Top Medical Device Companies in 2021 US Patents

By Rocky Berndsen, Head of Harrity Analytics

Medical devices are a $432 billion dollar global industry and here are the top 20 companies patenting in the US. Overall, these companies obtained 8% fewer patents in 2021 compared to 2020. Most of these companies are filing first in the US, with Philips as an exception.

Over 40% of the patents issued are continuations, Considering that the average number of continuations in 2021 was 23%, this shows the strategic continuation patenting in the medical device space.

Of note is the variability in the average office actions per patent and RCEs per patent statistics in the medical device space. The highest office actions per patent is 2.4 and the lowest is 1.3. The highest RCEs per patent is 0.8 and the lowest is 0.3.

Kudos to Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Philips, Boston Scientific, Stryker, Abbott, BD, SHIMADZU CORPORATION, Intuitive, and Baxter International Inc. for making the top 10!

Learn more about our patent analytics capabilities by visiting the Harrity Analytics site HERE.