Building Energy Management Patent Landscape 2026
Building Energy Management Patent Landscape in 2026
Toshiba leads a moderately concentrated field with Japanese electronics and HVAC firms holding the top positions, while US-based building-controls specialists Johnson Controls and Lennox Industries represent the strongest challenger tier. The field has eased back from its 2017 peak, and air-conditioning control (F24F) remains the dominant technology route, though grid-integration and AI-driven branches are emerging as adjacent areas with meaningful coverage.
Toshiba leads a Japan-anchored field with a visible tier gap below the top two
Toshiba holds the leading position with 94 patent records among the top-100 filers, followed closely by Kyocera with 77 patent records. Johnson Controls Technology ranks third with 60 patent records, marking the first US-headquartered player in the ranking.
The top five filers account for 34% of the combined total of the hundred largest filers, indicating moderate-to-high concentration. A clear tier gap separates Toshiba and Kyocera from the field: Mitsubishi Electric at fourth place holds 36 patent records, roughly half of Kyocera’s count, and the drop accelerates further down the ranking.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toshiba Corporation | 94 | |
| 2 | Kyocera Corporation | 77 | |
| 3 | Johnson Controls Technology Company | 60 | |
| 4 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 36 | |
| 5 | Lennox Industries Inc. | 20 | |
| 6 | Hitachi, Ltd. | 20 | |
| 7 | TOSHIBA INFRASTRUCTE SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS CORPORATION | 17 | |
| 8 | Melrok LLC | 16 | |
| 9 | Energy Efficiency Consultancy Group Ltd. | 16 | |
| 10 | Azbil Corporation | 15 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Regents of the University of California | 14 | |
| 12 | Daikin Applied Americas Inc. | 13 | |
| 13 | Green Power Labs Inc. | 13 | |
| 14 | Air Distribution Technologies IP LLC | 12 | |
| 15 | Optimum Energy LLC | 12 | |
| 16 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 12 | |
| 17 | ELECTRONICS & TELECOMM RES INST | 12 | |
| 18 | TYCO FIRE & SECURITY GMBH | 11 | |
| 19 | Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. | 11 | |
| 20 | NEC Corporation | 11 |
The dominant positions of Toshiba, Kyocera, and Mitsubishi Electric reflect sustained investment in HVAC control and grid-side power management, giving these incumbents broad claim coverage across the core technology routes. Challengers seeking entry must navigate dense prior art in F24F air-conditioning control and G05B regulating systems.
Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 are subject to publication lag and will rise as pending applications publish; apparent low volumes in those years should not be read as a demand signal. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity has eased from a 2017 peak; HVAC control and regulating systems dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend reveals that peak activity occurred in 2017 and has declined since, while the technology composition chart shows that air-conditioning and ventilation control (F24F) commands the largest share, with building-automation control systems (G05B) and business-process data handling (G06Q) forming a secondary cluster.
Annual filing trend
Annual volume peaked at 78 patent records in 2017 and has trended downward through the window, reaching the low-to-mid forties in 2023–2025. The 2026 bar reflects early-publication data only and will increase as applications publish; treat it as a floor, not a ceiling.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F24F (air conditioning and ventilation) is by far the largest branch, consistent with HVAC optimization being the core use case. G05B (control and regulating systems) is the second-largest branch, reflecting the automation and supervisory-control layer. G06Q (business and admin data processing) and H02J (power supply and grid systems) form a meaningful secondary tier, pointing to energy analytics and grid-integration workstreams.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Building energy management system with energy anal…
A building energy management system includes building equipment, a data collector, an analytics service, a timeseries database, and an energy management application. The building equipment monitor and control one or more variables in the building energy management system and provide data samples of the one or more variables. The data collector collects the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Control interface facility management system | 835 |
| 2 | Systems and methods for statistical control and fa… | 490 |
| 3 | Systems and methods for controlling energy use in … | 333 |
| 4 | Predictive building control system and method for … | 330 |
| 5 | Building management system with fault analysis | 242 |
| 6 | Building energy management system with energy anal… | 238 |
| 7 | Comfort-driven optimization of electric grid utili… | 218 |
| 8 | System for analyzing building energy consumption i… | 186 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of a declining filing rate, a concentrated incumbent group, and a US-dominant filing jurisdiction shapes both the risk and opportunity profile for new entrants and challengers. Each structural dimension carries distinct implications.
