Built-Environment Digital Twins Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Filing growth of +400% between 2021 and 2024, the last year that can be read as complete before publication lag sets in.
- One leader, then a long tail the top-ranked assignee holds 9 records while fifth place holds just 2 and tenth place holds 1.
- Control systems dominate the claim space G05B covers 62.1% of the 29 records in scope, far ahead of every other IPC subclass.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 records) with 2024 (5) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field.
What this dataset covers
Built-environment digital twins sit at the intersection of building automation and simulation software: systems that model a building, campus or district as a live graph of sensors, assets and relationships, then use that model to predict, calibrate or recommend action. The search scope combines building or urban digital twin terms with district energy, municipal data platform, environmental sensor and related built-system language, which keeps the corpus tight at 29 published records rather than pulling in generic smart-building filings that never mention a twin or simulation layer.
That tight scope means the dataset is a lens on a specific, still-forming claim space rather than the whole of smart-building IP. Readers should treat family-level counts as the fairer comparison unit, and should discount the very latest filing years, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 29-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
From zero to a 2022 peak
Annual filings moved from 0 in 2017 to a peak of 14 in 2022, then continued at a lower but active pace; the documented +400% growth from 2021 (1 record) to 2024 (5 records) is the clearest trend signal here, since 2025 and 2026 are still filling in under publication lag.
Control and data processing lead by a wide margin
G05B control and regulating systems appear in 62.1% of records and G06F data processing in 44.8%, together framing this as a controls-and-software field first. Business/admin data processing, healthcare informatics and digital transmission each sit at 10.3%, with AI-model computing at 6.9% and air-conditioning-specific and non-electric control classes each at 3.4% — thin enough to flag as still-open branches rather than settled ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 29 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Built-Environment Digital Twins Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Artificial intelligence generated correlators for building digital twin
A building system can include one or more storage devices storing instructions thereon, that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to generate a building graph, the building graph including nodes representing entities of a building and edges between the nodes, the edges representing relationships between the entities. The building system can execute an artificial intelligence service, the artificial intelligence service to receive at least one of data describing the entities, at least one node of the nodes, or at least one edge of the edges as an input and output a correlator type that identifies that a first entity type of a first entity of the entities.Filed by Tyco Fire & Security GmbH, published 2024-11-28 as US20240394281A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200234220A1 | Smart building automation system with employee productivity features | 38 |
| 2 | US20230106530A1 | Calibration System and Method for Calibrating an Industrial System Model using Simulation Failure | 17 |
| 3 | US20230169223A1 | Building data platform with digital twin based predictive recommendation visualization | 13 |
| 4 | US20230360802A1 | Medical and healthcare service platforms and uses thereof | 10 |
| 5 | US20250139313A1 | Method and systems for live digital twin visualization | 9 |
| 6 | US20230169224A1 | Building data platform with digital twin based virtual indicators | 8 |
| 7 | US20240394281A1 | Artificial intelligence generated correlators for building digital twin | 7 |
| 8 | US20230168640A1 | Building data platform with digital twin based historical scenario generation | 6 |
| 9 | US20230168638A1 | Building data platform with digital twin based situational experimentation | 3 |
| 10 | US20240295336A1 | Building digital twin system for building health | 2 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to be cited; read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs of the dataset that matter more for strategy than the raw counts alone.
Growth is real but from a small base
Annual filings rose from 1 record in 2021 to 5 in 2024, and the corpus peaked at 14 filings in 2022. That is meaningful growth for a 29-record field, but the base is small enough that a handful of new filers can shift the picture quickly.
Control logic is the crowded layer
Control and regulating systems (G05B) and digital data processing (G06F) between them cover most of the corpus. New filings that sit purely in these two classes are entering the densest part of the claim space.
Filing activity is US-centric with a secondary India cluster
Of the receiving offices recorded, the United States accounts for 20 filings, with India carrying 4 and Europe, WIPO and national European offices splitting the remainder. A digital twin filer weighing jurisdiction should read the US concentration as the default competitive venue.
