on a solid support | 314 |
| 10 | US20080294651A1 | Drawing Device for Relationship Diagram of Documents Arranging the Documents in Chronolgical Order | 314 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as a signal of foundational status, not of current filing activity.
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 Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 numbers mean for filing strategy
Read together, the concentration, trend and composition data point to a field where core claim space is occupied but specific branches remain open.
Concentration
86.8%
of 2,380 records held by top 5 assignees
A small group controls the core
The leading assignee alone accounts for 1,163 records, and the top five combined reach 2,067 of 2,380 records in scope. Tenth place holds just 33 — the drop-off from leader to mid-table is steep, so any freedom-to-operate analysis has to start with the top handful of portfolios rather than a broad field scan.
Based on the full 100-company ranking returned for this dataset.
Momentum
-54%
filing change, 2021 to 2024
Activity has cooled from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 329 in 2020 and dropped from 287 in 2021 to 133 in 2024, the last year with complete data. That is a genuine pull-back in new filing rather than a data artefact, though 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be added to the trend.
2024 is treated as the most recent complete year; later years are still publishing.
Composition
72.3%
of records classed under C12Q
Enzyme/DNA measurement dominates the claim map
C12Q covers nearly three-quarters of records, while polymer chemistry (C08F, 6.8%) and combinatorial libraries (C40B, 8.4%) are comparatively thin. That gap is where surface-chemistry-specific claims — as opposed to sequencing-method claims — have more room to be drafted narrowly and still clear prior art.
Shares sum above 100% because records can carry multiple IPC classes.
Jurisdiction
563
US filings, the largest receiving office
Filing is US-centred with a strong PCT and European tail
The United States leads with 563 records, ahead of the EPO at 348 and WIPO/PCT at 252. Australia, Hong Kong and Israel each carry over 140 records, indicating deliberate multi-jurisdiction filing by the leading assignees rather than incidental overlap.
Counts are by receiving office, not by family.
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 sequencing flow cells and surface chemistry, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 new entrants sit
Filing here is dominated by a cluster of related Illumina entities, with newer instrument makers and diagnostics companies filing at much lower volume.
Leader
1,163
records
The top assignee's footprint dwarfs the field
The leading assignee's 1,163 records make up roughly half of all 2,380 records in scope on its own, before counting affiliated entities that file under separate but related names — several of the strongest co-assignee pairings in this dataset link entities under the same corporate family.
Counted at the family level to discount continuation filings.
Momentum, latest year
-55% to -94% YoY
across tracked assignees
Even active filers are pulling back
Every assignee with recent-year momentum data shows a year-over-year decline — from -55% at one newer entrant down to -94% at a long-standing leader — consistent with the broader post-2021 slowdown rather than any single company exiting the space.
Latest-year counts are partial due to publication lag.
Long tail
33
records at 10th place
A steep drop-off past the leaders
Tenth place in the ranking holds only 33 records against a leader with 1,163, and the top ten combined reach 95.5% of all 2,380 records. What remains outside the top ten is a thin scatter of single- or few-filing entrants rather than a competitive mid-tier.
Ranking covers 100 companies, the full set the dataset returns.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| CELLANOME INC | 5 | -55% |
| Illumina, Inc. | 2 | -94% |
| Element Biosciences, Inc. | 2 | -89% |
| Illumina Cambridge Ltd. | 1 | -80% |
| Illumina Singapore Pte. Ltd. | 1 | -50% |
| Foundation Medicine, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Spatial Transcriptomics AB | 0 | — |
| Singular Genomics Systems, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 landscape data points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying open claim space.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top holders
With 86.8% of records held by five assignees, any new surface-chemistry or cluster-generation filing should be checked against those portfolios first, not against the full field.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the post-2021 filing pull-back by sub-branch
The -54% drop from 2021 to 2024 is aggregate; breaking it down by IPC subclass shows whether the slowdown is uniform or concentrated in already-crowded C12Q claims.
Build a custom trend view in EurekaDraft around the under-claimed branches
Reagent-flow manifold design and surface-primer regeneration sit below the density of core cluster-generation claims, and are worth scoping before committing to a filing strategy.
Search white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 1,163 of the 2,380 records in this dataset, and together the top five combined reach 2,067 records — 86.8% of the field. That concentration is heavier among a cluster of related entities filing under closely linked corporate names, several of which appear together as co-assignees on the same families. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space should start with those top few portfolios rather than treating the field as fragmented.
No — filings peaked at 329 records in 2020 and have since declined, falling -54% from 287 in 2021 to 133 in 2024, the last year with complete publication data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not yet be read as continued decline or as a floor. The trend is a genuine cooling from a 2020 high, not an artefact of missing recent data alone.
Most records — 72.3% of the 2,380 in scope — fall under IPC class C12Q, covering enzyme- and DNA-based measuring and testing methods central to cluster generation and sequencing chemistry. Smaller but still substantial shares touch microorganism and genetic engineering methods (C12N, 16.1%), bioinformatics (G16B, 14.5%) and material analysis (G01N, 13.5%). Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and narrower classes like polymer chemistry (C08F) or combinatorial libraries (C40B) sit under 10%, marking them as comparatively open ground.
The IPC composition data shows core enzyme/DNA measurement claims (C12Q) are heavily occupied at 72.3% of records, while adjacent branches like polymer coatings, combinatorial library methods and lab apparatus design sit at much lower density. Practical starting points include surface-primer regeneration chemistry, reagent-flow manifold design and imaging-cycle synchronization hardware — areas that sit outside the densest claim clusters held by the leading assignees. A narrow, specific claim in one of these branches is more likely to clear prior art than a broad cluster-generation method claim.
The United States leads with 563 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 348 and the WIPO/PCT route at 252. Australia (178), Hong Kong (147) and Israel (140) each carry meaningful volume as well, which points to deliberate multi-jurisdiction filing strategies by the leading assignees rather than incidental overlap. A company assessing its own exposure should check all of these offices, not just the US, given how closely the leading portfolios track across them.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry 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 Sequencing Flow Cells and Surface Chemistry in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole sequencing flow cells and surface chemistry 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.