Demand Response Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2019 peak. 41 families that year against 28 in 2017 and a flat-to-declining run through the 2022 midpoint of 14 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- H02J and G06Q dominate, almost evenly. 366 records sit in power-supply/grid control (H02J) versus 327 in business/commerce data processing (G06Q), showing the field splits between grid hardware control and program/billing logic.
- The US is the clear filing venue of choice. 353 of the tracked records were filed at the USPTO, more than the EPO (126), WIPO (78), Canada (72), Australia (50) and China (46) combined with room to spare.
Filing growth compares 2021 (19 records) with 2024 (16) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 874 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 874 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine demand response or demand-side management concepts with direct load control, grid-interactive response, or automated load curtailment. The scope spans both the control-systems side of demand response (switching loads, managing distributed resources) and the business-logic side (customer enrollment, incentive calculation, program administration), which is why the IPC composition splits so evenly between H02J grid hardware and G06Q commerce/administration codes.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has not recovered since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting well below that peak. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one or two years in any trend chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but even accounting for that lag, the broader shape is a plateau rather than continued acceleration.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 874-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the technical sub-fields inside demand response.
A 2019 peak followed by a plateau
Filings rose from 28 in 2017 to a peak of 41 in 2019, then settled near the 2022 midpoint of 14 — a flat-to-declining pattern rather than sustained growth, though the most recent one to two years are understated by publication lag.
Grid control and business logic split the field
H02J (power supply and grid systems, 366 records) and G06Q (business, commerce and admin data processing, 327 records) lead by a wide margin over G06F (169), G05B (160), G05D (133), F24F (109), H04L (95) and G01R (60), confirming demand response patents cluster around both hardware control and program-administration logic rather than any single narrow technique.
Shares are the percentage of the 874 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Demand Response System Smart Grid with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about demand response system smart grid and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
Systems and methods to implement demand response events (US9125010B2)
A computing device for use with a demand response system is provided. The computing device includes an interface for receiving customer data that includes at least a location for each customer and/or a preference selection made by each customer associated with at least one demand response program. A processor coupled to the interface and programmed to select a plurality of participants from the customer data to receive a plurality of signals representative of at least one demand response event. The processor selects the participants based at least in part on the customer location and/or the preference selection associated with each customer.Filed by GE Digital Holdings LLC, published 2015-09-01 — anchors participant-selection logic for demand response event signaling.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110231320A1 | Energy management systems and methods | 525 |
| 2 | US20090187499A1 | System, Method and Computer Program Product for Providing Demand Response Functionality | 383 |
| 3 | US20110106328A1 | Energy optimization system | 363 |
| 4 | US20110196546A1 | Systems and methods for demand response and distributed energy resource management | 358 |
| 5 | US20100235008A1 | System and method for determining carbon credits utilizing two-way devices that report power usage data | 347 |
| 6 | US20110172841A1 | Method and Apparatus for Actively Managing Consumption of Electric Power Supplied by One or More Electric Uti… | 316 |
| 7 | US20120083930A1 | Adaptive load management: a system for incorporating customer electrical demand information for demand and su… | 316 |
| 8 | US20090093916A1 | Utility managed virtual power plant utilizing aggregated thermal energy storage | 314 |
| 9 | US8359124B2 | Energy optimization system | 313 |
| 10 | US20110172837A1 | System and method for estimating and providing dispatchable operating reserve energy capacity through use of … | 298 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older, earlier-filed records — read this as a map of technical influence, not of which claims matter most today.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern tells a decision-maker
Three signals worth acting on before drafting new claims or scoping freedom-to-operate in this space.
The growth phase has passed
Filing peaked in 2019 and has trended down through the 2022 midpoint. New entrants are filing into a claim space that already has a dense prior-art layer rather than a wide-open one, even allowing for publication lag understating the latest years.
Two distinct claim families coexist
Grid-control hardware claims (H02J) and program/business-logic claims (G06Q) are filed in nearly equal volume. A freedom-to-operate search that only covers one side will miss half the relevant prior art.
