Industrial Automation Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 40.4% concentration. The five leading assignees account for 3,427 of 8,490 records in scope — a market where claim space near control loops and process variables is already crowded at the top.
- Filings cooled from a 2021 peak. Activity ran from 936 records in 2021 to 470 in 2024, a 50% decline over that span, even as AI-adjacent classes kept a foothold in the mix.
- Control systems still dominate the IPC mix. G05B (control & regulating systems) appears on 37.6% of records, ahead of digital processing and wireless transmission classes that increasingly overlap with it.
Filing growth compares 2021 (936 records) with 2024 (470) — 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 8,490 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine industrial automation and factory control terminology with core control-loop concepts such as controller output, process variable and equipment state. The scope spans classical process control, distributed sensor networks, and the newer layer of AI-based analytics and industrial IoT platforms built on top of them. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real activity.
Filing concentrated heavily around a peak in 2021, coinciding with a wave of industrial IoT and wireless-sensor filings, before easing back through 2024. The technology composition shows control and regulating systems as the anchor class, with digital data processing, wireless networking and AI-model computing classes layered on top — evidence that automation patents increasingly bundle classical control claims with data and connectivity claims in the same family.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 8,490-record dataset: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Records rose from 273 in 2017 to a peak of 936 in 2021, then declined to 470 by 2024 — a 50% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
IPC subclass composition
G05B (control & regulating systems) leads at 37.6% of records, followed by G06F (electric digital data processing) at 25.0% and H04L (digital information transmission) at 22.4%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% of the 8,490 records in scope — a signal that control, compute and connectivity claims routinely overlap in the same family.
Shares are the percentage of the 8,490 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Industrial Automation Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about industrial automation patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
US12045041B2 — Wireless communication for industrial automation (ABB Schweiz AG, 2024-07-23)
An industrial automation device receives operational information from a sensor device over a first wireless connection, then transmits that operational information together with internal technical information to a cloud server over a second wireless connection. The device adjusts one or more control parameter settings based at least partly on the operational information and the internal technical information.The claim structure ties a two-hop wireless relay (sensor-to-device, device-to-cloud) directly to a control-parameter adjustment step, rather than treating monitoring and control as separate systems.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7020701B1 | Method for collecting and processing data using internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 1,457 |
| 2 | US6735630B1 | Method for collecting data using compact internetworked wireless integrated network sensors (WINS) | 1,420 |
| 3 | US6859831B1 | Method and apparatus for internetworked wireless integrated network sensor (WINS) nodes | 1,178 |
| 4 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 5 | US20030109951A1 | Monitoring system for an industrial process using one or more multidimensional variables | 772 |
| 6 | US20200259896A1 | Industrial Automation with 5G and Beyond | 750 |
| 7 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 8 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 9 | US6832251B1 | Method and apparatus for distributed signal processing among internetworked wireless integrated network senso… | 668 |
| 10 | US5111401A | Navigational control system for an autonomous vehicle | 662 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data says about where this field is headed
Three findings that shape where to file, who to watch, and which claim space is already occupied.
The top of the field is dense
Five assignees hold 3,427 of the 8,490 records in scope. That level of concentration means core control-loop and process-variable claims near the leaders' filings are likely to sit on top of existing prior art, particularly where wireless sensor relay and cloud-adjustment claims overlap with control-parameter settings.
Volume has pulled back from its 2021 peak
The 2021 spike lines up with a wave of industrial IoT and wireless sensor network filings; the pullback to 2024 does not necessarily mean less innovation, since claim scope may have simply consolidated around the leaders already in the ranking. 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete because of publication lag.
Control, compute and connectivity claims now travel together
G05B remains the anchor class, but a quarter of records also carry electric digital data processing claims and over a fifth carry digital transmission claims. Filings that isolate pure control-loop mechanics without a data or connectivity layer are becoming the exception rather than the rule.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to industrial automation patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Siemens AG | XU BIN | 5 |
| Siemens AG | JIE MING | 5 |
| Siemens AG | FENG SHANGKE | 5 |
| Siemens AG | SIEMENS CORP | 4 |
| Fisher Controls International LLC | LARSON BRENT H | 4 |
| Fisher Controls International LLC | BURNS HARRY A | 4 |
| Fisher Controls International LLC | BROWN LARRY K | 4 |
| NVIDIA Corp | XIE ENZE | 3 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings link a single large assignee to individual named inventors rather than to other companies — a sign that most automation patents here are filed solely by one corporate owner.
