Tissue Fixation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Tissue Fixation and Processing Patents: Leaders, Trends and White Space
36.0% concentration at the top. The top 5 assignees combined hold 377 of the 1,046 records in scope (36.0%), with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them. Filings rose from 38 in 2017 to a peak of 85 in 2020, then declined to 24 by 2024 (a 56% drop from the 2021 level of 54). 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
- 1VENTANA MEDICAL SYSTEMS INC227
- 2OSSIUM HEALTH INC47
- 3QIAGEN GMBH39
- 4UNIV OF MIAMI35
- 5F HOFFMANN LA ROCHE & CO AG29
See the full tissue fixation and processing analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about tissue fixation patents
Who holds the most patents in tissue fixation and processing?
One assignee leads the field with 227 records, well ahead of the fifth-place filer at 29 and the tenth-place filer at 20. That single-filer gap means the top of the ranking is dominated by one company rather than a tight cluster of several. Together the top 5 assignees hold 36.0% of the 1,046 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 46.7%, leaving more than half the field spread across a long tail of smaller filers.
Is patent filing in tissue fixation increasing or decreasing?
Filings rose steadily from 38 in 2017 to a peak of 85 in 2020, then declined to 24 by 2024, a 56% drop from the 2021 level of 54. Because patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are not yet a reliable signal of current activity. Based on the data through 2024, the field has cooled from its 2020 high but has not disappeared.
What technology areas overlap with tissue fixation patents?
The dominant IPC subclass is G01N (material analysis and testing), present in 64.8% of the 1,046 records, reflecting the diagnostic testing purpose of most fixation methods. A substantial minority also touch C12Q (nucleic acid and enzyme testing, 21.1%) and C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering, 16.3%), showing that fixation chemistry claims regularly overlap with molecular biology and genetic testing claims. Smaller but notable shares appear in A61K medicinal preparations and C07K peptides and proteins.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Tissue Fixation and Processing covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.