The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, with the leading company holding 147 of the 1,744 records in scope. The top five assignees combined account for 635 records, or 36.4% of the total, showing that core anchor technology is concentrated among a small number of established orthopaedic device makers rather than spread evenly across the field. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work should treat those leaders’ portfolios as the first stop, not the last.

Filings peaked at 111 records in 2019 and eased to 58 by 2024, an 11% decline across that three-year span using the most recent years that can be treated as complete. This reads as a maturing core technology rather than a field in decline, since foundational mechanical claims were largely staked out earlier in the coverage window. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months.

The large majority of records, 85.0% of the 1,744 in scope, carry an A61B classification covering diagnosis and surgery, reflecting how most anchors are claimed as surgical devices or procedures. Implants and prostheses (A61F) appear in 21.2% of records and sterilising/disinfecting (A61L) in 12.0%. Material-focused classes such as polymer compositions, filament spinning and yarn texturing each sit near 1.4%, a much smaller share that points to comparatively open claim space around suture and anchor material chemistry.