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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/smart-textile-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Smart TextilesSmart Textile Patents: Who Files, What They Claim, and Where the Gaps Sit
A data-backed view of smart textile patents: who leads filing, how concentrated the field is, which IPC branches carry the claim density, and where white space remains.
129
Published Records
51%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+13%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
EP
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth = 2021 (8 records) → 2024 (9); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 129 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What counts as a smart textile patent here
This landscape covers 129 published records where the title, claims or abstract combine textile, fabric, fiber or yarn language with explicit smart-textile terminology, restricted to IPC classes D01, D03 and D04 — fibre, weaving and knitting. The scope favours structural and material claims over the electronics that sit inside a finished garment, so sensor and connectivity patents classified purely under electrical IPC codes are not the focus of this set.
Within that scope, filings span the full 2015–2026 window, with a visible concentration of activity in the woven and knitted-fabric branches rather than in chemical treatment or lamination. The representative record below, an actuating-textile patent using polymer fiber muscles, illustrates the kind of mechanical-actuation claim that recurs across the corpus.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart Textile 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
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 129 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC branches carry the claim density today.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 16 in 2019 and held at 9 in 2017. The 2021→2024 span, the last window with a complete publication cycle, moved from 8 to 9 records — a +13% increase — rather than declining. Counts from 2025 onward are still filling in given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, so they should not be read as a slowdown.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
IPC subclass composition
D03D (woven fabrics & weaving) appears in 58.9% of the 129 records, ahead of A41D (outerwear & garments) at 35.7% and D04B (knitting) at 33.3%. D01F (chemical filament & fibre features), D01D (man-made filament spinning), D02G (yarn texturing), D06M (chemical treatment) and B32B (laminates) each cover a smaller but still active slice. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should each be read against the 129-record total, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 129 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 Textile Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Record
Actuating textiles containing polymer fiber muscles (US20210198817A1)
BOARD OF REGENTS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM
A smart textile that controls porosity, shape, texture, loft, stiffness or colour through temperature change or moisture absorption using polymer fiber torsional and tensile actuators. Mechanisms include direct actuation of fiber actuators within the textile structure, helical wrapping of actuators around warp or weft yarns, and torsional rotation of chenille-type or ribbon-like yarn ends.Filed by Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, published 2021-07-01.
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EP1894482A2 | Temperature and moisture responsive smart textile | 73 |
| 2 | US6770579B1 | Smart porous film or material | 59 |
| 3 | US20040244865A1 | Smart label | 55 |
| 4 | US20130078415A1 | Temperature Responsive Smart Textile | 46 |
| 5 | US20160326674A1 | Stretchable textile stay and transfer sheet | 34 |
| 6 | US20110052861A1 | Temperature Responsive Smart Textile | 31 |
| 7 | US20080057261A1 | Temperature Responsive Smart Textile | 25 |
| 8 | US20210198817A1 | Actuating textiles containing polymer fiber muscles | 24 |
| 9 | JP2008057100A | Temperature and moisture responsive smart textile | 22 |
| 10 | EP2784198A1 | Flexible light-emitting textile display with floats for covering electronic devices | 20 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — treat them as a signal of influence within this searched set, not as a measure of which patents matter most today.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart Textile 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
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three findings that change how a freedom-to-operate search or a new filing should be scoped in this space.
Concentration
51.2% of 129 records
held by the top 5 assignees
The field has a leader and a long tail
The leading assignee holds 25 records against a fifth-place count of 8 and a tenth-place count of 4 — a steep drop-off. Most of the ranked 56 companies hold only a handful of filings each, so a competitive-intelligence search built only around the top names will miss most of the active filers.
Assignee ranking, 56 companies
Claim density
58.9% in D03D
of all 129 records
Woven-fabric claims are the busiest branch to search
D03D alone touches well over half the corpus, with A41D and D04B not far behind. A new filing that reads on woven-fabric structure needs a wider prior-art sweep than one aimed at chemical treatment (D06M, 9.3%) or laminates (B32B, 8.5%), which carry noticeably fewer records.
IPC composition, 129 records
Filing pace
+13%, 2021→2024
growth over the last complete window
Activity held up rather than tailing off
Filings moved from 8 in 2021 to 9 in 2024, a modest but real increase across the last three-year span with a full publication cycle. The apparent dip after 2024 reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a real drop in inventive activity.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Collaboration
5 co-assignee pairs
identified across the corpus
Joint filings are rare but concentrated
Only five co-assignee pairs appear in the data, and the strongest of them accounts for 10 shared records. That suggests most invention here happens inside a single organisation rather than through joint development, with a small number of exceptions worth watching for licensing or M&A signals.
Co-assignee pairs, 5 identified
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 textile patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where organisations file together
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| MMI-IPCO LLC | Mide Technology Corp | 10 |
| North Carolina State University | University of Maryland | 6 |
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Royal College of Art | 5 |
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design Limited | 5 |
| Royal College of Art | Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design Limited | 5 |
The strongest co-assignee link in this corpus accounts for 10 shared records; the next two strongest pairs sit at 6 and 5 shared records respectively.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart Textile 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
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The numbers above answer where the field stands. The next step is usually narrower: checking one claim, one competitor, or one branch in more depth.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on a specific claim
If a new filing reads on woven-fabric or actuation structure, cross-check it against the densest branches identified here before drafting.
Search prior art in EurekaTrack the leading assignees over time
Concentration at the top means a small number of organisations are worth watching closely for continuation filings and new priority dates.
Monitor assignees in EurekaExplore the under-claimed branches
Chemical treatment and laminate classes carry far fewer records than woven or knitted structure claims, which may signal open space for new filings.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart Textile 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
Common questions about smart textile patents
In this dataset of 129 records, one assignee leads with 25 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 8 and the tenth-ranked company at 4. The top 5 assignees combined hold 51.2% of all records in scope, and the top 10 combined hold 70.5%. Beyond that point the field spreads across a long tail of the remaining companies in the 56-company ranking, most holding only a handful of filings each, so a full competitive picture requires looking well past the leaders.
Woven fabric and weaving structures (IPC class D03D) appear in 58.9% of the 129 records, making it the single densest branch. Outerwear and garment claims (A41D) and knitting claims (D04B) follow at 35.7% and 33.3% respectively. Chemical fibre treatment, man-made filament spinning, yarn texturing and laminate structures each cover smaller but active slices, and because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes these shares add up to more than 100% of the total.
Filings grew 13% from 8 records in 2021 to 9 in 2024, the last three-year span with a complete publication cycle, after peaking at 16 in 2019. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between when a patent is filed and when it publishes, not a genuine slowdown in inventive activity. Any read on the most recent one to two years should be treated as provisional until later publications catch up.
US20210198817A1, filed by Board of Regents, The University of Texas System and published 2021-07-01, covers actuating textiles that use polymer fiber torsional and tensile actuators to change porosity, shape, texture, loft, stiffness or colour in response to temperature or moisture. It describes several mechanisms: direct actuation of fibers within the textile structure, helical wrapping of actuators around warp or weft yarns, and torsional rotation of chenille-type or ribbon-like yarn ends. Anyone designing a temperature- or moisture-responsive actuating fabric should review its specific claim language before finalising a structure that falls in these mechanisms.
Textile chemical treatment (D06M) and layered products or laminates (B32B) show the lowest record counts among the tracked IPC branches, at 9.3% and 8.5% of the 129 records respectively, compared with well over half the corpus in woven-fabric claims. That gap does not guarantee an easy filing, since narrower classes can still hold a few tightly written blocking claims, but it does indicate less overall claim density to search around and design past.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Smart Textile 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
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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.