Industrial Networks Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 43.6% concentration. The top five assignees account for 983 of 2,255 records in scope, but the remaining 95 ranked companies still hold well over half the field.
- Digital transmission dominates the claims. H04L (digital information transmission) touches 56.9% of all records, ahead of G05B control systems at 39.2% — a sign the field has shifted from control-loop hardware to networked data.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. Volume ran 223 in 2017 and peaked at 297 in 2018; the leader's own recent-year filings dropped to zero, alongside several other large filers going quiet year-on-year.
Filing growth compares 2021 (150 records) with 2024 (89) — 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 2,255 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset covers 2,255 published records matched against industrial network terminology combined with process-control concepts such as process variable, equipment state, failure prediction, control loop and process sensor. The scope spans devices and software that connect factory-floor sensors, controllers and equipment into networks capable of monitoring process state and predicting failure, rather than pure networking hardware or pure process-control theory in isolation.
Filings cluster heavily around digital transmission and control-system IPC classes, which points to a field increasingly defined by how process data moves and is interpreted rather than by the control mechanism alone. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the largest single venue, with EPO, WIPO/PCT, Germany, Austria and India also carrying meaningful volume, indicating multi-jurisdiction filing strategies among the larger assignees.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,255-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing volume, 2017–2026
Annual filings ran 223 in 2017, peaked at 297 in 2018, and had fallen to 29 by 2026 — though the 2026 figure is a partial year and the two or three years before any cut-off are always undercounted because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. Using only the years that are safely complete, volume moved from 150 in 2021 to 89 in 2024, a -41% change over that span.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04L (digital information transmission) appears in 56.9% of the 2,255 records in scope, well ahead of G05B control and regulating systems at 39.2% and G06F electric digital data processing at 23.8%. G06N — computing based on AI models — already reaches 16.4% of records, roughly on par with H04W wireless communication networks at 15.3%, suggesting AI-assisted analytics is now a mainstream claim element rather than a fringe one.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,255 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Industrial Networks Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about industrial networks patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Distributed security for industrial networks (US20040162996A1, Avaya Inc., 2004)
Distributed security for industrial networks is achieved through Security Policy Implementation Points (SPIPs) deployed on the network to apply security policy in a distributed fashion, preventing network users from taking action in particular areas of the network. Each SPIP integrates with network services to perform authentication and authorization on behalf of specific factory machines, groups of machines, or other industrial network resources, while maintaining a local access policy that allows emergency access to factory machines and attendant programmable logic controllers.Filed two decades before the bulk of this corpus, this record shows how early the distributed-policy-enforcement concept for industrial networks was staked out — a useful reference point for anything claiming per-zone or per-device network access control today.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 2 | US20200259896A1 | Industrial Automation with 5G and Beyond | 750 |
| 3 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 4 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 5 | US20050015624A1 | Event monitoring and management | 642 |
| 6 | US20180284758A1 | Methods and systems for industrial internet of things data collection for equipment analysis in an upstream o… | 600 |
| 7 | US20200225655A1 | Methods, systems, kits and apparatuses for monitoring and managing industrial settings in an industrial inter… | 563 |
| 8 | US20200103894A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for computerized maintena… | 514 |
| 9 | US20030014521A1 | Open platform architecture for shared resource access management | 505 |
| 10 | US20180131907A1 | Virtual reality and augmented reality for industrial automation | 438 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings, since they have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
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The concentration, class mix and citation pattern together describe a field where the largest players hold broad networking and analytics claims, while control-loop specifics remain more fragmented.
The top of the field is dense, the tail is long
The five largest assignees account for 983 of the 2,255 records in scope, and the top ten combined reach 1,241 records, or 55.0% of the field. That leaves close to half of all filings spread across the remaining 90 of the 100 ranked companies, which is where narrower, defensible claims are still being filed.
Data transmission claims now outnumber control claims
H04L (digital information transmission) appears in more records than G05B (control and regulating systems), 56.9% versus 39.2% of the 2,255-record total. That crossover reflects a field where the differentiating claim increasingly sits in how process data is transmitted, secured or interpreted rather than in the control mechanism itself.
Volume has pulled back from its 2018 peak
Filing activity peaked at 297 records in 2018 and, over the last span with reliably complete data, fell from 150 filings in 2021 to 89 in 2024. Several of the largest assignees show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, though later years should be read cautiously given the roughly 18-month publication lag.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to industrial networks patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Schneider Electric Systems USA, Inc. | Schneider Electric USA, Inc. | 4 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | ZHUANG JIANGUO | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | SICHNER GREGG M | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | PAI RAM | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | KRETSCHMANN ROBERT J | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | JIA QING | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | ENGDAHL JONATHAN R | 2 |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | BRANDT DAVID D | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings sit inside single corporate families rather than across competitors — a sign that collaboration on industrial-network filings is mostly an internal-entity affair, not a cross-company one.
