Inventions Utilizing Satellite Navigation Systems in the Railway Industry – An Analysis of Patenting Activity

Abstract

Applications based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in combination with different communication systems, have significantly helped to increase safety, efficiency and system capacity of operations in different modes of transportation. Here railway transport is no exception, although the number of applications based on GNSS has been considerably behind the number of those used in road transport. Since incorporating e.g. GPS receivers into modern signaling, train control and other railway systems has become usual, it is interesting to examine GNSS/GPS-based inventions and patenting trends more closely in this context. This paper analyses GNSS/GPS-related patents in the railway industry in order to shed light on the patenting activity in different countries/regions and to identify (and to a certain extent make a classification of) the main application areas for this technology.

Full text

Received May 28, 2009 / Accepted September 14, 2009 J. Technol. Manag. Innov. 2009, Volume 4, Issue 3
_________________________________________________________________________________
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Inventions Utilizing Satellite Navigation Systems in the Railway
Industry – An Analysis of Patenting Activity
Pekka Salmi,1 Marko Torkkeli 2
Abstract
Applications based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in combination with different communication
systems, have significantly helped to increase safety, efficiency and system capacity of operations in different modes of
transportation. Here railway transport is no exception, although the number of applications based on GNSS has been
considerably behind the number of those used in road transport. Since incorporating e.g. GPS receivers into modern
signaling, train control and other railway systems has become usual, it is interesting to examine GNSS/GPS-based
inventions and patenting trends more closely in this context. This paper analyses GNSS/GPS-related patents in the railway
industry in order to shed light on the patenting activity in different countries/regions and to identify (and to a certain
extent make a classification of) the main application areas for this technology.
Key words: Railways; transport; satellite navigation; GNSS; GPS; inventions; patents; signaling; train control.
1 Department of Industrial Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Prikaatintie 9, FI-45100 Kouvola, Finland. E-mail:
pekka.salmi@lut.fi
2 Department of Industrial Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Prikaatintie 9, FI-45100 Kouvola, Finland. Phone +358
5 62111. E-mail: marko.torkkeli@lut.fi

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Introduction
Like in most other modes of transportation, high levels of
safety, efficiency and system capacity of operations are
among the key objectives of railway industry nowadays.
Developing operations and services is important also
because the industry has lost a significant share of
transport volume in Europe during the last decades
(especially in the area of freight transportation; see e.g.
Hilmola, 2007). The increased competition with the other
modes of transport, as well as between the different
railway operators, means that the use of modern
technologies and innovative solutions is crucial for the
competitiveness of railway companies. An example of such
technologies is the Global Positioning System (GPS) which,
in combination with different communication systems, has
significantly helped to reduce accidents and delays, and to
improve capacity and cost effectiveness of transportation
in general. Indeed, satellite navigation/positioning systems
(the standard generic term is Global Navigation Satellite
System, GNSS) and telecommunication systems have a lot
of applications in the area of transportation today.
The rail system, however, differs from other modes of
transportation in that there is less flexibility in managing
the traffic. Moreover, regarding the use of GNSS, there is
obviously no need for vehicle navigation systems as such.
On the other hand, knowing the exact location of a train
has many advantages, including more efficient traffic
monitoring (which helps scheduling both in freight and
passenger transportation and thus enhances connectivity
with other modes of transportation) and logistic
information management, enhanced train signaling (which
improves safety, but also enables e.g. reduced distances
between trains and therefore increased train frequencies),
and the possibility to map the transport infrastructure.
Thus, while the number of applications based on GNSS is
considerably behind the number of those used in road
transport, incorporating GPS receivers into modern
signaling, train control and other railway systems has
become usual. Furthermore, the utilization of GNSS in rail
transportation has been recognized as an important
research area at the European Union level. Projects such
as GADEROS (Galileo Demonstrator for Railway
Operation System), RUNE (Railway User Navigation
Equipment), INTEGRAIL and most recently GRAIL
(www.grail-project.com) were each aimed at supporting
the introduction of GNSS in the railway sector
(particularly in rail safety applications).
Since there has been a rapid growth in the number of
patents related to GPS technology since the end of 1980s
(see e.g. Yuan et al., 2007 for an analysis of the patent data
from the United States Patent and Trademark Office), it is
interesting to examine whether a similar trend can be seen
also in the railway industry. In particular, while examining
patenting activity and the number of patents issued each
year does not accurately reflect the development of a
technology, patent analysis is still useful e.g. in forecasting
technology life cycles (Haupt et al., 2007). In this paper, we
will therefore make an analysis of GNSS/GPS-related
patents in the railway industry in order to shed light on the
patenting activity in different countries/regions and to
identify (and to a certain extent make a classification of)
the main application areas for this technology. To this end,
we will both examine the patent classification codes
disclosed within the patents and make a content analysis of
the patent descriptions.
The paper is organized as follows. In the next section we
will briefly review GNSS/GPS technology and discuss a few
of its applications in the land transportation systems. In
particular, we will present some relevant examples of the
utilization of GNSS in the railway sector. A patent analysis
will be made in the third section, which describes the
patent data and search process, as well as presents the
main observed trends in patenting activity and the main
application areas. The results and their practical
implications will be discussed in the final section.
GNSS/GPS technology and its applications in
the land transportation systems
GPS is currently the only fully functional satellite navigation
system (e.g. the Russian GLONASS is still in development
and the European Galileo is in the initial deployment phase,
scheduled to be operational in 2013;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNSS). The system consists of
a constellation of at least 24 (and up to 32) earth-orbiting
satellites (there were 31 actively broadcasting satellites in
December 2008) that transmit microwave signals, through
which the system enables a GPS receiver to determine its
location, speed, direction, and time.

