Surgical Robot Patent Landscape 2026
Surgical Robot Patent Landscape in 2026
The surgical robot patent field is at a mature stage, with annual filings having plateaued near their 2021 peak and recent-window growth at roughly 1%. Two applicants — CMR Surgical and Intuitive Surgical — are virtually tied at the top, together commanding a dominant share of activity among the hundred largest filers in a highly concentrated competitive field.
CMR Surgical and Intuitive Surgical lead a tightly contested top tier
CMR Surgical Ltd and Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc are effectively co-leaders, ranked first and second respectively among all applicants, with the top five filers together accounting for 41% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers — a sign of strong concentration at the apex of this field.
Below these two leaders, the next three ranked applicants — Cilag GmbH International, Meere Co Inc, and Globus Medical Inc — are meaningfully smaller, creating a clear two-tier structure. The gap between the top pair and the rest suggests entrenched incumbency that would require sustained investment to challenge.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CMR Surgical Ltd | 561 | |
| 2 | Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | 560 | |
| 3 | Cilag GmbH International | 137 | |
| 4 | Meere Co Inc | 129 | |
| 5 | Globus Medical Inc | 117 | |
| 6 | Digital Global Systems Inc | 102 | |
| 7 | Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd | 100 | |
| 8 | Auris Health Inc | 97 | |
| 9 | Johns Hopkins University | 84 | |
| 10 | Shanghai Microport MedBot (Group) Co Ltd | 76 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 68 | |
| 12 | Riverfield Inc | 61 | |
| 13 | Mazor Robotics | 61 | |
| 14 | Wuhan United Imaging Healthcare Surgical Technology Co Ltd | 61 | |
| 15 | Sony Group Corp | 60 | |
| 16 | Cornerstone Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd | 47 | |
| 17 | Mako Surgical Corp | 41 | |
| 18 | Kohyoung Technology Inc | 41 | |
| 19 | NHK Spring Co Ltd | 37 | |
| 20 | Harbin Sizherui Intelligent Medical Equipment Co Ltd | 35 |
The dual leadership positions of CMR Surgical and Intuitive Surgical imply that core surgical robotics IP — particularly manipulator mechanics and surgical diagnosis and surgery procedures — is heavily defended, narrowing the space for undifferentiated platform-level filings by new entrants.
The most recent filing periods should be treated as under-counted given typical patent publication lags of 12–18 months; apparent softness in 2024–2026 data does not reflect actual recent inventive activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume has plateaued since 2021; manipulator mechanics and surgery dominate the technology mix
Two charts capture the field’s temporal rhythm and technology breadth: the annual filing trend reveals a field that scaled rapidly through 2021 and has since plateaued, while the IPC composition chart shows an overwhelming concentration in robotic manipulators and surgical procedures, with a long tail of adjacent digital and control-system classes.
Annual filing trend
Filings climbed from 2017 through a 2021 peak, then eased back toward the 2017–2019 baseline range by 2023. Data for 2024–2026 is materially under-counted due to publication lag and should not be read as a further decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B25J (Manipulators & robots) and A61B (Diagnosis & surgery) together account for the dominant share of IPC classifications, confirming the field is still anchored in core hardware and procedural IP. Classes such as G06F (digital data processing), G05B (control systems), G16H (healthcare informatics), G06T (image processing), and G06N (AI models) each hold a smaller but meaningful presence, indicating software and intelligence layers are growing adjacencies.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Surgical robot system and surgical robot control m…
Disclosed are a surgical robot system and a surgical robot control method. The surgical robot system includes a surgical tool configured to perform surgery on each of a plurality of procedure regions in a surgical region which is divided into the plurality of procedure regions, a robot arm on which the surgical tool is mounted, and a driver configured to… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ceiling and floor mounted surgical robot set-up arms | 2,041 |
| 2 | Method of HUB communication, processing, storage a… | 1,702 |
| 3 | Surgical robotic system and hydraulic actuator the… | 1,392 |
| 4 | Hybrid surgical robot system and control method th… | 1,344 |
| 5 | Active-constraint robots | 1,242 |
| 6 | Force and torque sensing in a surgical robot setup… | 1,182 |
| 7 | Force and torque sensing for surgical instruments | 1,173 |
| 8 | Surgical instrument motor pack latch | 1,139 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of a mature lifecycle, high top-tier concentration, selective cross-sector collaboration, and strong US and European jurisdictional coverage shapes where new entrants and challengers can realistically find room to maneuver.
