AMI Demand Response Patents: Flat Filings, Concentrated Claims 2026
- Flat filing trend. Filings ran from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2025, with a flat midpoint in 2022 — this is not a fast-growing filing category.
- Business-process claims dominate the IPC mix. G06Q (business/commerce data processing) appears in 31 of 48 records, ahead of H02J grid-systems claims at 29 — pricing and control logic is claimed as often as the hardware itself.
- United States leads filing offices by a wide margin. 19 of 48 records were filed at the US office, more than double the next office (India, 9), with South Korea, Australia, the UK and New Zealand trailing further behind.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand response — filings that combine smart meter or AMI network terminology with load control, dynamic pricing, or peak demand management claims, classified under measurement, grid-systems, or business-process IPC codes. The dataset spans 48 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent filing year in any trend chart is understated relative to true filing activity. Family counts, rather than raw document counts, are used throughout so that multi-jurisdiction filing and continuation practice do not distort the picture of who is actually active.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 48-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim volume.
A flat filing trend, not a growth curve
Filings moved from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2025, passing through a midpoint of just 2 in 2022. That trajectory reads as flat-to-declining rather than an emerging technology still ramping up, though the 2026 figure is partial and the true recent-year count will be higher once publication catches up.
Business-process claims outweigh pure grid hardware
G06Q (business, commerce and administrative data processing) leads at 31 of 48 records, narrowly ahead of H02J (power supply and grid systems) at 29. G05B control systems, G01R measurement, G05F variable control, G01D recording, G08C transmission and H04L digital transmission each appear in single digits to mid-teens counts, indicating that pricing and scheduling logic is claimed at least as heavily as the underlying metering or grid hardware.
Shares are the percentage of the 48 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Advanced Metering Infrastructure Demand Response with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about advanced metering infrastructure demand response and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
System and method for communicating device specific data over an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network
Discloses a smart power device with a meter, controller and AMI network connection paired with an AMI terminator device that receives instructions from a virtual device server and relays them into the AMI network under a defined AMI communication protocol, along with a return path for device-specific data.Filed by General Electric; publication and filing dates are rendered separately.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190123580A1 | Management of a power-distribution system | 98 |
| 2 | US20120215725A1 | Energy management system | 70 |
| 3 | CN104063756A | 远程用电信息控制系统 | 64 |
| 4 | US20110153107A1 | Apparatus and method for smart energy management by controlling power consumption | 58 |
| 5 | US20140340236A1 | Synchronized metrology in power generation and distribution networks | 38 |
| 6 | KR1020090085920A | Electronic smart meter enabling demand response and method for demand response | 37 |
| 7 | US20170060161A1 | Systems and methods for stabilizer control | 24 |
| 8 | KR100960503B1 | Electronic smart meter enabling demand response and method for demand response | 16 |
| 9 | US9330563B2 | Synchronized metrology in power generation and distribution networks | 12 |
| 10 | US20140316595A1 | Advanced Measurement and Verification of Energy Curtailment | 11 |
Citation counts favour older records simply by virtue of being in the corpus longer; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, the IPC mix, and the citation data — useful before deciding where to file next in this space.
Growth is flat, not accelerating
A midpoint of 2 families in 2022 between a 2017 count of 2 and a 2025 peak of 6 does not describe a technology in a growth phase. New entrants should expect a mature, slow-moving claim landscape rather than open, fast-expanding space.
Pricing and control logic is claimed as heavily as hardware
Business-process classification (G06Q) very slightly outpaces grid-systems classification (H02J), which means dynamic-pricing and load-control logic sits under nearly as much claim density as the physical metering and distribution hardware it operates on.
Influence sits with a handful of older filings
The most-cited records in this corpus were filed years before the dataset's recent activity, which is typical of citation counts inside any searched corpus — older filings accumulate references simply by having been available longer, not because they remain the state of the art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to advanced metering infrastructure demand response, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Assignee activity in this dataset trails off sharply after the leaders, and recent-year momentum has gone flat across the board — several previously active filers show zero filings in the latest tracked year.
Recent-year activity has stalled across leading filers
Assignees including Dominion Energy, General Electric, the Korea Electronics Technology Research Institute, Aclara Technologies, Dominion Resources and Digimarc all show zero filings in the latest tracked year, several down from prior activity. That pattern is consistent with the flat overall filing trend rather than a single firm pulling back.
The US office carries the largest single share of filings
Nineteen of 48 records were filed at the US office, more than double the next largest office, India, at 9. South Korea, Australia, the UK and New Zealand each account for single-digit shares, suggesting enforcement and freedom-to-operate diligence should prioritise the US and Indian dockets first.
A modest, concentrated dataset
With 48 total patent families across the full date range, this is a small corpus relative to many smart-grid sub-fields, which means individual assignees' filing counts carry proportionally more weight in reading who leads versus who is a single-filing entrant.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| DOMINION ENERGY | 0 | -100% |
| General Electric | 0 | — |
| Korea Electronics Technology Research Institute | 0 | — |
| Aclara Technologies LLC | 0 | — |
| Dominion Resources, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Digimarc Corporation | 0 | — |
| LS Electric Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) | 0 | — |
Taking this further
The trend and assignee tables on this page are a starting point for scoping freedom-to-operate or identifying a filing angle — deeper claim-level work needs a closer read of the underlying documents.
Check claim scope, not just IPC codes
IPC subclass counts show where filing activity sits, but only a claim-by-claim read of the leading records will show what is actually blocked versus merely adjacent.
Explore this dataset in EurekaTrack the flat-to-declining trend against your own filing window
With the field's filing pace flat since 2022, a new filing may face less competitive pressure than the raw patent count suggests, but also less validated commercial precedent.
Run a custom search in EurekaCommon questions about AMI demand response patents
This dataset identifies 48 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine AMI or smart meter terminology with demand response concepts such as load control, dynamic pricing, or peak demand management, classified under measurement, grid-systems or business-process IPC codes. That is a modest corpus compared with broader smart-grid categories, which means individual assignees carry proportionally more weight in the ranking. The true count for the most recent year is understated because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months.
No, the trend is flat rather than growing: filings moved from 2 families in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2025, but passed through a midpoint of only 2 in 2022. That trajectory does not show sustained acceleration. Anyone evaluating this space should treat it as a mature, slow-moving filing category rather than an emerging one, while keeping in mind that the most recent year's figure is still partial.
G06Q, covering business, commerce and administrative data processing, leads with 31 of 48 records, closely followed by H02J power-supply and grid-systems claims at 29. Control systems (G05B), measurement (G01R), variable control (G05F), recording (G01D) and transmission classes (G08C, H04L) each appear in smaller numbers. The near-parity between G06Q and H02J indicates that pricing and scheduling logic is claimed almost as heavily as the physical metering and grid hardware.
The heaviest concentration of both filings and citations sits in core dynamic-pricing and load-control claims tied to G06Q and H02J classifications, and in the US filing office, which accounts for 19 of 48 records. Thinner areas in this dataset include sub-metering data recording formats, meter-to-controller synchronization protocols, and consumer-facing pricing interface claims, which carry less IPC representation and less citation density. A freedom-to-operate review should still confirm claim scope directly rather than relying on classification density alone.
Assignees appearing in this dataset include General Electric, Dominion Energy, Dominion Resources, Aclara Technologies, the Korea Electronics Technology Research Institute and Digimarc, among others, but recent-year momentum data shows each of these at zero filings in the latest tracked year. That pattern lines up with the dataset's overall flat filing trend rather than indicating a single company's retreat. A newer entrant evaluating this space should not assume any current assignee has an active, growing filing program based on this data alone.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.