The US is the primary battleground
Over 40% of tracked filings went through the USPTO, well ahead of the EPO, WIPO, Canada, Australia and China. Competitive monitoring and opposition strategy should weight US prosecution activity heaviest.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to demand response system smart grid, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Comverge, Inc. | Landis+Gyr Technologies, LLC | 6 |
| Comverge, Inc. | Landis+Gyr Innovations Ltd. | 6 |
| Comverge, Inc. | FORBES JOSEPH W JR | 5 |
| Comverge, Inc. | WEBB JOEL L | 4 |
| Aclara Technologies LLC | FLECK CHRISTOPHER K | 4 |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | PRATT ROBERT G | 3 |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | CHASSIN DAVID P | 3 |
| Comverge, Inc. | FORBES JR JOSEPH W | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest links tied to Comverge and its Landis+Gyr partnerships — most filers in this space are prosecuting independently rather than through joint ventures.
Assignee landscape and where the openings sit
Filing activity spans utilities, industrial conglomerates and software players, but recent-year momentum has cooled across the board rather than concentrating around one leader.
No assignee is currently accelerating
General Electric, Google, Comverge, Honeywell, Fujitsu and Toyota all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. This reads as a lull rather than exit, consistent with publication lag, but it means no single filer is pulling away right now.
Comverge anchors the only real cluster
The strongest co-filing links run through Comverge with Landis+Gyr entities and named inventor Joseph W. Forbes Jr., each appearing multiple times. Outside that cluster, co-assignment is rare.
US prosecution dominates the field
Assignees overwhelmingly route core demand response claims through the USPTO first, with EPO, WIPO, Canadian, Australian and Chinese filings trailing well behind — a pattern to weight into any global clearance search.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Google LLC | 0 | — |
| Comverge, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Fujitsu Limited | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | 0 | — |
| Viridity Energy, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific follow-up work depending on whether the goal is clearance, drafting, or competitive tracking.
Run a claim-level FTO check
With H02J and G06Q both dense, a freedom-to-operate search limited to one subclass will miss half the relevant filings. Cross both before committing to a claim strategy.
Explore in EurekaTrack the quiet assignees
Zero recent-year filings from several large assignees may reflect publication lag rather than withdrawal. Re-run momentum tracking as later years populate.
Explore in EurekaScope the under-claimed branches
F24F, G01R and H04L carry meaningfully fewer records than the core subclasses. These are worth a closer prior-art read before assuming the space is closed.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on demand response patents
Not currently, based on this dataset. Filings peaked in 2019 at 41 families and had fallen to 14 by the 2022 midpoint, a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than continued growth. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very latest years in any trend chart understate true activity, but the multi-year decline predates that lag effect. Anyone entering now is filing into a plateaued field with an established prior-art base rather than an emerging one.
The 874 tracked families split fairly evenly between grid hardware control (H02J, 366 records) and business or administrative logic such as customer enrollment and incentive calculation (G06Q, 327 records). Supporting subclasses include general digital processing (G06F), control and regulating systems (G05B and G05D), HVAC-specific applications (F24F), communications (H04L), and measurement (G01R). A search or drafting strategy that only covers hardware control claims will miss a substantial share of relevant prior art sitting in the business-logic subclasses.
The United States, by a wide margin. Of the tracked records, 353 were filed at the USPTO, compared with 126 at the EPO, 78 through WIPO's PCT route, 72 in Canada, 50 in Australia and 46 in China. This concentration suggests that competitive monitoring, licensing negotiations and opposition strategy in this field should weight US prosecution activity most heavily, while treating the other jurisdictions as secondary but still relevant markets.
Assignees named in recent-year momentum tracking include General Electric, Google, Comverge, Honeywell, Fujitsu and Toyota, though notably all six show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Comverge stands out for co-filing activity, appearing in the dataset's strongest co-assignee pairs alongside Landis+Gyr entities and inventor Joseph W. Forbes Jr. No single assignee currently shows accelerating momentum, which points to a field where leadership is more distributed than concentrated at the top.
Relative to the dense H02J and G06Q core, subclasses like F24F (HVAC-specific load curtailment), G01R (measurement and two-way metering protocols), H04L (communication-layer signaling for load events) and G05D (non-electric variable control integration) carry noticeably fewer records. That lower density does not guarantee an easy path to grant, but it does suggest these adjacent branches warrant a closer prior-art read before assuming the space is fully claimed. Co-assignment is also rare across the dataset, meaning most white space around joint development structures remains unexplored too.
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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.