Field has plateaued near its 2021 peak
Annual filings plateaued near their 2021 peak, and the lifecycle stage is Maturity with recent-window growth of approximately 1%. This means incremental platform patents in core manipulator or laparoscopic robotic surgery areas face a crowded prior-art environment. R&D investment is better directed toward differentiated subsystems — force sensing, AI-guided navigation, or miniaturized instruments — where the prior art is less dense.
Lifecycle: MaturityTop-two incumbents create a narrow moat at the platform level
The top five filers account for 41% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, with CMR Surgical and Intuitive Surgical nearly tied for the lead. This concentration signals strong incumbency risk for platform-level entrants. Challengers such as Cilag GmbH International, Meere Co Inc, and Globus Medical Inc occupy a distinct second tier, suggesting viable mid-tier positioning is possible but requires a focused specialty (e.g., orthopedic, spinal, or endoluminal robotics).
High concentrationKawasaki Heavy Industries and Medicaroid are the most active co-filers
The most active co-filing pair is Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Medicaroid (22 joint filings), reflecting the joint venture that produced the hinotori surgical robot system. Intuitive Surgical has also co-filed with Siemens Healthineers (6 filings), signaling interest in imaging-robotics integration. Remaining collaborative pairs are small in volume, indicating that cross-institutional collaboration outside these relationships is still limited in this field.
Selective collaborationUnited States leads filings; Europe and China are secondary battlegrounds
The United States is the leading filing jurisdiction, followed by Europe (EPO) and China — a distribution that reflects both the home markets of the dominant applicants and the commercially most-contested territories. South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom each represent meaningful secondary filings. India’s presence in the top ten jurisdictions by filing count signals growing regulatory and market interest in the region.
US-centric, global reachGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd | Medicaroid Corp | 22 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | Siemens Healthineers GmbH | 6 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | Siemens Medical Systems Ltd | 2 |
| Curexo Inc | Pusan National University Industry-University Cooperation Foundation | 2 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | L. Bruchheim | 1 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | H. Kunze | 1 |
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | C. Niebler | 1 |
| Curexo Inc | Korea Electronics Technology Institute | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
CMR Surgical and Intuitive Surgical lead on core platform IP; Kawasaki Heavy Industries holds steady
The two co-leaders are nearly indistinguishable in scale but show diverging recent momentum, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries stands out as the only major filer with flat rather than declining recent activity.
CMR Surgical Ltd
CMR Surgical holds the top ranking with 561 patent records and concentrates its filings across A61B 34 (surgical robotics procedures) and B25J 9 (robotic manipulator configurations), with B25J 13 (controlled manipulators) as a third emphasis — a profile consistent with a full-platform surgical robot strategy. Recent momentum shows a 45% decline versus the prior period, reflecting the field-wide plateau rather than a loss of competitive standing, and publication lag means recent filings are under-counted.
patent records: 561Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Kawasaki Heavy Industries ranks seventh with 100 patent records and focuses on A61B 34 (surgical procedures) and B25J 9 (manipulators), with A61B 90 as a secondary emphasis. Crucially, its recent filing momentum is flat at 0% change versus the prior period — making it the only major filer in the evidence set that has neither grown nor declined, and the most active co-filer (with Medicaroid) in the collaboration data. This stable trajectory distinguishes it from declining incumbents.