Declining phase: core HVAC control space is densely claimed
The lifecycle evidence places this field in decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2017 peak. The core air-conditioning control and building-automation sub-spaces carry high prior-art density, making incremental claims difficult to differentiate. R&D value is most likely found in adjacent branches — grid integration, AI-driven predictive control, and IoT data processing — where coverage is thinner.
Lifecycle: DeclineTop five hold 34% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total
The top five filers — Toshiba, Kyocera, Johnson Controls, Mitsubishi Electric, and Lennox Industries — account for 34% of the top-100 filers’ combined patent records. The tier gap between Toshiba/Kyocera and the rest is pronounced. Challengers ranked sixth through twentieth each hold 20 or fewer patent records, indicating that the space below the top five is fragmented and potentially accessible to focused entrants.
Concentration: Moderate-HighCo-filing is concentrated within Toshiba’s corporate family
The most active co-filing relationships are intra-group: Toshiba and Toshiba Carrier have 13 joint filings, and Toshiba and Toshiba Infrastructure Systems have 11. Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Electric Building Solutions share 3 joint filings, as do Hitachi and Tokyo Gas. Johnson Controls and its Tyco IP holding entity have 1 joint filing. Cross-group or university-industry collaboration is sparse in this dataset, suggesting that external partnership strategies remain an underexploited path.
Collaboration: Intra-groupUS is the primary filing office; Japan and Europe are secondary
The United States leads patent record filings by a wide margin, followed by Japan and Europe (EPO). South Korea, China, and India each carry meaningful but smaller filing volumes, reflecting regional interest in building automation and energy regulation. The strong US concentration suggests that US prosecution strategy and freedom-to-operate analysis are highest priority for any entrant, while the EPO and Japan offices are important for incumbents defending core HVAC and control system claims.
Geography: US-ledGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | Toshiba Carrier Corporation | 13 |
| Toshiba Corporation | Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation | 11 |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | Mitsubishi Electric Building Solutions Corporation | 3 |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. | 3 |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Toshiba anchors HVAC-plus-grid coverage; Johnson Controls leads US building-controls automation
The leader and primary challenger differ in both technology emphasis and recent trajectory, with Toshiba’s filing momentum declining sharply while Johnson Controls shows a more moderate pullback with a larger recent-period absolute count.
Toshiba
Toshiba holds 94 patent records in the ranking, the largest share among all filers. Its technology emphasis spans F24F 11 (air conditioning and ventilation control, 78 records), G06Q 50 (business and admin data processing, 20 records), and H02J 3 (power supply and grid systems, 20 records), reflecting a broad HVAC-to-grid integration portfolio. Recent momentum is sharply lower at 1 recent filing, a trend of –95% versus the prior period, indicating the core portfolio may be maturing with limited fresh claim generation.
patent records: 94Johnson Controls Technology
Johnson Controls Technology holds 60 patent records and focuses on G05B 15 (control and regulating systems, 45 records), F24F 11 (air conditioning and ventilation, 27 records), and G05B 19 (control and regulating systems, 22 records), reflecting a building-automation and supervisory-control emphasis. Recent filings stand at 13, with a trend of –35% versus the prior period — a decline, but from a more active recent base than Toshiba, making Johnson Controls the most active incumbent in terms of ongoing prosecution.
patent records: 60| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Corporation | 1 | ▼ -95% |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | 13 | ▼ -35% |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Robert J. Mowris | 5 | ▼ -55% |
| Lennox Industries Inc. | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Melrok LLC | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Azbil Corporation | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
Grid integration and digital data processing are under-served relative to the dominant HVAC core
The five branches flagged as lower-share adjacent areas each have plausible technical linkage to building energy management but carry substantially fewer patent records than the dominant F24F and G05B classes. These are observations of relative sparsity; whether they represent actionable opportunities depends on a firm’s technical capabilities and go-to-market path.
