Electronic Toll Collection Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Filing has plateaued, not grown. the field peaked at 11 records in 2021 and sat at 9 by the 2022 midpoint, with no clear resumption of growth since.
- The top of the field is genuinely concentrated. five assignees account for 37.0% of all 165 records in scope, and the leader alone holds 20 records against a fifth-place figure of just 7.
- Almost nine in ten records touch fare-registering hardware. 88.5% of records carry a G07B classification, while image-based recognition (G06V) appears in only 3.6% — a wide gap between the ticketing core and the vision layer.
What the electronic toll collection patent record actually shows
Electronic toll collection (ETC) patenting sits at the intersection of fare-registering hardware, traffic-control logic and, increasingly, vehicle recognition. The dataset in scope covers 165 published records filed against a search spanning 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, classified under IPC codes for ticket and fare-registering apparatus (G07B), traffic control systems (G08G) and image/video recognition (G06V). Filing activity is not evenly spread: a small group of assignees files repeatedly while a long tail files once or twice, and the technical content is dominated by fare-registering and lane-control claims rather than by the license-plate-recognition and interoperability layers that get more public attention.
Publication normally lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so the most recent year in any trend understates real activity; treat the final year on the chart as a floor, not a ceiling. Family-level counting is used throughout so that continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates in a single program do not inflate any one assignee's apparent footprint.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 165 records: how filing has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A decade of flat, not rising, activity
Annual filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2021, then held near that level through the 2022 midpoint of 9 before easing off — a pattern consistent with a mature claim space rather than an emerging one. The 2026 figure of 1 reflects the publication lag and should not be read as a collapse.
Fare-registering dominates; recognition and connectivity are thinner
G07B (ticket and fare-registering) appears in 88.5% of records and G08G (traffic control) in 47.9%, confirming that most filing effort still targets core toll-transaction mechanics and lane management. Business-process claims under G06Q reach 15.8%, while data-recognition classes (G06K at 7.9%, G06V at 3.6%) and digital transmission (H04L at 4.2%) are comparatively under-claimed given how much commercial ETC discussion centres on license-plate recognition and connected-vehicle interoperability.
Shares are the percentage of the 165 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electronic Toll Collection Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electronic toll collection systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in the field
Automatic license plate recognition system integrated in an electronic toll collection system (US20090202105A1)
Filed by BRISA-Auto Estradas de Portugal, this record integrates an ALPR (Advanced License Plate Recognition) pipeline directly into an electronic toll collection system, covering single-lane free-flow, multi-lane open-road tolling, manual and semi-automatic lanes. The claims cover panoramic rear-vehicle imaging, automatic recognition of both rear and front plates, and generation of a standardized photographic record for enforcement.One of the field's most-cited records, at 110 citations within the searched corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020072963A1 | Traffic information & pricing (TIP) system | 210 |
| 2 | US8587454B1 | System and method for providing electronic toll collection to users of wireless mobile devices | 155 |
| 3 | US20090202105A1 | Automatic license plate recognition system integrated in an electronic toll collection system | 110 |
| 4 | CN101350109A | 多车道自由流视频车辆定位和控制方法 | 84 |
| 5 | US20100085213A1 | High occupancy vehicle status signaling using electronic toll collection infrastructure | 74 |
| 6 | US20090231161A1 | Real-time vehicle position determination using communications with variable latency | 74 |
| 7 | US20070268140A1 | Method of enabling two-state operation of electronic toll collection system | 65 |
| 8 | US8384560B2 | Real-time vehicle position determination using communications with variable latency | 58 |
| 9 | US20080278347A1 | Electronic toll collection system with multi-beam antennas | 56 |
| 10 | US8730066B2 | Real-time vehicle position determination using communications with variable latency | 53 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
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 filing and citation data that matter more than the raw counts alone.
The top of the field is narrow, the tail is long
Five assignees account for 37.0% of all 165 records in scope, rising to 50.9% across the top ten. With a leader at 20 records and fifth place at only 7, the drop-off is steep — most of the remaining 83 ranked companies hold only a handful of filings each.
Vision-based recognition is thin relative to core ticketing
Fare-registering apparatus (G07B) shows up in 88.5% of records, but image/video recognition (G06V) appears in only 3.6%. Given how central automatic license-plate recognition is to modern free-flow tolling, this gap suggests the recognition layer is comparatively open relative to the ticketing core.
