Residual Current Device and Earth Leakage Protection Patents
Concentrated at the top. The five most active filers account for 169 of 409 records in scope (41.3%), with the leader alone holding 60. Filings peaked at 27 in 2017. From 2021 (22 records) to 2024 (4 records) — the last year with a reasonably complete count — filings fell 82%. Treat 2025 and 2026 as still filling in rather than as evidence of a further decline.
- 1SHAKIRA LTD60
- 2EATON ELECTRIC INC48
- 3EATON INTELLIGENT POWER LTD22
- 4EATON IND MFG20
- 5TRIPCO INC19
See the full residual current devices and earth leakage 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 on this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in residual current device technology?
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by one company holding 60 of the 409 records in scope, with a steep drop to the fifth-place holder at 19 and tenth place at 12. The top five combined account for 41.3% of all records, and the top ten for 59.2%, so filing activity concentrates heavily in a small group rather than spreading evenly across the ranked 100 companies. Anyone assessing competitive position in this space should look closely at that leading group's claim scope before assuming open ground.
Is residual current device patent filing still growing?
No — filing peaked in 2017 at 27 records and has since declined, falling from 22 records in 2021 to 4 in 2024, an 82% drop over that span. 2024 is the most recent year with a reasonably complete count; 2025 and 2026 figures are still low because publication lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not yet be read as confirming further decline. The clear signal is a pullback from a mid-2010s peak, not a flat or rising field.
What technology areas do most residual current device patents cover?
The large majority of records, 62.6% of 409, carry an H02H protective circuit arrangement classification, covering the core sensing-and-trip architecture. G01R electric and magnetic measurement follows at 33.5%, reflecting current-sensing claims, and H01H switches and relays at 16.1% covers the mechanical trip hardware. Digital processing, grid integration and control-system classes each sit under 4%, marking them as comparatively thin areas of the claim map.
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 Residual Current Devices and Earth Leakage 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.