Sterile Barrier Packaging Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 61.0% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 208 of the 341 records in scope — a field where claim space at the top is already dense.
- A61B and A61L dominate. 52.5% and 51.0% of records respectively sit in diagnosis/surgery and sterilising/disinfecting classes, while packaging-specific classes B65B and B65D trail well behind at 19.4% and 11.1%.
- Filing growth is down 27%. From 2021 to 2024 — the last year with complete publication data — filings fell from 26 to 19.
Filing growth compares 2021 (26 records) with 2024 (19) — 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 341 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What sterile barrier packaging patents actually cover
Sterile barrier packaging systems sit at the junction of medical device design, sterilisation science and packaging engineering. A single record in this dataset might claim a breathable lidding material, a seal-strength test method, or an aseptic presentation format for a diagnostic sensor — the search string pulls in anything discussing sterile barrier system or sterile barrier packaging alongside terms like porous lidding, microbial barrier or transport simulation. That breadth is why the technology composition skews so heavily toward device classes (A61B, A61L) rather than pure packaging classes (B65B, B65D): most filers are protecting a packaged medical device, not a packaging material in isolation.
341 records published between 2015 and the mid-2026 cut-off make up the scope. Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 71 records and has since cooled, though the two most recent years are necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 341-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 26 in 2017 to a peak of 71 in 2019, then declined to 19 by 2024 — a 27% drop across the 2021–2024 window that can be read as complete. 2025 and 2026 are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates.
IPC subclass composition
A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 52.5%) and A61L (sterilising & disinfecting, 51.0%) each cover more than half of all 341 records, confirming that most filers are claiming device-and-sterilisation combinations rather than packaging materials alone. B65B and B65D, the packaging-specific classes, sit at 19.4% and 11.1% — real but secondary. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 341 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Sterile Barrier Packaging Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about sterile barrier packaging systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
Sterile barrier packaging systems (US20250057624A1, Medtronic, 2025-02-20)
A sterile barrier system for medical device packaging built from a breathable layer of hollow fibers, each carrying an agent that releases when the fiber is severed. The released agent imparts self-healing or visual indication of a possible integrity breach, giving the barrier a built-in damage-detection mechanism rather than relying solely on post-hoc seal-strength testing.Filed by Medtronic; illustrates the shift toward barriers that report their own integrity rather than requiring separate ageing-study verification.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2019236850A1 | Focused sterilization and sterilized sub-assemblies for analyte monitoring systems | 173 |
| 2 | WO2019236876A1 | Focused sterilization and sterilized sub-assemblies for analyte monitoring systems | 168 |
| 3 | WO2019236859A1 | Focused sterilization and sterilized sub-assemblies for analyte monitoring systems | 166 |
| 4 | US20210084700A1 | System and method for out-of-band pairing of sterile device with non-sterile device | 144 |
| 5 | US20210204841A1 | Focused sterilization and sterilized sub-assemblies for analyte monitoring systems | 115 |
| 6 | US20150374868A1 | Sterilization container capable of providing an indication regarding whether or not surgical instruments ster… | 110 |
| 7 | US20110127188A1 | Method of Using Coextruded Film for Sterile Barrier System to Deliver Seal and Peel Characteristics | 80 |
| 8 | WO2014159696A1 | Sterilization container capable of providing an indication regarding whether or not surgical instruments ster… | 71 |
| 9 | US20150284018A1 | Containment device and transport system for reusable medical device sterilization, storage, and transport | 64 |
| 10 | US20210161437A1 | Focused sterilization and sterilized sub-assemblies for analyte monitoring systems | 49 |
Citation counts favour older, more established filings and should be read as a signal of influence within this searched corpus, not as a current importance ranking.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, class and citation data above.
The top of the field is crowded
Five assignees account for 208 of the 341 records in scope — a leader at 82 records and a fifth-place filer at 18. New entrants competing head-on in the core claim territory these leaders occupy face a dense prior-art landscape.