Activity has flattened since 2021
Filing rose to a peak of 11 records in 2021, held at 9 through the 2022 midpoint, and has not shown renewed growth since. Recent-year momentum figures for several established assignees sit at zero, consistent with a field where core claims are largely staked out.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electronic toll collection systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gates sit
The ranked assignee list spans 83 companies, from a leader with 20 records to a long tail of single- and double-digit filers.
One assignee sets the pace
The leading assignee holds 20 of the 165 records in scope, well ahead of a fifth-place figure of 7 and a tenth-place figure of 4. That gap between first and fifth is the clearest sign of where core claim territory is already staked.
Co-assignment is rare and mostly automotive
Only five co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest link occurring between two automotive-group entities at four shared records. Most filing in this field happens under a single assignee name rather than through joint ventures.
Filing is split across two large markets
China and the United States are the two largest receiving offices by a wide margin, with Europe, Taiwan and Canada each contributing single-digit-to-low-double-digit shares. This split points to two separately evolving regulatory and interoperability environments rather than one global standard.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kapsch TrafficCom AG | 0 | — |
| Neology Inc. | 0 | — |
| Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Mark IV Industries Corp. | 0 | — |
| DE JONGE WIEBREN | 0 | — |
| Kia Corporation | 0 | — |
| Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) | 0 | — |
| Suzhou Guoxuan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or competitive monitoring.
Check claim scope before filing near the ticketing core
With 88.5% of records touching G07B, any new fare-registering claim is likely to sit close to existing art. A claim-by-claim comparison against the top-cited records is a reasonable first filter.
Explore claim charts in EurekaAssess the recognition-layer gap
G06V representation at 3.6% is low relative to how much commercial attention license-plate recognition receives. That gap deserves a closer look before assuming the space is crowded.
Run a whitespace search in EurekaTrack the leading assignees' recent activity
Several established assignees show zero recent-year filings, which may mean a shift in strategy, a plateaued portfolio, or activity not yet published. Monitoring near-term filings from these entities will clarify which it is.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about electronic toll collection patents
The dataset in scope contains 165 published records across the 2015–2026 window, counted at the family level to avoid double-counting continuations and multi-jurisdiction filings. These records are classified under IPC codes covering fare-registering apparatus (G07B), traffic control (G08G), image recognition (G06V) and related classes. This is a bounded search result, not a claim to cover every ETC-related filing worldwide, so scope and search terms matter when comparing to other counts.
The ranked list covers 83 assignees, with the leader holding 20 records against a fifth-place figure of 7 and a tenth-place figure of 4. That is a steep drop-off from first to fifth, meaning a small number of companies hold a disproportionate share of the field's core claims while the remaining ranked companies each hold only a handful of filings. Concentration figures show the top 5 assignees combined account for 37.0% of all 165 records, rising to 50.9% across the top 10.
Filing activity peaked at 11 records in 2021 and has not clearly resumed growth since, with the 2022 midpoint sitting at 9. The 2026 figure of 1 reflects an incomplete year combined with the roughly eighteen-month lag between filing and publication, so it understates real recent activity rather than showing a sudden drop. Taken together, the trend reads as flat-to-declining rather than expanding.
Image and video recognition under G06V appears in only 3.6% of the 165 records, and digital transmission under H04L in just 4.2%, both notably thinner than the 88.5% share carried by core fare-registering claims under G07B. Given how central automatic license-plate recognition and connected-vehicle data transmission are to modern free-flow tolling, these under-represented classes are worth a closer freedom-to-operate and whitespace review before assuming the space is fully occupied. Cross-operator interoperability is another area with comparatively few dedicated records relative to its practical importance.
US20090202105A1, filed by Brisa-Auto Estradas de Portugal, integrates automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) directly into an electronic toll collection system, covering free-flow, open-road, manual and semi-automatic tolling lanes. It is one of the more heavily cited records in this field, at 110 citations within the searched corpus, reflecting its influence over how ALPR-integrated tolling has been claimed since. Anyone designing a plate-recognition-based tolling system should review its specific claim language on panoramic imaging and dual front/rear plate checking before finalizing a design.
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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.