Who is filing, and where activity is slowing
The ranked leaders span classical process-control vendors, industrial IoT platform owners and consumer electronics companies now filing into control-parameter claim space.
A single assignee holds a wide lead
The leading assignee's record count is more than six times the fifth-place figure of 208, underscoring how much of this field's earliest and broadest claim territory sits with one filer.
The drop-off past the top five is steep
Tenth place sits at 155 records, well below the fifth-place figure of 208, and the top 10 combined reach 50.6% of all 8,490 records — meaning the remaining 90 ranked companies share the other half.
Even top filers pulled back in the latest year
Momentum data shows double-digit percentage declines year over year across several of the largest assignees in the latest tracked year, consistent with the broader 2021-to-2024 pullback rather than a single company's retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Corp | 16 | -76% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 7 | -56% |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | 5 | -86% |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC | 1 | -75% |
| Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. | 1 | 0% |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) | 1 | — |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Siemens AG | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field where core control claims are occupied but the data and AI layer on top is still moving.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top 10
With 50.6% of all 8,490 records held by ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate check against just this group covers half the field's filed claim space.
Run a freedom-to-operate scanTrack the AI-control overlap
G06N appears on 15.1% of records alongside G05B, suggesting AI-based control-parameter adjustment is an active claim frontier rather than a settled one.
Explore AI-control filingsWatch momentum, not just volume
Several leading assignees show sharp year-over-year declines in the latest tracked year; confirming whether this reflects publication lag or an actual pullback matters before drawing conclusions.
Check recent filing momentumCommon questions about industrial automation patents
The dataset's assignee ranking shows one company clearly ahead of the field, with 1,300 records compared with 208 at fifth place and 155 at tenth. The top five assignees combined hold 3,427 of the 8,490 records in scope, or 40.4% of the field, so a small group of companies controls a disproportionate share of filed claims. This concentration spans classical process-control vendors alongside newer industrial IoT and AI-computing entrants, so a single-industry view of 'who leads' is incomplete without checking both groups.
Filing peaked at 936 records in 2021 and had fallen to 470 by 2024, a 50% decline over that three-year window using the only two years in the dataset that can be treated as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years should not be read as continuing the decline. The honest read is that the 2021 surge, likely tied to a wave of industrial IoT filings, has settled to a lower but still active baseline.
G05B, covering control and regulating systems, is the anchor class at 37.6% of the 8,490 records in scope. G06F (electric digital data processing) and H04L (digital information transmission) follow at 25.0% and 22.4% respectively, showing that most modern automation filings pair a control claim with a data-processing or connectivity claim rather than filing control mechanics alone. G06N, computing based on AI models, appears on 15.1% of records, marking AI-assisted control as a meaningful but not yet dominant slice.
US12045041B2, assigned to ABB Schweiz AG and published 2024-07-23, claims a method where an industrial automation device receives sensor data over one wireless connection and relays that data plus its own internal technical information to a cloud server over a second wireless connection, then adjusts its own control parameter settings based on that combined information. The claim structure specifically ties the two-hop wireless relay to a control-parameter adjustment step rather than treating monitoring and control as separate systems. Anyone building a device that both reports sensor data upstream and self-adjusts control parameters based on cloud feedback should check this claim scope closely.
Filing density is heaviest in core control-and-connectivity claims (G05B, G06F, H04L), while sub-areas such as cross-vendor equipment-state interoperability, edge-based AI model updates for control-loop tuning, and process-sensor calibration drift detection show comparatively thinner coverage relative to that core. Co-assignee filing is also rare across the dataset, with only 10 co-assignee pairs identified, suggesting collaborative filings between companies are uncommon and most claim territory is staked out by single corporate owners. That combination points to room for narrowly scoped claims in the interoperability and calibration layers rather than in the already-dense core control classes.
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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.