Older automation filings still anchor the field
The most-cited record in the set, on smart building automation with employee productivity features, carries 38 citations — well ahead of the next entries. That gap reflects age and searched-corpus visibility as much as present-day relevance.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to built-environment digital twins patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranking returned by the dataset covers 10 companies; it is not a top-50 or top-100 list, and the tail is long even within that count.
One clear leader ahead of a thin field
The top-ranked assignee holds 9 of the ranked records, well ahead of fifth place at 2 and tenth place at 1. That gap suggests one organisation has built a genuine filing programme around building digital twins while most others hold a handful of filings each.
Momentum has shifted to newer, smaller filers
In the most recent year, momentum sits with assignees filing just 1 record each rather than with the historical leader, which shows 0 in the latest year. That is a useful signal that the incumbent's filing pace has slowed even as new entrants appear.
Collaboration is rare in this corpus
Only one co-assignee pairing recurs in the dataset, linking a university and a healthcare technology company, and it appears twice. Most records in this field are filed by a single assignee rather than through joint ventures or research partnerships.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Tyco Fire & Security GmbH | 1 | — |
| DHRUV AMITBHAI SHAH | 1 | — |
| Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 0 | — |
| PassiveLogic, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Rutgers University | 0 | — |
| Shenzhou Medical Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a controls-heavy field with a thin but growing set of filers. Two directions make sense from here.
Stress-test a filing position against the leader's claims
Run the top-ranked assignee's family through a freedom-to-operate read against the specific control and correlator claims flagged in this dataset before drafting adjacent claims.
Explore claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches as they fill in
F24F and G05D coverage is thin today; set an alert on new filings in those subclasses so a white-space window does not close unnoticed.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on built-environment digital twin patents
This dataset, scoped to building and urban digital twin filings combined with district energy, municipal data platform and environmental sensor terms, contains 29 published records spanning 2015 to 2026. That is a narrow, purpose-built search rather than a count of every smart-building patent in existence, so broader searches using looser terms will return larger numbers. Treat this figure as a lens on the digital twin overlay specifically, not on building automation generally.
The ranking returned by this dataset covers 10 companies, with one clear leader holding 9 of the ranked records and a long tail down to single-filing entrants at the bottom of the ranking. Recent-year momentum has shifted toward smaller filers rather than the historical leader, whose latest-year count sits at 0. Anyone tracking this space should watch both the incumbent's granted claims and the newer entrants filing at a pace of one record per year.
Control and regulating systems, IPC class G05B, appear in 62.1% of the 29 records in scope, making it the single densest class in the field. Electric digital data processing (G06F) follows at 44.8%, with business data processing, healthcare informatics and digital transmission each around 10.3%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as parts of a whole.
Filing activity rose from 1 record in 2021 to 5 in 2024, a documented increase of 400% over that three-year span, with an overall peak of 14 filings in 2022. Growth since 2024 cannot yet be judged reliably because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to rise as later filings publish. The honest read is steady growth off a small base rather than a settled trajectory.
The thinnest IPC coverage in this dataset sits in air-conditioning-specific control (F24F) and non-electric variable control (G05D), each present in only 3.4% of records, alongside AI-model-driven computing (G06N) at 6.9%. These are areas where the dominant control-and-software claim space has not yet been fully occupied. A first claim drafted around district-scale energy twins or municipal data platform interoperability would face comparatively little prior art in this corpus.
US20240394281A1, filed by Tyco Fire & Security GmbH and published 2024-11-28, claims a building system that generates a graph of building entities and relationships and applies an AI service to output a correlator type identifying relationships between entity types. It sits squarely in the G05B/G06F overlap that dominates this dataset. Anyone building AI-driven entity-correlation features into a building digital twin should read its claims closely before finalising an architecture.
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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.