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In the 1970s, GPS was originally intended for military
purposes. However, in the 1980s, the US government
made the system available for civilian use and it nowadays
has a number of applications both for military and civilian
users. In civilian use, the most often utilized benefit from
GPS signals is the ability to determine the receiver’s
absolute location. Therefore GPS receivers are typically
used as an aid to navigation or as surveying tools. On the
other hand, many commercial applications combine GPS
with communications and other technologies (see e.g. Pace
et al., 1995, Ch. 4). In the following, we will focus on GPS-
based applications in the field of land transportation, and
especially in the railway traffic.
Applications in the area of transportation
In their overview of GPS applications in the area of
transportation, Mintsis et al. (2004) identify vehicle fleet
management and monitoring as one main category. This
category refers primarily to automatic vehicle location
(AVL) systems (e.g. Lobo, 1998), which enable monitoring
and remote tracking of vehicles. AVL systems can be based
on GPS/GIS (geographic information system) technologies
as well as various communication technologies (such as
GSM), so that the data obtained from GPS receivers can be
transferred to an operating center. AVL systems are
typically used to monitor public transport vehicles and e.g.
Real-Time Passenger Information (RTPI) systems have
become more commonplace in bus transport (on buses, at
bus stops, as well as inside bus stations) in major European
cities (Firmin, 2006). Further examples of AVL systems
include ambulance management and emergency incident
handling (Derekenaris et al., 2001), and dangerous goods
transportation. Here GPS/GIS-based vehicle monitoring
systems can provide route guidance and scheduling
information for vehicles.
Moreover, GPS/GIS technologies can be integrated e.g.
with engine management systems in order to collect on-
road traffic data from a probe vehicle. This kind of system
can provide data on GPS position, speed, distance traveled,
engine performance, fuel consumption and so on for traffic
congestion studies (Taylor et al., 2000). Another useful
application of GPS technology in the area of transportation
is mapping of transportation networks (roads and rail).
High accuracy digital road maps are essential especially for
the applications in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS),
so there is a need to develop new approaches for utilizing
GPS data in maps generation (Guo et al., 2007).
Of course, the above examples are only among the
numerous successful land based transport systems
currently utilizing satellite navigation technology. In recent
years GNSS has also been used in such private and public
road transport applications as: In-Vehicle Dynamic Route
Guidance, Intelligent Speed Adaptation (for improved road
safety), Road User Charging (to better manage
congestion), and Traveler Information Systems (see e.g.
Firmin, 2006).
Applications in the railway sector
One way to categorize different systems utilizing GNSS in
the railway sector is to distinguish between safety-critical
and non-safety-critical applications (cf. Marwedel &
Gebotys, 2004). Safety-critical applications include e.g. train
control and signaling, which in Europe have been subjects
to a standardization process in recent years (the main aim
has been to improve interoperability). In particular, there
is emerging a European standard for train control, signaling
and traffic management called the European Rail Traffic
Management System (ERTMS), which includes two layers
that can rely on satellite navigation: the European Train
Control System (ETCS) and the European Traffic
Management Layer (ETML) [EC-DGTREN (2008)]. Of
these, ETCS deals with control and signaling systems used
e.g. in remote electronic braking, train diagnostics and
train/wagon location monitoring, all of which are functions
whose safety and accuracy could especially be improved
through application of GNSS. For example, combining
GNSS position data with traditional train sensor readings,
such as odometry, can improve the ETCS location
performance and therefore allow e.g. a safe discrimination
between parallel tracks and track change at switches (this
was one of the goals in the INTEGRAIL project; Bedrich
and Gu, 2004). One has to note, however, that since the
performance of GNSS positioning depends e.g. on the
environmental conditions (multi-path and shadowing of
signals; see e.g. Marais et al., 2004), it usually cannot be
used as a sole means for determining location in a train
control system. Yet, in places where there is no trackside
equipment, GNSS positioning can contribute to high safety
levels. Moreover, in cases where GNSS can replace
trackside devices, it provides significant cost-benefits and
enhanced interoperability (Gu, 2005).

