Female Supine Urination Tech: Patent Landscape & Indicators

Ana Mesa La Guardia,1– 3 Maria Teresa Prats Valls,3,4 Mónica Micó Cabedo,3,4 Nuria Domenech Climent,3,5 Pablo Juan Verdoy,6 Jaume Gual Ortí7 1Department of Materials and Industrial Technologies, University of Jaume I, Castelló, Spain; 2Teaching, Training and Research Unit, Alcoy Health Department, Alcoi, Spain; 3Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencia Region (FISABIO), Valencia, Spain; 4Surgery Service, General d’Ontontinyent Hospital, Ontinyent, Spain; 5Family and Community Nursing, La Bassa Health Center, Alcoy Health Department, Alcoi, Spain; 6Department of Mathematics, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain; 7Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Design, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, SpainCorrespondence: Ana Mesa La Guardia, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Female urination in the supine position is a frequent bedside need, yet common workarounds (bedpans, diapers, improvised receptacles) can be uncomfortable, increase caregiver workload, and contribute to potentially avoidable urinary catheterization. We mapped the patent landscape of non-invasive female urine-collection technologies intended for supine use and derived actionable innovation and access priorities.Methods: We searched Espacenet (EPO), WIPO PATENTSCOPE, the USPTO database, Google Patents, and INVENES for January 2000–September 2025. Records were screened for functional relevance to female supine voiding and de-duplicated at the DOCDB family level. For each patent family we extracted priority/publication timing, jurisdictions, assignees, IPC/CPC codes, and forward citations; coded solution archetypes; and coded adoption-relevant attributes (workflow feasibility, infrastructure dependence, and single-use vs reusable design intent). A structured multi-domain appraisal (0– 2 per domain; total 0– 12) was applied to representative families to support consistent comparison.Results: Twenty-six patent families met inclusion criteria. Innovation activity was sustained but low-intensity and uneven over time, with most filings clustered in 2010– 2020; interpretation of late years was limited by publication lag. Most inventions followed single-use/disposable pathways (≈69%). The set covered 16 IPC subclasses, although > 60% of families were concentrated in A61F 5/455. Passive external collectors showed the strongest maturity signals. Adhesive patch-type and intravaginal concepts were sporadic and heterogeneous. Suction/capillary approaches introduced stronger containment mechanisms but increased dependence on external infrastructure and proprietary consumables, limiting feasibility in home care and low-resource settings.Conclusion: The most consistent gap lies at the intersection of ergonomics, autonomy, and reusability—female-specific supine interfaces that contain leakage without adhesives or invasive elements, operate passively or with minimal infrastructure, and enable sterilizable/reusable pathways. Priorities for R&D include usability- and risk-informed evaluation, sustainability-by-design, and access-oriented IP strategies to support diffusion beyond high-resource settings.Keywords: female urinal, supine voiding, external urine collection device, patent landscape, usability engineering, sustainability