Soil Moisture Sensor Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing is still accelerating, not maturing. Records went from zero in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2025, with the midpoint year at just 7 — this field is early, not settled.
- India dominates the filing base. 52 of the receiving-office filings are Indian, against single-digit counts from Australia, the EPO, the US and WIPO combined — most academic, not yet globalised.
- No single assignee has pulled away. Recent-year momentum tops out at 2 filings for the leading applicants, and several previously active filers dropped to zero — the field is a long tail, not a concentrated one.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families that combine soil moisture sensing hardware — soil moisture sensors, probes and soil water sensors — with soil condition management functions such as salinity sensing and soil health monitoring. The corpus spans 58 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn overwhelmingly from filings at the Indian patent office alongside a small number from Australia, Europe, the US and the WIPO PCT route.
The technology composition points to a field still defining its own boundaries: material analysis and testing (G01N) leads the IPC counts, closely trailed by horticulture (A01G) and soil-working equipment (A01B), with a meaningful share of filings also touching AI (G06N), data processing (G06Q) and wireless transmission (H04W/H04L) — suggesting sensing hardware is increasingly being claimed alongside software and connectivity layers rather than as a standalone device.
Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 58-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses those filings actually sit in.
Filings accelerate from a standing start
Annual filings moved from 0 in 2017 to 7 at the 2022 midpoint and on to a peak of 27 in 2025; 2026 is already at 16 with months of the year still to publish. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the true 2025-2026 totals are almost certainly higher than currently shown.
Sensing hardware still outweighs the software layer
G01N (material analysis and testing) and A01G/A01B (horticulture and soil-working) together account for the bulk of the IPC counts, confirming this is still primarily a hardware-and-agronomy field. G06Q and G06N appearing in double digits shows a growing but still secondary push toward data-driven and AI-assisted soil management claims, while H04W/H04L wireless connectivity sits at the edge of the corpus rather than its centre.
Shares are the percentage of the 58 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Soil Moisture Sensor Soil Management with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about soil moisture sensor soil management and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings cite
A system and method of drone for crop monitoring and surveillance
The filing describes a drone-based system that scans soil health, monitors crop condition, assists irrigation scheduling, applies fertiliser, estimates yield and feeds weather analysis, paired with a data acquisition module, a controlling and monitoring module, and a mobile application platform.Filed as AU2021102757A4, this record illustrates how soil sensing claims in this corpus are increasingly bundled with aerial data capture and downstream farm-management software rather than claimed as isolated sensor hardware.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2023136846A1 | Soil parameter sensor system | 6 |
| 2 | US20250012752A1 | Soil parameter sensor system | 2 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to be cited within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence, not of current technical importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (2 of 2 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
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 →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 →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the trend, IPC and geography data that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
Growth is still on the way up, not tapering off
A field that moved from zero to 27 annual filings inside eight years, with the midpoint year at only 7, has not reached a filing plateau. Claim space that looks crowded today will look more crowded again in two years — early positioning still has room to matter.
This is largely a domestic Indian filing base so far
With only single-digit counts from Australia, the EPO, the US and the WIPO PCT route combined, very few of these families have been pursued internationally yet. That leaves a real question of whether the leading technical approaches will be re-filed abroad, or stay regionally confined.
Hardware claims still outnumber AI-layer claims by more than 2:1
Material analysis and testing (G01N) filings outnumber AI-model computing (G06N) filings, meaning the analytics layer sitting on top of soil sensor data is comparatively open ground. Filers combining sensing with AI-driven interpretation are still a minority.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to soil moisture sensor soil management, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how fast
No applicant in this corpus has built a dominant position. Momentum is spread thin, and several previously active filers have gone quiet in the latest year.
Vellore Institute of Technology and SR University lead on recent volume
Both applicants recorded 2 filings in the latest year, the highest count of any assignee in this corpus — a modest lead that underlines how thin the field still is at the top.
Steady but not scaling
Vishwakarma Institute of Technology held at 1 filing in the latest year with no year-on-year change, suggesting a sustained but small research programme rather than a scaling filing strategy.
Some academic filers have already dropped out
Saveetha Engineering College and Galgotias University both show sharp year-on-year declines, down to zero and a 50% drop respectively. Academic filing bursts in this space look episodic rather than sustained programmes.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| VELLORE INSITUTE OF TECH | 2 | — |
| SR UNIVERSITY | 2 | — |
| GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY | 1 | -50% |
| VISHWAKARMA INST OF TECH | 1 | 0% |
| Soil Improvement Public Welfare Corporation | 0 | — |
| SAVEETHA ENG COLLEGE | 0 | -100% |
| S SHENBAGAVADIVU | 0 | — |
| GITAM DEEMED TO BE UNIV | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and IPC data point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or research direction.
Check freedom-to-operate against the cited cluster
The two most-cited records both centre on soil parameter sensor systems and share near-identical titles across a WO and US filing — worth a direct claim comparison before filing anything adjacent to sensor system architecture.
Run a claim comparisonTrack the India-to-international filing gap
With 52 of 58 filings routed through India and almost none reaching the EPO, US or PCT stage, watch for re-filings that signal an applicant is about to pursue international protection.
Monitor filing activityExplore the AI-and-sensing overlap
G06N filings sit well below G01N sensing filings, leaving room to define claims that pair soil sensor data with AI-based interpretation before that space fills in.
Explore white spaceCommon questions on this landscape
This landscape identifies 58 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine soil moisture sensing hardware with soil condition management functions such as salinity sensing or soil health monitoring. The great majority of these were filed through the Indian patent office, with only a handful reaching Australia, Europe, the US or the WIPO PCT route. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years of activity are understated in any count taken today.
No single applicant dominates this corpus; the leading filers in the most recent year, such as Vellore Institute of Technology and SR University, each recorded only 2 filings. Most applicants are academic institutions rather than commercial sensor manufacturers, and several previously active filers dropped to zero filings in the latest year. This points to a fragmented, largely research-driven filing base rather than a market led by a small number of established companies.
It is still accelerating. Annual filings rose from zero in 2017 to a midpoint of 7 in 2022 and on to a peak of 27 in 2025, with 2026 already reaching 16 filings well before the year is complete. That growth curve, combined with the understatement effect of publication lag, suggests the true current filing rate is higher than the visible data shows and the field has not yet plateaued.
Material analysis and testing (G01N) is the largest single IPC subclass in this corpus, followed closely by horticulture and forestry (A01G) and soil-working agricultural equipment (A01B). Business and data processing (G06Q) and AI-based computing (G06N) both appear in double digits, showing that a meaningful share of filings pair sensing hardware with data analytics or automated decision layers rather than claiming the sensor alone. Wireless communication (H04W) and digital transmission (H04L) sit at the edges of the corpus, indicating connectivity claims are present but not yet a primary focus.
The clearest gap sits between sensing hardware and the AI or connectivity layers built on top of it: G01N sensing filings outnumber G06N AI-model filings by more than two to one, and wireless-network subclasses trail even further behind. Sub-areas such as AI-driven salinity interpretation, wireless sensor-to-irrigation control, and drone-based soil scanning integration all show some activity but far less density than core sensor-hardware claims. A first mover combining calibrated multi-parameter soil sensing with automated irrigation or fertiliser feedback control would be filing into comparatively open ground.
Research Soil Moisture Sensor Soil Management in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole soil moisture sensor soil management 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.