Smart Buildings Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 28.3% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 601 of the 2,121 records in scope, but the ranked leaders run 100 deep with a long tail below them.
- Filing has plateaued, not declined. Growth from 2021 to 2024 sits at +2%, essentially flat once you exclude the still-filling 2025-2026 window caused by publication lag.
- Control systems dominate the claim map. G05B control and regulating systems cover 33.7% of records, ahead of digital transmission (H04L, 27.4%) and data processing (G06F, 22.6%).
Filing growth compares 2021 (144 records) with 2024 (147) — 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 2,121 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 2,121 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that describe smart building systems, building automation, urban energy and water infrastructure, urban mobility, smart city data platforms, environmental monitoring and built-environment digital twins. Filings peaked in 2019 at 219 and have since settled into a steadier band, with 2021 at 144 and 2024 at 147 — a +2% move over three years rather than a surge or a retreat.
Filing offices skew heavily toward the United States, with India, the EPO and WIPO's PCT route each contributing a substantial secondary share. That spread points to a technology area still being filed defensively and internationally, not one consolidating around a single jurisdiction.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,121 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Volume rose to a 2019 peak of 219, cooled, then held roughly flat through 2024 at +2% growth from the 2021 baseline. 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as publications catch up to filings made roughly 18 months earlier; do not read them as a decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G05B control and regulating systems is the largest single class at 33.7% of records, with H04L digital transmission and G06F data processing close behind. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum past 100% and should be read as overlapping claim coverage, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,121 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Smart Buildings & Urban Infrastructure Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about smart buildings & urban infrastructure patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US10116513B1 — Systems and methods for managing smart building systems
The patent describes a computer-implemented method for managing smart building systems: detecting a network of smart devices, maintaining a repository that tracks each device's capabilities and location, detecting a state change in one device, and using proximity and correlation logic against the repository to determine that a second device's capability relates to that change.Filed by CA, Inc. and granted 30 October 2018, this claim sits at the intersection of device discovery, location tracking and cross-device state correlation inside a smart building network.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6085238A | Virtual LAN system | 1,030 |
| 2 | US20020152298A1 | Small building automation control system | 849 |
| 3 | US20050154494A1 | Integrated building environment data system | 609 |
| 4 | US20120259583A1 | Automated fault detection and diagnostics in a building management system | 568 |
| 5 | US20080281472A1 | Open Web Services-Based Indoor Climate Control System | 544 |
| 6 | US20110231320A1 | Energy management systems and methods | 525 |
| 7 | US20130085614A1 | Systems and methods for controlling energy use in a building management system using energy budgets | 429 |
| 8 | US20120022700A1 | Automated fault detection and diagnostics in a building management system | 410 |
| 9 | US20150100167A1 | Smart-home control system providing HVAC system dependent responses to hazard detection events | 382 |
| 10 | US7904209B2 | Open web services-based indoor climate control system | 382 |
Ranked by citation count within this corpus. Older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence on later filings, not a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the concentration, trend and citation data that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The top is crowded, the middle is not
The five leading assignees hold 28.3% of all 2,121 records, and the top ten extend that to 37.7%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — a sign that core building-automation claim space is contested at the top while adjacent applications remain open to newer filers.
Flat, not falling
Filing volume moved from 144 in 2021 to 147 in 2024, essentially flat growth after the 2019 peak of 219. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the lower 2025-2026 counts understate real activity and should not be read as a slowdown.
Control logic is the busiest claim territory
G05B control and regulating systems, H04L digital transmission and G06F data processing together cover the majority of records, meaning control-loop and communications claims sit on the densest prior art. Newer entrants are more likely to find room in classes with lower coverage, such as H02J power and grid systems at 8.8%.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to smart buildings & urban infrastructure patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Siemens Industry, Inc. | SIEMENS CORP | 33 |
| BlackBerry Limited | 2236008 Ontario Inc. | 11 |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 4 |
| Siemens Industry, Inc. | SASTRY CHELLURY R | 4 |
| Siemens Industry, Inc. | ROSCA JUSTINIAN | 4 |
| Siemens Industry, Inc. | AHMED OSMAN | 4 |
| SIEMENS CORP | SASTRY CHELLURY R | 4 |
| SIEMENS CORP | ROSCA JUSTINIAN | 4 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest linking two Siemens entities on 33 shared records — evidence of internal cross-entity filing rather than external joint ventures.