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Another safety-critical area where accurate positioning
data provided by GNSS can be used is rail track surveying.
First, testing/inspection systems need to be synchronized
with a positioning system, and here GNSS can provide
more accurate data than traditional techniques, such as
track circuits [EC-DGTREN (2008)]. Secondly, recent
developments in remote monitoring system (which are
typically based on a combination of GNSS/GIS
technologies, wireless communications, signal processing
and embedded computing) have become compact and
relatively inexpensive, and can therefore be used on almost
any rail vehicle (Nejikovsky and Keller, 2000). These kinds
of solutions which enable real-time performance
monitoring contribute significantly to safety since they
allow quicker detection of defects than traditional methods
which are based on separate periodical track inspections.
As a final example of safety-critical applications, one can
mention the use of GNSS data in assisting carbody tilt
control, which allows tilting trains to negotiate sharp
curves at higher speed (thereby enabling shorter traveling
times) and with less centrifugal force inside a car.
Detecting the accurate running position is essential here
and traditionally it has been calculated by monitoring the
number of wheel revolutions and using the ground coils
installed on the track as position reference points.
However, GPS-based systems have been recently
developed which allow a positioning accuracy equal to or
higher than the conventional system (see e.g. Maki, 2005;
one should note that in this case the running position was
determined by a combination of GPS data, track curvature
map and wheel rotating pulse count). Besides being a
cheaper solution than ground-coil-based systems, another
benefit of using GPS is that it allows the system to restore
the location information in a second if the present location
is lost due to wheels slip or some other reason (Sasaki,
2005).
Non-safety-critical applications, in turn, are mainly related
to fleet management, goods tracking and other logistic
information management. The ability to effectively track
the location of goods and to estimate their delivery times
is indeed as important in railway sector as in other modes
of transportation. On the other hand, GNSS-based fleet
management will also help to improve the performance of
passenger transportation. Providing up-to-date information
about the arrival and departure times of trains, especially
when there are delays, is an essential part of good service
[EC-DGTREN (2008)]. Yet another non-safety-critical
application, which was already mentioned in the previous
section, is the use of GNSS positioning data in mapping of
railroads (see e.g. Euler et al., 1996).
An analysis of GNSS/GPS-related patents in
the railway industry
Patent data and search process
GNSS/GPS-related patents were searched from the
Software for Intellectual Property (SIP,
www.patentfamily.de) database. This database comprises
presently more than 50 million documents from the
following publicly available patent databases/offices:
Inpadoc Database, US Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO), European Patent Office (DOCDB) and German
Patent and Trademark Office.
More specifically, the database includes the following
patent data:
• title, abstract, claims, description and Inpadoc legal
status of a patent
• publication and filing number/date
• country code of the filing country
• applicant and inventor
• International Patent Classification (IPC)
The database enables one to search for patents according
to their IPC classes, application/publication dates, filing
country codes and inventor/applicant. Also full-text
searches of patent abstracts, claims and descriptions are
possible. In order to find relevant patents for the current
analysis, we made a full-text search of titles and abstracts
of patent applications (using Boolean OR-operation) with
the keywords GPS, GNSS, Galileo, EGNOS, GLONASS,
“navigation satellite” and “satellite navigation” (the last two
search terms were added since most patent abstracts are
in English). The search was restricted to IPC class B61
(Railways) and its subclasses. Date range for the query was
not specified.
The patent search query from the SIP database initially
produced 262 results. However, a significant fraction of
these belong to a “patent family” (i.e., a collection of