Who is filing, and who has gone quiet
The ranked leaders span automation incumbents, an IoT-focused portfolio holder, and diversified electronics and security firms. Recent-year momentum varies sharply even among the largest names, with several showing no filings in the latest tracked year.
A single assignee holds close to a fifth of the field
The leading assignee's 417 records sit well ahead of fifth place at 65 and tenth place at 39, meaning the drop-off from the top position to the rest of the top ten is steep. That gap makes the leader's claim scope in networking and analytics a first checkpoint for freedom-to-operate review.
Large incumbents show sharp year-on-year drops
Multiple top-ranked assignees, including large automation and industrial conglomerates, show zero filings in the latest tracked year and year-on-year declines of -100% from the prior year. Given the ~18-month publication lag, this understates true recent activity, but the drop-off is consistent across several independent filers rather than isolated to one.
A handful of filers keep filing through the pullback
Not every large assignee has gone quiet: one telecoms-and-infrastructure filer logged 2 records in the latest year, and an IoT-portfolio holder logged 1, albeit down -75% year-on-year. These smaller but sustained filings are worth tracking as early indicators of where activity resumes once the reporting lag clears.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 2 | — |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016 LLC | 1 | -75% |
| Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Schneider Electric Industries SAS | 0 | -100% |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
| Schneider Electric Systems USA, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| AO Kaspersky Lab | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The composition and concentration data point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or monitoring a competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leader's portfolio
With 417 records concentrated in one assignee, any new filing touching network-level analytics or equipment-state monitoring should be checked against that portfolio's claim scope before drafting.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaDraft around the thinner IPC classes
G06Q business-data integration sits at 8.2% of records and G06K data recognition at 10.8%, both well below the H04L and G05B core — a narrower field to search and a more open one to file into.
Search IPC-level whitespace in EurekaTrack quarterly momentum, not annual totals
Because several large filers show a sharp drop to zero in the latest tracked year, and publication lag understates recent activity, a quarterly view is more reliable than a single annual figure for spotting a resurgence.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaCommon questions about industrial networks patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 417 records out of 2,255 in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 65 records and the tenth at 39. That leader's filings are concentrated in networked analytics and industrial-IoT platform claims rather than in traditional control hardware. Because the ranking includes 100 companies total, the leader's share represents roughly a fifth of the whole corpus, and the top five combined hold 43.6% of all records — so due diligence on this space should start with, but not stop at, the single largest filer.
Filing volume peaked at 297 records in 2018 and has trended down since, reaching 29 in 2026, though that final year is only partially reported. Using the most recent span that can be treated as complete, filings fell from 150 in 2021 to 89 in 2024, a -41% change. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last two or three years in any chart will always look lower than the true filing rate turns out to be, so a slowdown reading should rely on 2024 and earlier data, not on 2025 or 2026 figures.
Digital information transmission, IPC class H04L, appears in 56.9% of the 2,255 records in scope, ahead of control and regulating systems (G05B) at 39.2% and electric digital data processing (G06F) at 23.8%. AI-related computing (G06N) already reaches 16.4% of records, close to wireless communication networks (H04W) at 15.3%. Because records often carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap and add to more than 100%, but the ranking itself shows the field's centre of gravity has moved toward data transmission and AI-assisted interpretation rather than staying purely in control-loop mechanics.
It is moderately concentrated at the top and long-tailed beneath it. The top five assignees hold 43.6% of all 2,255 records, and the top ten hold 55.0%, which means just over half of the field is spread across roughly ninety additional ranked companies, each typically holding far fewer filings than the leader's 417. That combination — a dominant leader, a handful of strong followers, and a long tail of smaller filers — is typical of a field with both an entrenched incumbent and open room for narrower, defensible claims elsewhere in the ranking.
US20040162996A1, assigned to Avaya Inc. and filed in 2004, describes Security Policy Implementation Points (SPIPs) deployed across an industrial network to enforce access policy in a distributed, per-zone manner, including emergency and local access provisions for factory machines and programmable logic controllers. It predates most of the corpus by well over a decade, which makes it a useful prior-art anchor for anything claiming distributed or per-device network access control in an industrial setting today. Anyone drafting claims around zone-based industrial network security should review this filing specifically, since its priority date is early relative to the rest of the field.
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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.