Assignee landscape and where activity is slowing
The ranking covers 100 companies drawn from the full 2,121-record set. It is not a top-50 or top-100 cut of a larger population — it is the whole ranking the dataset returns.
A clear single leader
The leading assignee holds 204 records, well ahead of fifth place at 57 and tenth place at 33 — a steep drop-off that marks a genuine leader rather than a cluster of near-equal filers.
Recent-year filing has cooled across named assignees
Even the assignee with the most recent-year activity in this set shows a -93% year-on-year drop, and several other tracked assignees show no filings at all in the latest year. That pattern is consistent with publication lag rather than abandonment, but it means recent-year rankings should be treated cautiously.
Cross-entity filing is limited and mostly internal
Co-assignee pairs are few, and the strongest ones link related entities within the same corporate family rather than separate companies. This is a field where most claims are filed solo, not jointly.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| STRONG FORCE EE PORTFOLIO 2022 LLC | 1 | -93% |
| Johnson Controls Technology Company | 0 | -100% |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP | 0 | — |
| Siemens Industry, Inc. | 0 | — |
| SIEMENS CORP | 0 | — |
| iLumisys, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking, or spotting where to file next.
Map a freedom-to-operate position
Run the specific control-loop, device-correlation or grid-management claim language you plan to use against the densest classes identified here before committing engineering resources.
Explore claim mapping in EurekaTrack the leading assignees' recent filings
Momentum data shows sharp year-on-year swings even among top filers; a standing watch on the leading names catches new filings before they publish broadly.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest white-space claims
Under-claimed branches such as grid-interactive power management and digital-twin fault diagnostics have room for a first claim; drafting against the existing corpus early reduces later rejection risk.
Draft and check claims in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset's assignee ranking shows a single clear leader with 204 records, well ahead of fifth place at 57 and tenth place at 33. The top five assignees combined hold 28.3% of all 2,121 records in scope, and the top ten hold 37.7%, which means the field has a concentrated leadership group sitting above a long tail of smaller filers. This pattern suggests core building-automation and control claims are contested at the top while many adjacent applications remain open to newer entrants.
Filing volume peaked in 2019 at 219 records and has since settled into a steadier pattern, moving from 144 in 2021 to 147 in 2024 — a modest +2% over that three-year span. The lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect publication lag, since published patents typically trail their filing date by around 18 months, not an actual drop in filing activity. Based on the 2021-2024 window, the honest read is a plateau rather than a decline.
G05B, covering control and regulating systems, is the largest class at 33.7% of the 2,121 records, followed by H04L digital information transmission at 27.4% and G06F electric digital data processing at 22.6%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than partition the dataset. Areas with lower coverage, such as H02J power and grid systems at 8.8%, represent comparatively less-crowded claim space.
US10116513B1 claims a method for managing a network of smart devices by maintaining a repository of device capabilities and locations, detecting a state change in one device, and using proximity and capability data to determine that a second device's capability correlates with that change. It was filed by CA, Inc. and granted on 30 October 2018. Anyone building cross-device automation logic that infers relationships between devices from proximity and state changes should review this claim scope specifically, though the surrounding art on building automation control is dense enough that many adjacent implementations may not read on it directly.
The evidence points to branches with comparatively thin coverage relative to the dominant control and connectivity classes, including grid-interactive building power management, fault-diagnostic digital twins for HVAC systems, and AI-model-based occupancy prediction. These sit adjacent to the heavily claimed G05B control and H04L transmission territory but have not accumulated the same density. A first claim in one of these areas has a better chance of clearing prior art than one filed directly against core building-automation control logic.
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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.