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related patents published by different patent offices), which
means that they have multiple patent numbers. The search
results include a link to an Inpadoc patent family
description, so we first went through the patent families
for each of the patents (which had up to 35 members) and
made a correspondence table of the patent identifiers.
After comparing the patent numbers and in some cases
also patent abstracts, 175 distinct inventions were
identified (32 of these belong to a patent family including
two or more patents). Furthermore, after making an initial
content analysis of the patent abstracts and claims (see
section ‘A content analysis of the patents’ for more
details), it was found that two inventions actually did not
include or utilize GNSS/GPS. Thus, the first screening
phase yielded 173 patents that were applicable for the
analysis.
Observed trends in patenting
Yearly development in patenting. When going through
the patent families, the choice between duplicate patents
was first made according to a filing date, i.e., the patent
which had the earliest filing date was selected. If two or
more patents from different databases had the same filing
date, the patent number and country code was selected on
the basis of the nationality of the inventor (or the
company). The number of filed patent applications per year
is shown in Figure 1.
Patent applications per year
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
200 3
2004
2005
2006
2007
200 8
Figure 1. GNSS/GPS-related patent applications in the railway industry per year.
As one can see, GNSS/GPS-related patent applications
started to appear in increasing numbers from 1994
onwards. Before the year 2000, the number of applications
per year was ten or less, but then increased sharply over
the next three years (the number was 24 in 2002).
However, after 2002 the number of patent applications
started to decrease and was only five in 2007 (the number
for 2008 does not cover the whole year). In order to see
whether this kind of development is a characteristic of
patenting in the railway industry or related to more
general patenting trends, it is useful to compare the above
numbers to the numbers of GNSS/GPS-related patent
applications in general and also in other patent classes.
Since our data is comprised of only one patent family
member for each of the invention, however, making
comparisons to the numbers of patents searched from the
SIP database without removing the duplicates would bias
the results. To minimize this bias, we therefore applied the
‘country’ codes (i.e., patent database identifiers) WO
(World Intellectual Property Organization) and US to the
search and then retrieved the numbers of all GNSS/GPS-
related patents as well as the numbers of GNSS/GPS-
related patents belonging to an IPC class B60 (Vehicles in
general) from the same period. The resulting numbers of
patent applications are shown in Figure 2.

