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Patents Study – Medical Devices Top Companies
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Patenting Trends
Patent Analysis in Medical devices
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Filing Trend – India
Worldwide & India Filing
Medical technology world patents
As shown in Graph 1, Medtronic is a leading company with 26363 patent families. Medtronic has the largest number of patent filings related to surgical instruments, which is consistently increasing since 1990. The inventions related to implements or accessories specifically used for stereotaxis, sterile operations, luxation treatment, and wound edge protectors are slowed down in recent years whereas, the highest filings have been done in the years 2010 to 2015. Similarly, the invention related to spinal positioners and stabilisers has been slowed since 2007, the same year the largest number of inventions were filed for patent protection.
On the other hand, Johnson & Johnson, the second largest patent holder in the world related to medical technology has significantly increased patent filing related to implements or accessories specifically used for stereotaxis, sterile operations, luxation treatment, and wound edge protectors. Further, Johnson and Johnson seem to be very ambitious towards the technology related to manipulators or robots specially adapted for use in surgery, and patenting trend of Johnson & Johnson shows the same.
Olympus corp., the third largest patent holder in the world, is a leader in endoscopy instruments which reflects in patent trends also. Olympus corp. is setting a trend for inventions related to flexible endoscopy; however, the Olympus corp. has stopped research and development of Endo radiosondes, and patent filing are slowed down in recent years and completely stopped since 2020.
Medical Technology India patents
In India, inventions related to medical technologies were slowing down until 2018 but later picked a pace doubling the number of patent filings in the next couple of years. As shown in Graph 2, Johnson & Johnson, Koninklijke Philips NV, and Becton Dickinson & co. are the top 3 patent holders related to medical technology. Followed by Medtronic INC, and General Electric co. holding 4th and 5th positions respectively. Johnson & Johnson and Koninklijke Philips NV have the nearly same number of patents in India. Johnson & Johnson is highly investing in research of surgical staplers and probes/electroscopes in India.
Becton Dickinson & co. is diversifying its patent portfolio by filings patents related to a variety of technologies since 2020. The invention related to syringes and needles is a forte of Becton Dickinson & co. Specifically, inventions related to catheters, and hollow probes are one of the up-trending inventions from Becton Dickinson & co in recent years in India.
Medical technology US patents
The US is the largest market and biggest innovation centre for medical technologies after China. Medtronic is the biggest company in the US in terms of patent filings. Medtronic has done most research for inventions related to surgical instruments and Instruments/devices to measure parameters like pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and ECG. Another category having the highest number of inventions is related to probes and electrodes. The inventions related to filters implantable into blood vessels have seen a steep fall in recent years. But the inventions related to staples for applying in a single action are peaked since 2013.
Similarly, Johnson & Johnson is the biggest innovator in terms of the number of inventions related to staples for applying in a single action. Other than that, surgical cutting instruments, measuring instruments/devices for diagnostic purposes, surgical staplers, and surgical robots are one of the growing categories of Johnson & Johnson. The inventions related to filters implantable into blood vessels started slowing down in the last decade, and there are no signs of growth in the number of inventions related to this category.
The way top 2 companies are having a decline in inventions related to filters implantable into blood vessels, the third one, Boston Scientific Corp. also shows a similar trend. There is no such category where they are having significant growth in the number of inventions in the last decade, except the inventions related to instruments for performing medical examinations of the body.
The graph shows the percentage of growth each year since 2002 of top patent filing countries. India is compared with other top patent filing countries and the graph shows that India had shown consistent growth in these years compared to other countries. Germany seems to be stagnated since 2006 and had shown a fall in patents since then. Similarly, Japan had seen a dip fall in patent filings related to medical technologies between 2006 to 2010 and never saw promising growth in the next years except in 2012 and 2014. Medical technologies-related patent filings in South Korea are dipping every year since 2006 and had never shown growth except in 2020.
On the other side, India had always positively grown in terms of patent filings related to medical inventions. India had shown consistent growth in medical inventions, even better than the county like the USA which had seen peaks and valleys in terms of patent filling. China also consistently grew in this period along with India.
India is turning out to be the biggest innovation centre for medical technologies in the world among top patent-filing countries. The data in 2002 – 2022 has been studied and the patent application related to medical technologies in India increased by 32 times in 2022 compared to 2002, which is only second to China with patent applications increased by more than 42 times in the same period. The USA has shown 2% growth in the same period.
While considering the volume of patents, in 2020, around 233,639 patents were filed by China, whereas, only 2017 patents were filed by Indians. In the USA, a total of 33394 patents were filed in 2020. This is a vast difference in the number of patents compared to China and the USA. India needs to fill up a big gap to catch up with these countries. The way graph indicates the growth of India with respect to other countries, India is significantly trying to grow in medical technologies and the same trend may continue in the future.
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