Fastest
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/smart-city-data-platforms-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Smart-City Data PlatformsSmart-City Data Platforms Patents: Who Files, What They Claim
- 84.6% of records sit in H04L, meaning encryption and secure data-transmission mechanics dominate the claim space far more than AI or healthcare-adjacent classes.
- Filing fell -83% from 2021 to 2024, down from 6 to 1 in the last complete filing year, after a 2020 peak of 13 records.
- Just four assignees appear in the ranking, with the leader alone holding 24 of the tracked records -- a strong signal of where the prior art actually concentrates.
26
Published Records
-83%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
2020
Peak Filing Year
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (1) — 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.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers 26 published records matching smart-city and urban data platform search terms alongside district energy network, municipal data platform, environmental sensor, building digital twin, building envelope and utility network language. The window runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, with a filing peak in 2020 and a much smaller, more recent cluster of filings around explainable AI for platform decision-making.
Patent families, rather than raw document counts, are the fairer unit for judging how much of this space is genuinely claimed, since families neutralise aggressive continuation filing and multi-jurisdiction duplicates. The 26-record total here is treated as the family-level scope for this search.
Records in scope by filing year and IPC subclass
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
Filing Data
Filing trends and technology composition
The 26 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with filing activity concentrated in a single peak year and technology claims skewed heavily toward one IPC subclass.
Filing activity peaked in 2020, then thinned
Filings rose to a peak of 13 in 2020. The 2021-to-2024 span shows a -83% change (6 filings down to 1); 2025 and 2026 are not yet complete because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those final years should not be read as a continued decline.
Digital transmission dominates the claim set
H04L (digital information transmission) appears in 84.6% of the 26 records in scope, far ahead of G06F (11.5%), G06N (7.7%) and G16H (3.8%). Because a single record can carry more than one IPC class, these shares add up to more than 100%; the pattern still shows that transmission and encryption mechanics, not AI modeling or healthcare informatics, carry the bulk of the claim language.
Shares are the percentage of the 26 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about smart-city data platforms patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
Representative filing and most-cited records
Representative filing
Iterative self-explaining artificial intelligence system for trustworthy decision making
NEC LABORATORIES EUROPE GMBH
A method for generating a self-explaining decision in an artificial intelligence (AI) system includes receiving or defining a graph for a task in the AI system, the graph including a plurality of nodes connected by edges. Message passing is performed among the nodes of the graph, wherein a discrete attention mechanism is implemented during the message passing, whereby features of each node are transformed into a discrete representation, which varies depending on which neighboring node a message is passed to. The self-explaining decision is generated for one of the nodes based on the message passing.Filed by NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH, published 2024-05-23 -- one of the newest and most technically specific filings in this dataset.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20210344484A1 | Multicast Encryption Scheme for Data-Ownership Platform | 9 |
| 2 | US10771243B1 | Multicast encryption scheme for data-ownership platform | 9 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favor older records; treat them as a signal of influence within this set, not as a current-importance ranking.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (2 of 2 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Analysis
What the filing pattern signals
Reading the 26 records together, the picture is a technology field that had a short, sharp filing burst around 2020, concentrated in encryption and transmission mechanics, with a much smaller and more recent push into AI-based decision layers.
Concentration
84.6%
of 26 records in H04L
Transmission mechanics dominate the claims
H04L, digital information transmission, appears in 84.6% of the 26 records in scope. That is a strong signal that the core claimed technology in this dataset is about how data moves and is secured between platform components, not about the analytics or AI layered on top.
IPC composition, 26 records
Momentum
-83%
2021 to 2024 filing change
A 2020 burst has since cooled
Filings peaked at 13 in 2020, then the 2021-to-2024 span recorded an -83% change, from 6 down to 1. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in this dataset are not yet complete and should not be read as extending that decline.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Assignee spread
4
ranked assignees
A short, top-heavy ranking
Only four companies appear in the assignee ranking for this search, with the leading assignee holding 24 records. That is a narrow field of named filers relative to the 26-record total, though the two counts are not directly comparable as a concentration percentage.