Device claims outnumber pure packaging claims
More than half of all records sit in A61B or A61L, meaning most protection is built around the packaged device or its sterilisation process rather than the packaging material itself. B32B laminates and D21H paper compositions each sit under 7%.
Filing volume has eased from its peak
After peaking at 71 records in 2019, annual filings fell to 19 by 2024, the last year with reliable publication coverage. That is a cooling in raw volume, not necessarily a shrinking opportunity — it may reflect consolidation of claim space among the leaders already ranked.
Citation weight sits with older analyte-monitoring filings
The most-cited records in this corpus are a cluster of focused-sterilization filings for analyte monitoring sub-assemblies, each cited well over 100 times. That reflects their age and centrality within this searched set rather than current filing activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to sterile barrier packaging systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field stays open
The ranked leaders in this dataset cover 48 companies; recent-year momentum has flattened across the names with the largest historical share, which is one reason the white space below is worth a closer look.
One filer holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee's 82 records are more than four times the fifth-place count of 18, indicating a long-running, deliberate filing programme rather than opportunistic filing.
A cluster forms behind the leader
Positions two through five sit well below the leader but still materially ahead of the long tail, together making up most of the 61.0% top-5 share of all 341 records.
A long tail of single- and few-filing entrants
Beyond the top 10 — which already covers 77.7% of records — the remaining ranked companies each hold small counts, typical of a field where device makers file defensively around one or two product lines rather than building a broad portfolio.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Abbott Diabetes Care Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Stryker Corp | 0 | — |
| MHM IP Ltd | 0 | — |
| Ahlstrom Oyj | 0 | -100% |
| O&M Halyard Inc | 0 | — |
| Medtronic Xomed Inc | 0 | — |
| Canon USA Inc | 0 | — |
| Mondi AG | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or new filing strategy.
Map claim boundaries around the top 5
With 61.0% of records held by five assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start by pulling their independent claims rather than searching the field broadly.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Nonwoven and paper-based barrier classes sit under 7% of records each — worth a focused prior-art check before drafting in that space.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack the 2025–2026 catch-up
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent two years will revise upward — set a recurring watch rather than reading them as a decline.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCommon questions on sterile barrier packaging patents
One assignee leads the ranked list with 82 of the 341 records in scope, more than four times the count held by the fifth-ranked filer at 18. The top 5 assignees combined account for 208 records, or 61.0% of all records in scope, showing a field where a handful of programmes dominate the documented filing activity. The ranking covers 48 companies total, so beyond the leaders there is a long tail of smaller filers with only a few records each.
The largest shares fall in A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 52.5% of the 341 records) and A61L (sterilising & disinfecting, 51.0%), meaning most filings protect a device-and-sterilisation combination rather than a standalone packaging material. Packaging-specific classes B65B and B65D cover 19.4% and 11.1% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and each should be read against the 341-record total rather than against each other.
Filing volume peaked at 71 records in 2019 and had fallen to 19 by 2024, a 27% decline across the 2021–2024 window that can be treated as reliably complete. The years 2025 and 2026 currently show much lower counts, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual drop in filing — those figures will rise as more applications publish. Treat the 2021–2024 trend as the most trustworthy read on direction.
Claim density is heavily concentrated in device and sterilisation classes (A61B, A61L), while adjacent branches like nonwoven porous lidding (D04H, 7.0% of records), pulp/paper compositions (D21H, 6.5%) and layered laminates (B32B, 6.7%) carry comparatively few filings. Self-indicating breach-detection layers, as seen in recent Medtronic filings, and transport-simulation test protocols also show thinner coverage relative to the core classes. These lower-density branches are worth a dedicated prior-art check before drafting new claims there.
US20250057624A1, filed by Medtronic and published 2025-02-20, claims a sterile barrier system built from a breathable layer of hollow fibers that release an internal agent when severed, providing self-healing or visual indication of a breach. This ties integrity verification directly into the barrier material itself rather than relying solely on external seal-strength or ageing-study testing. Anyone designing a breathable barrier with embedded damage response should review this filing's claim scope closely, since it sits in a currently thin part of the landscape.
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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.