Newcastle-based technology house and smart city solution provider Grid Smart Cities has climbed to its highest ranking in he Metis Partners IP100 Intellectual Property League Table.

The company’s ranked sixth in the top 100 for their solutions that offer the “unique ability to carve out new space in the smart city landscape, proactively solving problems such as the management of inner city kerbspace for commercial vehicle operators”.

Their 16 registered patents underpinning their kerbside management and mobility technologies cover the UK, USA and other International territories placed them up to their highest ranking to date in the ‘Patents’ category.

The company says IP, technology and patented processes have been fundamental to its success. “A user driven, design-led approach to solving real world problems with practical solutions that benefit cities, communities and businesses alike recognises that simplicity rather than complexity is the way to ‘nudge’ behavioural change and create and deliver impactful solutions,” it says.

The statement continues, “The foundations of the solutions are found in Grid’s award winning Intelligent Kerbside Management solution, ‘Kerb’, a patented system to manage our inner-city kerb space, reducing congestion, increasing efficiency and improving air quality. Kerb’s functionality can meet the needs of a range of commercial sectors and city requirements, bringing order to the kerb. This real-time, dynamic product is already gaining international uptake as cities globally begin to recognise the power of effective kerbside management in improving city mobility and reducing congestion.”

Grid’s IP ranking and patent protection gives their digital kerbside management solutions a unique international competitive advantage and is attracting interest from strategic partners and investors with the rapid growth in the activity around the global kerbside management marketplace.

Grid Founder and CEO Neil Herron states, “We are proud of maintaining our Top 10 place in this increasingly competitive League Table and achieving our highest ranking of 6th place in the patent category. This is great recognition and validation of the value that IP has played and will play in securing strategic positioning in an exciting, emerging marketplace.

“We have created an ecosystem of interconnecting solutions in a high growth emerging marketplace where disruptive concepts are set to become the norm. It was essential that we developed an IP strategy to protect and ‘own the space’ in the emerging landscape and the granting of patents helps give us that differentiator. We are excited that this has been recognised and credit to the dedicated team that we have working with us.”

The full IP100 publication can be found here.

(Picture – Neil Herron, courtesy Grid Smarter Cities)