Datalink Communication for Air Traffic Control Patents
Filing peaked in 2020 at 5 records, then activity fell away sharply — 2021 to 2024 shows a documented -100% change, though 2025-26 figures are still filling in as publication catches up. Filings built toward a peak of 5 records in 2020, the high point of the entire window. The documented change from 2021 (1 record) to 2024 (0 records) is a -100% swing over three years — a real contraction in a field that was already small, not a rounding artefact. Years after 2024 are not yet complete in the data and should not be read as a continuation of decline.
- 1HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC10
- 2HONEYWELL AEROSPACE SAS6
- 3THALES SA2
- 4ROCKWELL COLLINS INC1
- 5ALCABIN MONICA S1
See the full datalink communication for air traffic control analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on this landscape
Who holds the most patents on CPDLC and aeronautical datalink technology?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 10 records out of 25 ranked companies, a clear margin over the rest of the list. Beneath that leader the field thins quickly: the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked assignees each hold only a single record. This pattern — one established filer plus a long tail of one-off filers — is typical of a specialised avionics niche rather than a broadly contested technology area.
Is patent filing activity in datalink ATC communication growing or shrinking?
Filing peaked at 5 records in 2020, the high point across the whole 2015-2026 window, and the documented change from 2021 to 2024 is -100%, a real contraction. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025-26 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as proof the field has stopped moving. The safest reading is that the field saw a filing burst around 2020 followed by a quieter period that current data cannot yet fully characterise.
Which patent classification dominates datalink ATC filings?
G08G, the traffic control systems subclass, appears in 85.0% of the 20 records in scope, making it the dominant classification by a wide margin. G01C (navigation) and G06F (digital data processing) each cover 15.0% of records, and several other classes including H04L and H04B sit around 10.0%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%, so they describe technical overlap rather than a clean split of the field.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Datalink Communication for Air Traffic Control covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.