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Patent applications per year
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
WO US WO - B60 US - B60
Figure 2. GNSS/GPS-related patent applications per year (under country codes WO and US).
A similar growth trend in patenting is evident in all four
cases during the 1990s (especially during the latter half of
the decade). It is therefore reasonable to assume that the
increase in the number of patent applications at least partly
reflects the fact that price and size/applicability of GPS
equipment have been steadily declining since 1988 (Pace et
al., 1995). There are significant differences between the
two country codes in the number of patent applications
after the year 2000, however. In particular, while the
number of GNSS/GPS-related patent applications per year
in the IPC class B60 more than doubles (from 16 to 33)
between 2000 and 2004 for the US, for the WO it declines
from 14 to 7 in the same period. On the other hand, the
trends reverse for both country codes after 2004:
especially, the number of applications for the US declines
from 33 to 12. Of course, when the amount of patent
applications per year is fairly small, one cannot make very
strong conclusions about the development trends. Another
interesting trend can be seen by comparing the numbers of
all GNSS/GPS-related patent applications per year for the
US and WO: the ratio of WO/US applications has been
steadily increasing since the beginning of the 1990s (from
0.14 in 1990 to 0.57 in 2007).
Now, if the development of the number of GNSS/GPS-
related patent applications in the railway industry is
compared to that in the class B60, one can see, for
example by taking a yearly average for the US and WO
(not shown), that the trend is fairly similar. In other words,
the GNSS/GPS-related patenting trend in the railway
industry is not atypical, but probably shows that after an
initial surge of ideas the field of applications becomes
saturated and the number of new ideas starts to slowly
decline – especially since railway transport can be
considered as a ‘niche area’ for GNSS/GPS-related
inventions.
Patents’ country of origin. The nationality of the inventor
was in most cases reported in the applicant/inventor entry
of the SIP database. However, in some cases the nationality
was determined from the excluded member of the patent
family and if there was no information about the inventor,
the country of origin was determined by the patent’s
country code. The resulting distribution of patents
according to their country of origin is shown in the
following Table 1.

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Country
code JP US DE CN GB RU KR ES DK Other
No. of
patents 76 28 21 11 9 7 5 3 2 11
Other includes one patent for each of the following country code: AU, BR, CA, EP, FI, FR, IN, NZ, RO, SE
and WO (EP = European Patent Office)
Table 1. Patent distribution according to the country of origin
While GNSS/GPS-related technical development and
patenting activity in general have been strong in Japan, in
the railway industry the country has a particularly
significant lead with almost 44 % share of patents included
in the analysis. This is due to the fact that railway research
in Japan has been very active both in the public sector (for
example, Railway Technical Research Institute has five
patent applications) as well as in the private sector. Indeed,
several major Japanese corporations, such as Hitachi,
Mitsubishi, Nippon Electric Co. and Matsushita have
applied patents for GPS-related applications (the numbers
of patent applications for these firms are 10, 9, 4 and 3,
respectively).
The U.S. is in the second place in the number of patent
applications largely because of General Electric which has
been fairly active in patenting (with eight applications).
After the U.S. come Germany, China and Great Britain,
but in addition to Siemens from Germany (with three
applications) other notable individual inventors/companies
cannot be identified. The number of patent applications
originating from rest of the countries is less than ten – in
most cases only one.
Application areas of patents
Patent classifications. One way to explore various
application areas of GNSS/GPS-related patents is to
examine their IPC codes. Since B61 was used as a search
limiter, all patents obviously include one or more
classification codes for the subclasses of B61 (although in a
few cases no classification codes were shown in the patent
data). Also subclasses of G01 (Measuring) were included in
most patents due to the fact that a satellite navigation
system is utilized in the invention. However, several other
main patent classes were referred to in the patent data as
well. In total, the 173 patents included in the analysis
disclosed 698 IPC codes and their distribution by the
section and the first level number (“section symbol” and
“class symbol”) is shown in Table 2.
IPC code
B E F G H
60 61 63 64 65 01 04 01 05 06 07 08 09 01 04
No. of codes 26 38
7 1 1 4 10 1 11
8 8 33 4 56 6 4 39
Table 2. The IPC section and class codes disclosed within the patents
First, one can note that there are 26 references to the
class B60 (Vehicles in general) and 6 references to the
classes B63, B64 and B65 of the section B (i.e.,
Transporting; the classes refer to ‘ships’, ‘aircrafts’ and
‘conveying’), which shows that some of the inventions are
not solely aimed at railway transport but can be applied to

