Sequencing Library Preparation Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 28.7% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees hold 848 of the 2,950 records in scope, but a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants fills out the rest of the ranking.
- Filings peaked in 2022 at 329. The complete-year trend runs 2021's 261 down to 2024's 186, a -29% move — read 2025 and 2026 as still filling in, not as a real decline.
- C12Q dominates at 79.5% of records. Bioinformatics (G16B, 25.6%) and combinatorial libraries (C40B, 12.5%) show where preparation chemistry is increasingly paired with downstream analysis claims.
Filing growth compares 2021 (261 records) with 2024 (186) — 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 2,950 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the sequencing library preparation patent record shows
Sequencing library preparation covers the steps that turn raw nucleic acid into a form a sequencer can read: fragmentation, adapter ligation, amplification and the quality-control checks that catch PCR duplicates, index misassignment and input-amount failures before a run is wasted. The 2,950 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and cluster heavily around enzymatic and molecular biology claims (C12Q, C12N) rather than pure instrumentation, which tells you most of the contested ground is in the chemistry and workflow, not the hardware.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2022, and the last complete year on record (2024) sits 29% below the 2021 level — a real pullback from an unusually active period, not a collapse of the field. Publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as more records surface.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,950 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A 2022 peak followed by a real pullback
Filings ran from 206 in 2017 to a peak of 329 in 2022, then eased to 186 by 2024 — a -29% move from 2021's 261. Treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted rather than as evidence of a continued decline, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Enzymatic and DNA-measurement claims dominate
C12Q covers 79.5% of the 2,950 records, far ahead of C12N (31.9%) and G16B (25.6%). The presence of G16B and G06F alongside the wet-lab classes shows how much of the recent claim activity ties preparation steps to downstream computational calls — duplicate detection, index-error correction — rather than the chemistry alone.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,950 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Sequencing Library Preparation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about sequencing library preparation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Quality control templates ensuring validity of sequencing-based assays
The filing describes generating quality control template (QCT) molecules, clustering QCT sequence reads based on variation regions, and using those clusters to determine a sequencing-related parameter such as a contamination or molecule-count parameter tied to library preparation or sequencing itself.Filed by BillionToOne, this record targets the QC layer that sits on top of library preparation rather than the fragmentation or ligation chemistry itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5871697A | Method and apparatus for identifying, classifying, or quantifying DNA sequences in a sample without sequencing | 528 |
| 2 | US20110033854A1 | Methods and compositions for long fragment read sequencing | 509 |
| 3 | US20160032396A1 | Identification and Use of Circulating Nucleic Acid Tumor Markers | 480 |
| 4 | US5733731A | Peptide library and screening method | 466 |
| 5 | US20100105052A1 | Nucleic acid sequencing and process | 405 |
| 6 | WO2014151117A1 | Identification and use of circulating nucleic acid tumor markers | 372 |
| 7 | US20120208706A1 | Optimization of multigene analysis of tumor samples | 372 |
| 8 | WO2012142531A2 | Processing and analysis of complex nucleic acid sequence data | 358 |
| 9 | US8383338B2 | Methods and systems for uniform enrichment of genomic regions | 322 |
| 10 | WO2012142611A2 | Sequencing small amounts of complex nucleic acids | 315 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the concentration, trend and classification data above.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is open
Five assignees hold 848 of the 2,950 records in scope, and the top ten reach 40.5%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of single- or few-patent entrants, which is where a new entrant's freedom-to-operate work should focus first.
Filing activity has cooled from its 2022 peak
The field peaked at 329 filings in 2022 and the last complete year (2024) sits at 186, down 29% from 2021's 261. That is a real pullback in a previously fast-moving area, not evidence the technology is exhausted — it more likely reflects consolidation among the leading filers.
Claims sit on the molecular biology side, not instrumentation
C12Q classes cover four in five records, while G16B bioinformatics classes appear on a quarter. Combinatorial library classing (C40B) touches 12.5% of records, a smaller but non-trivial share that marks where preparation chemistry meets multiplexed library design.