H02J · Power supply and grid systems
With 198 patent records this branch holds the fourth-largest absolute count but only an 8% share of total branch coverage, leaving meaningful headroom relative to F24F’s dominance. The technical value is concrete: demand-response, virtual power plant integration, and building-to-grid interfaces are active regulatory and commercial priorities. An entrant with grid-side expertise and existing building controls relationships has a realistic path via claims on bidirectional energy scheduling and islanding controls for commercial buildings.
Search this in Eureka →G06F · Electric digital data processing
At 92 patent records and 4% share, G06F covers the computational substrate for energy data analytics, digital twin modeling, and edge-compute architectures within buildings. This branch sits adjacent to both the G05B control layer and the G06N AI-model layer (55 records), and sparse coverage suggests that software-defined energy management platforms — particularly those combining edge inference with cloud optimization — remain relatively open terrain. Entry is most realistic for software and platform firms that can articulate novel data-processing architectures rather than hardware-dependent HVAC claims.
Search this in Eureka →How top filers differ across core technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | F24F 11 · Air conditioning & ventilation | G05B 15 · Control & regulating systems | G06Q 50 · Business, commerce & admin data processing | H02J 3 · Power supply & grid systems | H02J 13 · Power supply & grid systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyocera Corporation | Strong · 26 | Strong · 51 | Emerging · 10 | Moderate · 19 | Strong · 32 |
| Toshiba Corporation | Strong · 78 | Emerging · 14 | Moderate · 20 | Moderate · 20 | Absent |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | Strong · 27 | Strong · 45 | Moderate · 14 | Moderate · 11 | Moderate · 16 |
| Melrok LLC | Absent | Strong · 16 | Moderate · 6 | Strong · 14 | Strong · 14 |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | Strong · 34 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | Strong · 18 | Absent | Moderate · 6 | Absent | Absent |
| Liikennevirta Oy (Virta Ltd.) | Absent | Strong · 7 | Strong · 5 | Strong · 7 | Strong · 5 |
Frequently asked questions
Toshiba leads the ranking with 94 patent records among the top-100 filers, followed by Kyocera with 77 and Johnson Controls Technology with 60. The top five collectively account for 34% of the combined total of the hundred largest filers.
Air conditioning and ventilation control (F24F) is the largest single branch, followed by control and regulating systems (G05B) and business and admin data processing (G06Q). Power supply and grid systems (H02J) forms a meaningful secondary tier, reflecting growing interest in grid-interactive buildings.
Annual filing volume peaked in 2017 and has eased since, placing the field in a declining phase on the evidence available. The most recent years (2025–2026) show low counts that are partly attributable to publication lag, so those specific years should be treated as floors rather than final readings.
The United States is the primary filing office by a wide margin, followed by Japan and Europe (EPO). South Korea, China, and India each carry notable but smaller filing volumes. US prosecution and freedom-to-operate analysis should be the highest priority for any participant.
The most-cited works cover facility management control interfaces (835 citations), statistical control and fault analysis systems (490 citations), energy-use control methods (333 citations), and predictive building control with fault analysis. These high-citation patents signal that supervisory control, fault detection, and energy analytics are the most foundational areas of prior art.
The branches with the lowest relative share compared with the dominant HVAC core include H02J (power supply and grid systems at 8% share), G06F (electric digital data processing at 4% share), G05D (control of non-electric variables at 3% share), G05F (electric and magnetic variable control at 3% share), and H04L (digital information transmission at 3% share). These are observations of sparsity; technical and commercial fit must be assessed independently before treating any as an entry opportunity.
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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.