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other forms of transport as well. Worth noticing is also
that there are 10 references to the code E01 which refers
to construction of railways. In this case, the invention (and
positioning device) can be related e.g. to system which
monitors the condition of a track or provides position
information for track maintenance personnel. Regarding
the section G, many patents disclose codes G06 and G08,
which refer to computing and signaling, respectively. This
may mean, for example, that in these inventions a
positioning device is embedded in a larger operation
control system. Finally, the code H04, which refers to
‘Electronic communication technique’, was included in the
description of 39 patents related e.g. to various data
transmission and train operation control systems.
If we examine the classification codes at the most detailed
level (including also “subclass symbol”, “group number”
and “subgroup number”), the distribution of the most
frequently used codes is as follows (Table 3):
IPC
codes
B61
L25/00
B61
L25/02
B61
L23/00
G01
S5/14
B61
L3/00
B61
L27/00;
G01
C21/00
B61
L23/34
B61
K9/00;
B61
L3/12
B61
L29/00
H04
Q7/34
No. of
codes 79 75 43 33 25 23 13 12 11 10
Table 3. The most frequently used IPC codes in the patents
As can be seen, 8 of the 12 most frequently used codes
belong to the class B61 L: guiding railway traffic / ensuring
the safety of railway traffic. First, inventions in the subclass
L25 are related to “Recording or indicating positions or
identities of vehicles or vehicle trains or setting of track
apparatus”, so it’s unsurprising that so many patents
include these codes. The descriptions of other disclosed
B61 L subclasses are the following:
• L3 - Devices along the route for controlling devices
on the vehicle or vehicle train, e.g. to release brake,
to operate a warning signal
• L23 - Control, warning or like safety means along
the route or between vehicles or vehicle trains
• L27 - Central traffic control systems
• L29 - Safety means for rail/road crossing traffic
The frequency of these codes indicates that different safety
and/or warning systems are the main application area of
GNSS/GPS-related patents in the railway industry. That is,
GNSS/GPS-based systems are typically used in measuring
(safe) distances between trains, controlling their speed,
indicating whether some vehicle approaches a safety
critical area (e.g., a level crossing), and so on. Furthermore,
the one remaining code under the class B61, K9/00, refers
to “Railway vehicle profile gauges; Detecting or indicating
overheating of components; Apparatus on locomotives or
cars to indicate bad track sections; General design of track
recording vehicles” and is therefore also often disclosed in
patents which aim at safety improvements.
Regarding the other classification codes, the subgroups
under the class G01 (G01S5/14 and G01C21/00) refer to
determining distances/positions and navigation. Finally,
H04Q7/34 refers to “Test or monitoring equipment” and
is disclosed e.g. in patents which describe a system
monitoring the relative distance between two vehicles and
issuing a warning when the distance is inadequate.
A content analysis of the patents. Since the various
codes and classes of IPC system examined above do not
reflect very well different application areas of GNSS/GPS-
related inventions and the patent data in a few cases did
not include a classification code, a content analysis of the
patent abstracts and claims was made. The patent
descriptions were read iteratively in order identify one or
more key concepts for each invention. Eventually, after
carefully reviewing the identified key concepts, seven main
application areas were defined (see a summary in Table 4).
At the outset one must note, however, that these classes
are not intended to be mutually exclusive, but should
rather capture the main feature and/or functionality of the

