SQL Window Function Execution Patents: Who Holds the Claims

The ranked dataset of 10 companies shows one assignee well ahead of the rest, holding 9 of the 24 records in scope. The top five assignees combined account for 79.2% of all 24 records, which means the field is concentrated rather than fragmented across many small filers. Anyone entering this space should study that leading filer's claim scope closely before drafting, since it is the most likely source of blocking prior art. The remaining five ranked companies, plus a long tail of single-filing entrants, hold the balance.

Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 5 records and has declined since; from 2021 (3 records) to 2024 (1 record), the last year with reasonably complete data, filings fell by 67%. Because patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continuing drop. Overall the pattern looks like an early period of core-mechanism claiming that has since slowed, rather than a field still in an active land grab.

Every one of the 24 records in scope carries a G06F classification, the electric digital data processing class that anchors database-engine claims. Beyond that base, 25.0% of records also touch G06Q, the business and commerce data-processing class, and 12.5% each touch G06N (AI-based computing) and H04L (digital information transmission). Smaller overlaps appear with image processing, video communication, time/attendance systems and bioinformatics, each accounting for one or two records — these smaller branches are worth watching as potential white space rather than treating them as settled territory.

The core partition-creator and partition-iterator mechanics, exemplified by filings like US20210081419A1, are the most heavily claimed territory and sit with the leading assignee. The classes with only one or two records each — bioinformatics (G16B), time/attendance devices (G07C), and image or video-pictorial processing (G06T, H04N) — show comparatively little claiming activity relative to the core G06F/G06Q overlap. A first claim framed around applying window-function execution techniques to one of those under-represented domains, rather than re-claiming the general partition-and-iterate mechanism, is more likely to clear existing art.

Among the receiving offices recorded, the United States accounts for the largest share of filings, with India and Singapore each contributing a smaller number, and Austria, Germany and the European Patent Office each recording a single filing. This means most of the substantive prior art and prosecution history sits in the US patent system, so a freedom-to-operate review focused there will catch the bulk of relevant claims. Filers looking at Europe or Asia-Pacific markets should note the comparatively thin filing history there, which may reflect either less activity or an opportunity not yet claimed regionally.