Intelligent Packaging Scale-Up and Mass Production Patent Landscape 2026
- Filing has already cooled. activity peaked in 2018 at 8 records and the 2022 midpoint sits at zero, well before the 2026 cut-off — this is a narrow, already-quiet claim space, not an emerging one.
- One beverage-packaging family concentrates the citations. WO2018109110A1 alone draws 25 citations, more than three times the next-most-cited record, making it the reference point any new filer will be measured against.
- Filings cluster in Europe and PCT, not in a single national office. EPO (6) and WIPO (4) together outnumber every national receiving office shown, so freedom-to-operate work has to start with the European and PCT family trees.
A small, concentrated field built on beverage packaging
Seventeen patent families define this topic, all classified under B65D (containers and packaging) and seven of them also touching H01M (batteries and cells) — a sign that the sensor or communication layer inside these packages is frequently battery-powered rather than passive. The search string ties manufacturing method language (roll-to-roll printing, high-throughput printing, mass production) directly to packaging IPC codes, so the set captures filings that go beyond describing a smart package and instead claim how to produce one at volume.
Filing activity is front-loaded: it rose to a peak of 8 records in 2018, then declined toward the 2022 midpoint of zero. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent years in any such trend will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but a multi-year run at zero mid-period is a stronger signal than a single quiet year.
Filing trend and technology composition
The two figures below chart when these families were filed and which classification codes they sit under. Read them together: a flat or declining trend combined with a two-subclass composition indicates a defined, largely-settled claim space rather than a fast-moving one.
Filing trend by year
Filings rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 8 in 2018, fell to 0 by the 2022 midpoint, and have not recovered through the 2026 cut-off. Treat the final one or two years as undercounted because of publication lag, but the multi-year trough before them is real.
IPC subclass composition
Every one of the 17 records sits in B65D (containers and packaging); 7 of the 17 also carry an H01M classification, tying smart-packaging manufacturing claims to battery or cell components rather than to printed electronics alone.
Shares are the percentage of the 17 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Intelligent Packaging Scale-Up and Mass Production with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe record every filer in this space is measured against
WO2019238791A1 — Smart packaging
The present invention is directed to a smart metal, glass, paper-based, wood-based, or plastic packaging comprising at least one sensor or communication device, characterized in that a structural component of the packaging forms a component of the at least one sensor or communication device. In addition, the present invention is directed to a method for manufacturing a smart packaging is provided comprising the steps of manufacturing a packaging and constituting at least one sensor or communication device on or in the packaging, wherein a structural component of the packaging is taken for constituting a component of the at least one sensor or communication device.Filed by ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV S.A., published 2019-12-19.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2018109110A1 | Smart packaging for beverage | 25 |
| 2 | WO2018206542A1 | Smart packaging for beverage | 9 |
| 3 | EP3336011A1 | Smart packaging for beverage | 8 |
| 4 | WO2018206543A1 | Smart packaging for any type of product | 7 |
| 5 | US20190329955A1 | Smart Packaging for Beverage | 5 |
| 6 | WO2019238791A1 | Smart packaging | 4 |
Citation counts reflect influence inside this searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial deployment.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (6 of 6 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about this claim space
Three patterns stand out once the records are pulled apart by year, citation count and receiving office.
The peak has already passed
Filings rose to 8 in 2018 and fell to zero by 2022. Even allowing for publication lag understating the last year or two, a multi-year trough in the middle of the window is not an artefact of lag — it reflects a real pause in new filing.
One family anchors the prior art
WO2018109110A1 draws 25 citations, well ahead of the next four most-cited records, which cluster between 5 and 9. Any new filing in beverage smart-packaging is likely to be examined against this family first.
Europe and PCT lead, no single national office dominates
Europe (EPO, 6 records) and WIPO/PCT (4 records) together account for more than half of the set, ahead of Australia and Canada at 2 each. Freedom-to-operate review should start with the European and PCT family trees rather than any single national filing.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to intelligent packaging scale-up and mass production, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the claim space is still open
With only 17 families total, this is not a field with a deep bench of competing filers. Recent-year momentum by assignee shows even the most visible name — Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. (Anheuser-Busch InBev) — recording zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the overall decline in the trend.
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch InBev holds the representative filing in this set (WO2019238791A1) and several of the most-cited beverage-packaging records, but its own recent-year filing count has dropped to zero, matching the wider slowdown.
A narrow field, not a crowded one
All 17 published records map to 17 distinct families — no consolidation through continuations or multi-jurisdiction refiling is inflating the count. That makes this a genuinely small field rather than one where a handful of players hide behind many documents.
Battery and cell integration is a recurring thread
Roughly four in ten records in this set carry an H01M classification alongside B65D, pointing to power-source integration as a persistent design constraint for anyone claiming high-throughput smart-packaging manufacturing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset answers where filing has concentrated and where it has gone quiet. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on the specific claims.
Map the citing art around WO2018109110A1
Pull every family that cites the top-cited beverage-packaging record forward and backward to see whether later filers designed around it or licensed into it.
Trace citation network in Eureka →Check the H01M overlap against battery packaging rules
Seven of 17 records touch battery classification — worth checking against separate battery-packaging and transport-safety filings that sit outside this search string.
Cross-search H01M packaging claims in Eureka →Watch for the lagged 2025-2026 filings to land
Publication lag means the true 2025 and 2026 filing counts are not yet visible; revisit this trend once those records publish.
Set a filing alert in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
In this dataset, smart or intelligent packaging refers to packaging that incorporates a sensor or communication device as part of its structure, rather than packaging with printed graphics or a barcode alone. The representative filing, WO2019238791A1, defines it specifically as packaging where a structural component doubles as part of the sensor or communication device. Patent examiners generally look for a functional electronic or sensing element claimed together with the packaging structure itself, not just a design or labelling claim.
The filing trend in this dataset peaked at 8 records in 2018 and fell to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with no recovery through the 2026 cut-off. That pattern suggests early filers staked out the core beverage-packaging claims and few new entrants have since found open ground to claim. Some of the most recent years will look thinner than they eventually turn out to be because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, but a multi-year trough in the middle of the window is unlikely to be fully explained by lag alone.
Citation counts in this set are led by WO2018109110A1 with 25 citations, well ahead of the next four most-cited records, which range from 5 to 9. Anheuser-Busch InBev appears across several of the top-cited beverage-packaging families, including the representative filing WO2019238791A1. Citation counts favour older records inside a searched corpus, so treat this as a measure of past influence rather than current commercial activity.
The classification data shows every record sits under B65D with a sizeable minority also under H01M, leaving specific manufacturing-process detail — such as printed antenna registration in high-speed roll-to-roll lines, or battery-free sensor mounting on paper-based substrates — comparatively thin. These are process and materials-integration questions rather than the basic 'package with embedded sensor' concept, which is already well claimed. A prior-art search focused narrowly on the manufacturing step, not the packaging concept, is the more productive starting point.
WO2019238791A1 claims a specific implementation: packaging where a structural component of the package itself forms part of the sensor or communication device, plus a method for manufacturing it that way. It does not claim smart packaging generally, so designs using a separate, non-structural sensor module attached to conventional packaging sit outside its core claim as described in the abstract. Anyone building in this space should still review the full claim set and family members, since abstracts describe scope loosely compared to granted claims.
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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.