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invention. For example, while perhaps a majority of the
patents could be seen to enhance safety in railway
transport, only inventions which were aimed at avoiding
accidents/collisions, included an automatic braking system,
or otherwise were explicitly related to safety issues were
classified under ‘Safety systems’. Similarly, while almost all
inventions included a GPS device for tracking a locomotive
or specific wagons, patents were classified under ‘Logistic
management’ only if their description mentioned a logistic
operation. The brief descriptions of these areas are as
follows:
1. Locomotive and railcar monitoring/tracking:
Inventions is this class are mainly aimed at monitoring the
position of a locomotive and/or railcars, so that one can
automatically determine the length of a train, confirm its
integrity, or otherwise ensure that the train has the right
members (cars). One patent also describes a solution for
detecting the track train is using (by monitoring
locomotive turns) and is therefore included in this class.
2. Safety systems: This class includes various safety
devices and systems for avoiding accidents and/or
warning locomotive drivers (or other users) of hazards.
These systems may, for example, control the speed of a
train or apply brakes when necessary. One specific type
of safety control is related to monitoring whether the
train occupies a given track section or block.
3. Track monitoring: In this class, the patents describe
systems which detect defects in the track, switches or
rolling stock wheels, determine or record track
condition (e.g. alignment), detect foreign objects, and so
on.
4. Logistics management: Here positioning systems
are typically used in locating/tracking e.g. containers on
railcars. However, some of the inventions describe
systems which aim at improving the performance of
different logistic operations or making these operations
automatic. They may, for example, support shunting
operations, remote control of locomotives (in switching
yards) or railcar usage optimization.
5. Communication & data transmission systems: In this
class, the positioning devices are included in various
(wireless) data communication and information
monitoring or managing systems.
6. Integrated train monitoring and control systems:
Compared to the previous class, here positioning
systems form part of a larger train operation
control/management system. For example, a system may
control the interaction among trains and other vehicles.
In this class, GNSS/GPS-based solution may also be used
as an alternative or additional positioning method.
7. General navigation & positioning systems: Inventions
in this class are most often related to track position
management (e.g. determining a distance or traveling
time from a current position to a target) and
destination/route searching. Additionally, these systems
may compare GPS-data with stored data (in order to
determine the position) or create operation support
data.
In addition to the patents in the above classes, 35
inventions were found to be relevant for railway
operations (no common class was defined for these,
however). Here, examples of utilization of GNSS/GPS-
based positioning include systems for controlling train
body incline (tilting) in curved track sections, measuring
parameters of a track or mapping terrain, detecting oil
application areas (oiling wheel flanges), monitoring railroad
power system (e.g. detecting a train position on a power
system in case of short-circuit accidents), monitoring,
storing and transmitting information relating to railway
engines, and other information recording.
Finally, 11 patents were found to be not specifically related
to the railway transport. That is, while the patents included
the B61 identifier, their description indicated that the
application was developed more generally for transport or
traveling. As examples, the patent descriptions included
concepts such as “portable guiding device”, “travel
assistant device”, “mobile communication guide”, “route
distribution device” and “arrival announcement”.

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Journal of Technology Management & Innovation © Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Facultad de Economía y Negocios
Application areas No. of patents
Locomotive and railcar monitoring/tracking
• determining order and orientation of locomotives/railcars, the length of a train,
etc.
• locating end of train units; confirming train integrity
• detecting locomotive turns / the track train is using
• automatically generating a train manifest (determining whether an unknown car is a
member of a moving train)
• automatic tracking system
9
4
2
1
1
1
Safety systems
• accident/collision avoidance
• automatic speed control / braking
• warning systems and devices
• monitoring occupancy of track sections, block systems
• safety / train control systems (other)
55
11
5
21
4
14
Track monitoring
• detecting track/switch defects
• detecting defects in the rail / railway rolling stock wheels
• determining track condition / alignment, recording condition data for tracks, etc.
• detecting track damage or foreign objects (and automatic braking)
7
3
1
2
1
Logistics management
• locating/tracking e.g. containers on railcars or other transported units
• position control, loading and unloading operations
• remote control of locomotives [in switching yards]
• railcar usage optimization [within a rail yard]
• wagon changing systems [GPS-based control]
• shunting operations
13
7
1
1
1
1
2
Communication & data transmission systems
• wireless communication / signal control systems
• other data communication and information monitoring/managing systems
6
3
3
Integrated train monitoring and control systems
• train operation control/management
• controlling the interaction among trains and other vehicles
• GPS as an alternative/additional positioning method
14
5
1
8
General navigation & positioning systems
• track position management (determining a distance or traveling time from a
current position to a target)
• destination/route search
• monitoring the running direction (in order to create operation support data)
• other navigation/positioning applications (incl. systems which compare GPS-data
with stored data in order to determine the position)
23
4
3
1
15