patent records: 100| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | 29 | ▼ -52% |
| CMR Surgical Ltd | 96 | ▼ -45% |
| Verb Surgical Inc | 37 | ▼ -47% |
| Globus Medical Inc | 24 | ▼ -47% |
| Curexo Inc | 3 | ▼ -82% |
| Digital Global Systems Inc | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd | 20 | ▬ 0% |
Under-served branches in software intelligence and healthcare informatics
Five IPC classes each account for 2% or less of the technology mix despite plausible technical relevance to surgical robotics; three stand out as worth monitoring for teams with software or systems integration capabilities.
G16H · Healthcare Informatics
With 254 patent records and a 2% share of the technology mix, G16H represents a relatively sparse branch compared to core hardware classes. As surgical robots become more connected to hospital information systems, outcome analytics, and remote monitoring workflows, healthcare informatics IP is a plausible adjacency. Teams with expertise in clinical data integration or surgical outcome platforms could find less crowded prior art here than in core B25J or A61B filing space.
Search this in Eureka →G06N · Computing Based on AI Models
G06N accounts for 171 patent records at a 1% share — the lowest among the five identified adjacent branches — despite AI-driven surgical guidance, autonomous task segmentation, and intraoperative decision support being active research areas. The relative sparsity suggests that AI-model-level claims applied specifically to surgical robotics remain underdeveloped in the patent record, offering a potential differentiation path for teams combining surgical domain knowledge with machine learning expertise.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across manipulator, surgery, and control classes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | A61B 34 · Diagnosis & surgery | B25J 9 · Manipulators & robots | A61B 17 · Diagnosis & surgery | A61B 90 · Diagnosis & surgery | B25J 13 · Manipulators & robots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc | Strong · 367 | Strong · 381 | Moderate · 100 | Moderate · 180 | Moderate · 135 |
| CMR Surgical Ltd | Strong · 333 | Strong · 316 | Moderate · 69 | Moderate · 78 | Moderate · 89 |
| Cilag GmbH International | Strong · 82 | Strong · 77 | Strong · 73 | Strong · 67 | Strong · 52 |
| Verb Surgical Inc | Strong · 115 | Strong · 108 | Moderate · 35 | Moderate · 34 | Absent |
| Globus Medical Inc | Strong · 102 | Absent | Strong · 59 | Strong · 71 | Moderate · 29 |
| Cambridge Medical Robotics Ltd | Strong · 110 | Strong · 89 | Moderate · 25 | Absent | Moderate · 32 |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence set covers 2,965 patent families in scope. Applicant rankings are measured in patent records, which can exceed the family count because a single family may be counted in multiple jurisdictions or under multiple assignees.
CMR Surgical Ltd leads with 561 patent records and Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc follows with 560 patent records — a difference of just one record, making them effectively co-leaders in the field.
The field is at the Maturity stage. Annual filings plateaued near their 2021 peak, and recent-window growth is approximately 1%. This does not mean the field is declining — rather, the rapid scaling phase that ran from 2017 to 2021 has given way to a more stable, competitive environment.
The United States leads with 1,586 patent records filed, followed by Europe (EPO) with 759 and China with 613. South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom are the next most significant jurisdictions. These counts are at the patent-record level across all filings in scope.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Medicaroid are the most active co-filers with 22 joint filings, reflecting their surgical robot joint venture. Intuitive Surgical has co-filed with Siemens Healthineers on 6 occasions, the only other collaboration with more than two joint filings in the evidence.
Five IPC classes each account for 2% or less of the technology mix: G06F (electric digital data processing, 267 records), G05B (control and regulating systems, 259 records), G16H (healthcare informatics, 254 records), G06T (image data processing and generation, 184 records), and G06N (computing based on AI models, 171 records). These are observations of relative sparsity; whether they represent actionable opportunities depends on an entrant’s specific technical capabilities and commercial targets.
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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.
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