Fault Location in Distribution Networks Patents: Top Companies 2026
Fault Location in Distribution Networks: Patents, Leaders and Filing Trends
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 72.4% of all 87 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 92.0% — a small group of utilities and grid vendors controls most of the claim space. Filings climbed from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 19 in 2022, then eased in the years that follow — though 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown. The 2021-to-2024 span alone shows a +500% rise, from 1 to 6 records.
- 1ABB (SCHWEIZ) AG37
- 2WINTER BROTHERS AB10
- 3ALSTOM TECH LTD6
- 4SAFEGRID OY5
- 5STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA5
See the full fault location in distribution networks 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 about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in fault location for distribution networks?
Filing is concentrated: the top 5 assignees combine for 72.4% of the 87 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 92.0%. The single leading assignee holds 37 records, far ahead of the fifth-place holder at 5 and the tenth-place holder at 3. This means a small group of grid operators and equipment vendors controls most of the claimed methods, with a long tail of 31 ranked companies holding only a few filings each.
Is patent filing in this field growing or slowing down?
Filings grew sharply between 2021 and 2024, rising from 1 to 6 records, a +500% increase over that span, with 2022 the strongest year so far at 19 records. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine slowdown. Any read on recent-year momentum should treat the last one to two years as incomplete.
What technology areas do most fault location patents cover?
Two IPC subclasses dominate: G01R (electric and magnetic measurement) and H02H (protective circuit arrangements), each appearing in 66.7% of the 87 records. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares overlap rather than summing to 100%. Secondary classes such as H02J (power supply and grid systems) and H01H (switches and relays) appear far less often, at 9.2% and 5.7% respectively, and classes like G01N, G06F, H02M and G05B each cover under 3% of records — signalling much thinner coverage there.
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 Fault Location in Distribution Networks 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.