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Other GPS applications
• measuring (e.g. geometric parameters of rail track), three dimensional terrain
mapping, other information recording devices, train body incline [tilting] control,
automatic oil-spraying, oiling devices, monitoring, storing and transmitting
information relating to railway engines, railroad power system control, etc.
35
Table 4. The main application areas of the examined patents
Conclusions
Although the number of applications based on GNSS/GPS
in railway transport has been considerably smaller than
that of other modes of transportation, our analysis of the
SIP database documents shows that almost 170
GNSS/GPS-related, distinct patent applications have been
filed since 1994. The patenting activity in the industry was
highest in 2002 with 24 applications, but has been declining
in recent years. Since the amount of patent applications
per year has been fairly small, however, it is difficult to
estimate whether this is a temporary trend or indicates
that after an initial surge of ideas the field of applications
has become saturated. Moreover, by comparing this to
patenting activity in the class B60 (Vehicles in general), one
can see that the trend is fairly similar. Nevertheless, it is
reasonable to expect that since railway transport is a
‘niche area’ for GNSS/GPS-related inventions, patenting
activity will not increase significantly in the near future.
Regarding the nationality of the inventors, it was found
that GNSS/GPS-related patenting activity has been highest
in Japan (with almost 44 % share of patents included in the
analysis). Japan’s high share was largely expected since
railway research in the country has been very active both
in the public and private sectors. In particular, several
major Japanese corporations, such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi,
Nippon Electric Co. and Matsushita have applied patents
for GPS-related applications. General Electric has also been
active in patenting and largely because of this the U.S. is in
the second place in the number of patent applications.
After Japan and the U.S., Germany, China and Great
Britain were most often the countries of origin for the
examined patents applications.
The analysis of the application areas of patents consisted of
both examination of IPC codes and content analysis of the
patent descriptions. First, the IPC codes disclosed within
the patents showed that part of the inventions are not
solely aimed at railway transport but can be applied to
other forms of transport as well. For example, several
patent descriptions indicated that the invention was
designed to be used also in road transport. Secondly, both
the IPC codes and the content analysis showed that
ensuring or enhancing the safety of railway traffic is the
most important application area for GNSS/GPS-based
inventions. More specifically, the patents described various
devices and systems which aim at avoiding
accidents/collisions, warning train crew and other users of
hazards, automatically controlling speed and applying
brakes when necessary, and monitoring occupancy of track
sections. Train monitoring/control systems and logistics
management were found to be other major application
areas for GNSS/GPS-based inventions in the railway
sector. The content analysis, however, revealed also
numerous other interesting applications related to e.g.
track monitoring, track position management and
information recording. Indeed, the variety of the types of
inventions that were identified in the analysis made it
difficult to assign all patents to more general classes.
Since this paper provides only an initial overview of
GNSS/GPS-related patents in the railway industry, we
conclude by mentioning some potential areas for further
research. First, one could make additional comparisons of
patenting activity between the railway sector and other
modes of transportation. Our preliminary analysis suggests
that the GNSS/GPS-related patenting activity in the railway
sector to a large extent follows patenting trends in other
sectors, but more detailed studies could identify some
important differences between sectors. Comparing
patents’ country of origin between different transportation
sectors is another possible area for future research. For
example, is Japan’s significant lead in patenting in the
railway sector a notable exception or are there other
countries that have been equally strong in patenting in
other sectors of transportation? Furthermore, one could
concentrate on some specific type or class of patents (e.g.
collision avoidance systems) and make more detailed
analysis of these inventions. Finally, one could examine

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Journal of Technology Management & Innovation © Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Facultad de Economía y Negocios
different GNSS/GPS-based applications that are in actual
use in railways nowadays and evaluate to which extent the
patented inventions have been utilized in practice.
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About the Authors
Pekka Salmi (M.Sc.) is a researcher in the Department of
Industrial Management at Lappeenranta University of
Technology. His research interests focus on innovation and
technology management, knowledge management and
interorganizational collaboration. He has presented his
works in several forums in the fields of innovation and
knowledge management, and organization science..
Dr. Marko Torkkeli is a Professor of Technology and
Business Innovations at the Lappeenranta University of
Technology in Kouvola, Finland. His research interests
focus on technology and innovation management, strategic
entrepreneurship, and decision support systems. His work
has been published in journals and conferences in the fields
of technology management, innovation management and
information systems. He has more than 100 publications to
his name in these fields. He is a member of the editorial
boards of Int. J. of Services Sciences and Research J. of
Business Management. He is a Visiting Researcher at
INESC Porto (Portugal). He serves as the Vice President of
Publications of the International Society for Professional
Innovation Management (ISPIM).