Assignee ranking, all entries
Citation signal
9 citations
on the most-cited record pair
Encryption claims carry the influence
The two most-cited records in this set, both variants of a multicast encryption scheme for a data-ownership platform, are cited 9 times each, the highest citation count in the dataset. That points to those claims being a reference point for later filers, though citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favor older records.
Most-cited records
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to smart-city data platforms patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Competitive Landscape
Who holds the claims
Four assignees appear in the ranking for this search, with one holding the large majority of the tracked records. That leaves a small set of named filers against a 26-record total, and several sub-areas within the search scope that show almost no dedicated filing activity.
Leading assignee
24 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
One filer dominates the ranking
The leading assignee in this four-company ranking holds 24 of the ranked records, a sizeable share of the named filing activity even though this figure cannot be turned into a concentration percentage against the 26-record total, since the two are counted in different units.
Assignee ranking
Recent entrant
2024 filing
NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH
A newer filer working the AI-decision layer
NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH's 2024 filing on self-explaining AI decision systems represents one of the more recent and technically distinct entries in this dataset, sitting apart from the encryption-heavy filings that dominate the earlier years.
Representative filing, 2024-05-23
Momentum check
0
latest-year filings for the two most-active assignees
Momentum has cooled even for the leaders
The two assignees with the most tracked activity in this dataset show zero filings in the latest year on record, consistent with the broader -83% filing change from 2021 to 2024 across the dataset as a whole.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ECOSTEER SRL | 0 | — |
| NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis next
The filing pattern here raises three practical questions for anyone building or defending a position in smart-city data platforms: how strong the encryption-layer prior art actually is, how thin the AI-decision layer remains, and whether the under-claimed sub-areas are worth staking out now.
Check freedom to operate against the encryption claims
The multicast encryption scheme for a data-ownership platform is the most-cited claim family in this dataset and worth a close read before building any ownership-enforcement mechanism into a platform.
Run a claim check in EurekaTrack the AI-decision layer as it develops
With only a handful of records touching G06N and G16H, this layer is still being staked out; monitoring new filings here matters more than in the already-dense transmission layer.
Set up monitoring in EurekaEvaluate the under-claimed sub-areas before filing
Building digital twin integration with occupant-health data and utility network normalization both show thin coverage in this dataset, which may leave room for a first-mover claim.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
This dataset covers 26 published records matching smart-city and urban data platform search terms alongside terms like district energy network, municipal data platform, environmental sensor, building digital twin, building envelope and utility network. That is the total in scope for this search string and time window, not a count of every patent ever filed in the broader smart-city field, since narrower or broader search terms would return a different total. Treat it as a bounded slice defined by the search logic rather than an industry-wide census.
The assignee ranking returned by this dataset lists four companies, with the leader holding 24 records; the ranking is the complete list the data endpoint returns for this search, not a top-50 or top-100 cut. Because the ranking and the 26-record total are counted in different units, no concentration percentage can be stated from this evidence. Readers wanting a fuller competitive picture should treat this as a starting point and cross-check against the raw record list rather than assume it reflects the entire market.
Filing activity peaked at 13 records in 2020 and the 2021-to-2024 span shows an -83% change, from 6 filings down to 1. Because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued decline. The safest reading is that the field saw a filing surge around 2020 followed by a cooling-off period through the last complete year on record.
Nearly all of the 26 records, 84.6%, carry the H04L classification for digital information transmission, which covers encryption and data-transfer mechanics for multi-tenant platforms. Smaller shares fall under G06F (electric digital data processing, 11.5%), G06N (AI-based computing, 7.7%) and G16H (healthcare informatics, 3.8%). Since one record can carry several IPC classes, these shares overlap rather than summing to a whole, and the pattern shows secure data transmission is the dominant technical layer being claimed, with AI-driven decision-making a newer and thinner layer.
The healthcare-informatics intersection with building digital twins looks the thinnest, with only 3.8% of the 26 records touching G16H despite the search explicitly covering building digital twin and environmental sensor terms. Electric digital data processing, at 11.5%, is also comparatively light next to the heavily claimed transmission layer. A new entrant evaluating this space should look at data normalization and cross-format integration for utility network and district energy network feeds, since that layer appears less densely claimed than the encryption and multicast mechanics that dominate the existing filings.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Smart-City Data Platforms Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole smart-city data platforms patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.