Engine Health Monitoring (IoT) Patent Snapshot 2026
IoT-based engine health monitoring is a mature, tightly held field dominated by a small cluster of aerospace OEMs and their corporate family members, with Rolls-Royce PLC holding the largest recorded position. Activity peaked in 2017 and has since eased, leaving a concentrated but relatively static assignee snapshot.
Rolls-Royce and RTX lead a highly concentrated field
The top five filers collectively account for 92% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined patent records, a level of concentration that signals entrenched incumbency. Rolls-Royce PLC sits at the top of the applicant ranking, followed by RTX Corp and United Technologies Corp.
The tier gap between the leader and the rest is substantial: Rolls-Royce PLC’s record count is notably higher than the next-ranked applicant, RTX Corp. Beyond the top three, volume drops quickly, with Siemens Energy Inc and Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp holding smaller but non-trivial positions.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rolls-Royce PLC | 16 | |
| 2 | RTX Corp | 10 | |
| 3 | United Technologies Corporation | 9 | |
| 4 | Rolls-Royce Corporation | 6 | |
| 5 | Siemens Energy Inc | 4 | |
| 6 | PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP | 2 | |
| 7 | Raytheon Technologies Corporation | 1 | |
| 8 | General Electric Company | 1 |
The leaders’ positions reflect long-standing aerospace engine programs rather than recent IoT-first strategies — their filings are rooted in turbine control and gas-turbine plant IP, which gives incumbents broad defensive coverage against new entrants pursuing the same core hardware.
The most recent filing years are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; conclusions about recent competitive dynamics should be treated as provisional until more applications publish. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity peaked in 2017; turbine-centric IPC classes dominate
The annual trend and technology composition charts together show a field that established its foundational claims early and has not seen a sustained second wave of activity. The IPC mix confirms that coverage is overwhelmingly concentrated in gas-turbine and rotating-machinery subclasses.
Annual filing trend
Filing volume peaked sharply in 2017 and has eased since, consistent with a maturing field. Years from roughly 2024 onward reflect publication lag and should not be read as zero activity; any new filings in that window will appear as counts rise with time.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F01D (turbines and non-positive engines) accounts for the largest share of IPC classifications, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) and G01M (machine and structure testing). IoT-oriented communication and electronics subclasses such as H04L and H04Q appear at the margins, indicating that network-layer and data-transmission claims remain relatively sparse within this corpus.
↗ 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.
Gas turbine engine health monitoring system with s…
A controller for a gas turbine engine is disclosed. The controller is configured to measure a first rotational speed of a shaft of the engine at a first end of the shaft and to measure a second rotational speed of the shaft at a second end. The first end may be coupled to a turbine of the engine and the second end may be coupled to a compressor of the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Torque sensor monitoring for gas turbine engine | 100 |
| 2 | Device and method for controlling stator vane asse… | 42 |
| 3 | Engine Health Monitoring Using Acoustic Sensors | 26 |
| 4 | Gas turbine engine health monitoring system with s… | 25 |
| 5 | Auxiliary drive bowed rotor prevention system for … | 25 |
| 6 | Gas turbine engine bowed rotor avoidance system | 21 |
| 7 | Shaft anti-rotation device | 20 |
| 8 | Determining the deterioration of a gas turbine eng… | 16 |
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.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Rolls-Royce PLC
Rolls-Royce PLC leads the applicant ranking with 16 patent records, concentrated in F01D 21 (turbines and non-positive engines) and F02C 7 (gas-turbine plants). Their technology emphasis spans turbine fault detection and gas-turbine plant control, consistent with their civil and defence aero-engine programs. Momentum data shows a new-entrant signal in the most recent window, which at this base likely reflects publication timing rather than a genuine strategic shift.
patent records: 16RTX Corp
RTX Corp holds 10 patent records and its technology focus, per the applicant-level IPC data for its predecessor United Technologies Corp, centres on F01D 21 and F02C 7 — broadly the same turbine-health subclasses as the leader. RTX Corp’s recent momentum also shows a new-entrant signal at low volume, reflecting the corporate restructuring and name changes within the Raytheon/United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney family rather than a late-stage market entry.
patent records: 10Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 22 patent families. This is a focused dataset and reflects the relatively specialised intersection of IoT connectivity and engine health monitoring within the aerospace and industrial turbine sectors.
Rolls-Royce PLC leads the applicant ranking with 16 patent records, followed by RTX Corp with 10 and United Technologies Corp with 9. Note that several of these entities are related through corporate family structures.
Europe (EPO) is the lead filing office, with the United States as the second most active jurisdiction. The United Kingdom, Germany, WIPO (PCT), and Canada account for a smaller share of filings.
The lifecycle evidence places the field in a mature stage. Annual filing volume peaked in 2017 and has eased since. The most recent years carry publication lag and should not be read as zero activity, but the multi-year trend does not indicate a new growth wave.
F01D (turbines and non-positive engines) is the visible class, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) and G01M (testing machine and structure balance). IoT-specific communication subclasses such as H04L and H04Q appear only minimally, indicating sparse coverage of the network-layer aspects of engine health monitoring.
No co-applicant filings are recorded in this dataset. The field is characterised by individual, proprietary filing by aerospace OEMs, with no detectable alliance or consortium activity within the evidence available.
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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.
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