On July 7, 2026, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued US12673202B2, “Cortical subarachnoid and intra ventricular brain interfaces,” assigned to William Marsh Rice University. This is a granted patent, not a pending application, and the assignee is an academic institution rather than a commercial developer — the record is best read as university IP from a translational-research program. The named inventors are Jacob T. Robinson, Peter Kan, Joshua Chen, and Abdeali Dhuliyawalla, and lead inventor Robinson is known for work in magnetoelectric bioelectronics. The record is classified under CPC A61N 1/0551 and related neurostimulation-electrode subclasses A61N 1/0529, A61N 1/0531, A61N 1/0534, and A61N 1/36062, plus A61M 2025/0042 for catheter structure.

The problem the disclosure addresses is access. Conventional brain interfaces reach cortical or deep neural targets through open-skull surgery — a craniotomy. The claimed approach is directed to reaching neural structures through the subarachnoid space, the cerebrospinal-fluid-filled space around the brain and spinal cord. The disclosure describes performing a lumbar puncture to access the spinal subarachnoid space and advancing a microcatheter through it, a route that avoids opening the skull.

In the field’s state of the art, neural interfaces have generally traded off invasiveness against proximity to the target: surface arrays sit outside the dura, penetrating arrays require a craniotomy, and endovascular approaches thread electrodes through blood vessels. The route recited here is distinct from those — it works within the cerebrospinal-fluid space rather than through bone or vasculature. The independent claim captures the device that traverses that space, and the dependent claims capture how it is energized once in place, which is where the record’s wireless power scheme becomes central.

What the independent claim covers

Claim 1 recites a cortical subarachnoid and intraventricular brain interface device comprising two elements: an implantable pulse generator, and a microelectrode catheter. The claim then constrains the catheter: it comprises stimulating and recording electrodes, and those electrodes are configured for implantation into a spinal and intracranial subarachnoid space or for implantation into ventricles of a brain. The independent claim is notably compact. Its scope is defined by the pairing of a pulse generator with an electrode-bearing microcatheter, and by the anatomical configuration of the electrodes for the subarachnoid or intraventricular route rather than for a transcranial one. The recitation of both stimulating and recording electrodes places the claim in bidirectional territory — the device is configured both to modulate and to record neural structures, consistent with the abstract’s framing of “modulation and recording.”

Two features of the claim language are worth noting for how coverage reads. First, the electrodes are recited as “configured for” implantation into the subarachnoid space or the ventricles, so the anatomical destination is expressed as a configuration of the electrodes rather than as a method step — the device is claimed apart from the surgical act of placing it. Second, the disjunction “or for implantation into ventricles of a brain” means the single claim reaches both the subarachnoid route and an intraventricular one. The title’s pairing of “cortical subarachnoid” and “intra ventricular” tracks that dual configuration.

The present disclosure is directed to neural interface devices and methods that accesses the subarachnoid space to enable minimally invasive modulation and recording of neural structures. Exemplary embodiments may comprise an implantable pulse generator and a microelectrode catheter. In particular embodiments, the microelectrode catheter comprises one or more stimulating and recording electrodes. Exemplary embodiments may also include methods comprising performing a lumbar puncture to access the spinal subarachnoid space and advancing microcatheter through the spinal subarachnoid space.— Cortical subarachnoid and intra ventricular brain interfaces, US12673202B2

The dependent claims describe how the implanted device is powered and how it communicates, and this is where the magnetoelectric approach appears. Claim 5 recites an external field transmitter producing an alternating magnetic field at 20 kHz to 1 MHz that powers a magnetoelectric film at mechanical resonance — a wireless power scheme in which a magnetic field, rather than a battery or a percutaneous wire, drives the implant. The disclosure specifies stimulation amplitudes of 12.0 V or greater and a pulse width of about 250 microseconds. For data, claims 11 and 15 recite a magnetoelectric backscatter communication protocol, so the same magnetoelectric physics used for power also carries the uplink. Read together, the dependent claims describe a wirelessly powered, wirelessly communicating pulse generator paired with the subarachnoid microcatheter of the independent claim.

Where it sits in the same-week Rice cohort

Rice’s issued cohort in this dataset for July 7, 2026 is small and institutional, reflecting a bioengineering research estate rather than a product line. Two sibling grants issued alongside the hero. US12673132B2 claims extrusion printing of biocompatible scaffolds — 3D-printed porous bone and cartilage scaffolds from the Mikos lab — situated in tissue engineering rather than neural interfacing. US12673072B2 claims encapsulated cells expressing IL-12 and their uses, an implantable cell-encapsulation construct that delivers IL-12, associated with the Veiseh lab. Both are granted patents issued the same day as the hero.

Across the three records, the common thread is implantable bioengineering: a neural interface, a printed structural scaffold, and a cell-encapsulation therapeutic. They span distinct labs and distinct CPC neighborhoods, and the grouping is best read as a snapshot of university research output rather than a coordinated commercial roadmap. Reporting the coverage factually: the hero, US12673202B2, is an issued US patent whose independent claim covers a two-element brain-interface device — an implantable pulse generator plus a microelectrode catheter bearing stimulating and recording electrodes configured for the subarachnoid or intraventricular space — with dependent claims adding the magnetoelectric power and backscatter-communication scheme. It is effective as of its July 7, 2026 grant date, assigned to William Marsh Rice University.