Miniature Circuit Breaker Design Patents: Who Leads and Where the Claims Sit
Five filers hold 84.9% of the field. 185 of 218 records in scope sit with the top five assignees, leaving a thin long tail of single-digit and single-filing entrants. Filings rose to a peak of 14 records in 2021, then fell to zero by 2024 -- a -100% move over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so treat the most recent bars as a floor, not a verdict on current activity.
- 1EATON CORP72
- 2SQUARE D CO51
- 3EATON INTELLIGENT POWER LTD34
- 4SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC USA INC22
- 5SIEMENS INDUSTRY INC6
See the full miniature circuit breaker design 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 miniature circuit breaker patents
Who are the leading patent holders in miniature circuit breaker design?
This dataset's assignee ranking is dominated by legacy low-voltage switchgear manufacturers, with the top five combining for 84.9% of all 218 records in scope. The leading assignee alone holds 72 records, and concentration falls steeply after the top five, down to single-digit counts by the tenth position. This is a mature, consolidated filing landscape rather than one with many active new entrants.
Is miniature circuit breaker patent filing activity growing or slowing?
Filings peaked at 14 records in 2021 and fell to zero by 2024, a -100% change over that span. However, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are structurally incomplete and should not be read as proof that inventive activity has stopped. The safest reading is that the visible peak has passed and the years since need more time to fill in before drawing conclusions.
What technical areas are most heavily patented in this space?
H01H (switches and relays) appears on 78.9% of the 218 records in scope, making core mechanical switching and trip-contact design the most heavily claimed territory. H02H protective circuit arrangements follow at 33.5%, and G01R electric and magnetic measurement claims appear on 11.9% of records. Areas like digital processing and grid/power-supply integration are present but thin, each under 4% of records.
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 Miniature Circuit Breaker Design 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.