US and EPO filings lead, PCT signals cross-border intent
United States filings (872) and EPO filings (626) lead the receiving-office counts, with 457 WIPO/PCT filings indicating a meaningful share of applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than filing domestically only.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to sequencing library preparation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where it is thinning
The leader holds 363 records against a fifth-place figure of 93 and a tenth-place figure of 57 — a steep drop-off that leaves most of the ranked field well below the leader's scale. Recent-year momentum for several of the most active historical filers has turned sharply negative, which changes who to watch going forward.
A clear leader, but momentum has reversed
The top-ranked assignee's recent-year filings are down 90% year-over-year, and several other historically active filers — including two of the largest genomics and sequencing names in the ranking — show 0 filings in the latest year, several down 100% YoY. That is consistent with publication lag but also with a genuine slowdown among the earliest movers.
A handful of dense co-assignment pairs stand out
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data; the strongest links a major sequencing instrument maker with a university health sciences center at 27 shared records, and two more pairs connect a diagnostics-focused assignee with a biotechnology partner and an oligo-synthesis specialist at 19 and 18 records respectively.
The drop from leader to tenth is steep
Fifth place sits at 93 records and tenth at 57, both well below the leader's 363. That gap signals a market where scale advantages compound quickly for the earliest, most prolific filers, but where mid-tier and later entrants still hold defensible, if narrower, positions.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Medicine, Inc. | 2 | -90% |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | 0 | -100% |
| Complete Genomics, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Dovetail Genomics, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Natera, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Illumina, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| The Chinese University of Hong Kong | 0 | -100% |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a dense claim core and a thinning tail — the next steps depend on whether you are clearing a product or scouting a gap.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top ten
With 40.5% of records held by ten assignees, a targeted clearance search against that group covers a disproportionate share of the dense claim space before you look anywhere else.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaMap the white space chips against your own workflow
Automation compatibility, index-error correction and low-input fragmentation show up as thinner claim areas relative to the C12Q core — worth a closer look if your process touches any of them.
Search white space in EurekaTrack momentum, not just historical volume
Several of the most prolific historical filers show sharp year-over-year declines in the latest data. Filing volume alone will overstate their current activity.
Set up alerts in EurekaCommon questions on sequencing library preparation patents
The dataset used for this landscape contains 2,950 published patent records dated between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, covering fragmentation, adapter ligation, amplification and related quality-control methods. This counts individual published records rather than distinct patent families, though the assignee ranking in this dataset is also expressed in the same 2,950-record terms. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true count for 2025 and 2026 filings will be higher than currently shown.
The leading assignee holds 363 of the 2,950 records in scope, with the top five combined holding 848 records (28.7% of the field) and the top ten holding 1,194 records (40.5%). Below that, the ranking drops off quickly — fifth place sits at 93 records and tenth at 57 — leaving a long tail of assignees with far fewer filings each. Several of the historically largest filers show sharply negative year-over-year momentum in the most recent data, so current filing rank and historical filing rank are not the same thing.
Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 329 records and had fallen to 186 by 2024, a -29% move from 2021's 261 filings — the last year-over-year comparison that uses two complete years. That is a genuine pullback from an unusually active period rather than continued decline into 2025-2026, since those years are still under-published due to the typical 18-month lag between filing and publication. Whether the field resumes growth or settles at a lower rate will only be clear once 2025-2026 data matures.
C12Q, the IPC subclass covering enzyme- and DNA-based measuring and testing methods, appears on 79.5% of the 2,950 records, making it the dominant classification by a wide margin. C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) and G16B (bioinformatics) follow at 31.9% and 25.6% respectively, with combinatorial chemistry libraries (C40B) at 12.5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to well over 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a breakdown that sums to the whole.
The classification data suggests automation-compatible workflows, index misassignment correction and low-input fragmentation methods are represented at lower density than the core enzymatic and DNA-measurement claims that make up the bulk of C12Q filings. These areas sit adjacent to the dense claim core rather than replacing it, so a new filing there is more likely to clear existing claims cleanly. Any white-space assessment should still be checked against the specific claims of the top assignees, since claim scope — not just classification density — determines what is actually open.
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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.