Introduction: Bone biopsies have great value for the diagnosis of, amongst others, hematologic diseases. Although the bone biopsy procedure is mostly performed minimally invasive with the use of a slender cannula, the patient may still experience discomfort, especially when the procedure has to be repeated due to an unsuccessful biopsy. Areas covered: This review presents a comprehensive overview of bone biopsy devices presented in the patent literature. The patents were obtained using a classification search combined with keywords in the Espacenet patent database and were subsequently verified using pre-set eligibility criteria. This resulted in 62 unique patents included in this review. Expert opinion: The included patents were categorized based on the used strategies for the three steps that can be identified during a bone biopsy (1) biopsy sampling, (2) biopsy severing and (3) biopsy harvesting. Most patents described strategies for multiple steps. Insight into the used strategies and the comprehensive overview may serve as a source of inspiration for the design of novel bone biopsy devices.