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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/5g-and-6g-reconfigurable-intelligent-surface-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
5G & 6G Patent LandscapeReconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patents: Filing Trends and Leading Holders
2,825
Published Records
46%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+20%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (461 records) with 2024 (553) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 2,825 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Technology Overview
What the Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface patent record shows
A Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) is a planar structure of many passive or semi-passive unit cells that can each alter the phase, amplitude or polarization of an incident radio wave, letting a network reshape the propagation environment rather than only the transmitter or receiver. In 5G and 6G research this positions RIS as a low-power complement to massive MIMO and beamforming, aimed at closing coverage gaps and improving link budgets without adding active RF chains. The filing record spans 2015 to mid-2026, with the bulk of activity concentrated from 2021 onward as standards bodies and chipset vendors began treating RIS as a candidate 6G physical-layer technology.
Filing activity is still recent enough that publication lag matters: records typically publish around 18 months after filing, so the last one to two years in any chart understate true filing volume. The concentration seen among the leading assignees indicates that core surface-control and beam-steering claims are already well staked out, even as the technology itself remains pre-commercial in most markets.
RIS filings by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Filing Data
Filing trends and technology composition
The dataset covers 2,825 published records tied to Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface claims or title/abstract mentions, filed between 2015 and mid-2026. The trend and classification charts below use the same record set throughout.
A decade of filing growth, concentrated after 2020
Filings were negligible before 2021, rose to a peak of 705 in 2023, and grew 20% from 461 in 2021 to 553 in 2024 — the last year in the series that can be read as complete rather than still filling in through publication lag.
Transmission and wireless-network classes dominate
H04B (transmission, general) appears on 63.6% of the 2,825 records and H04W (wireless communication networks) on 42.9%, confirming that most claims sit at the physical and network layer. Positioning-adjacent classes such as G01S (11.8%) and AI-adjacent G06N (2.6%) are present but comparatively thin, since a record can carry multiple classes these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,825 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 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative filing and most-cited records
Representative Filing
Reconfigurable intelligent surface, communication method using the reconfigurable intelligent surface, and transceiver device including the reconfigurable intelligent surface
POSTECH RESEARCH AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
Provided are a reconfigurable intelligent surface, a communication method using the reconfigurable intelligent surface, and a transceiver device including the reconfigurable intelligent surface. The surface includes unit cells arranged in a mesh, split between reflection cells that redirect an incident signal in a direction set by a beam steering module and sensing cells that support that steering decision.Filed by POSTECH Research and Business Development Foundation, published 2024-12-26.
Most-cited RIS patent records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20220014935A1 | Systems and methods using configurable surfaces for wireless communication | 199 |
| 2 | CN111010219A | 可重构智能表面辅助的多用户MIMO上行链路传输方法 | 109 |
| 3 | US20220052764A1 | Media-based reconfigurable intelligent surface-assisted modulation | 91 |
| 4 | CN111983560A | 一种双可重构智能表面辅助的毫米波单基站定位方法 | 87 |
| 5 | WO2021236510A1 | Position control of adaptive phase-changing devices | 77 |
| 6 | US20220322321A1 | Reconfigurablle intelligent surface (RIS) information update | 68 |
| 7 | US20230258759A1 | Determining a Position of User Equipment by using Adaptive Phase-Changing Devices | 63 |
| 8 | US20210384958A1 | Method for optimizing user equipment wireless localization using reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, related… | 56 |
| 9 | US20220059943A1 | Multi-layer reconfigurable surface for an antenna | 53 |
| 10 | WO2022015965A1 | Determining a position of user equipment by using adaptive phase-changing devices | 45 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current technical importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. 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 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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
Four patterns stand out once the ranking, trend and classification data are read together.
Concentration
46.5%
of 2,825 records held by top 5 assignees
Core claim space is already crowded at the top
The leading assignee alone holds 953 records, and the top 5 combined account for 46.5% of all records in scope. New entrants working on core beam-steering or surface-control claims are filing into territory the largest holders have already staked out repeatedly.
Top 10 combined reach 57.3% of the field.
Growth
+20%
filing growth, 2021 to 2024
Filing momentum built steadily, not explosively
Volume rose from 461 records in 2021 to 553 in 2024, a 20% increase over three years, after a peak of 705 in 2023. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to rise as more records publish.
2023 remains the single busiest filing year so far.
Classification
63.6%
of records classed under H04B
Transmission and wireless-network layers dominate
H04B and H04W together cover the large majority of records, showing that most RIS claims are framed as transmission or network-architecture inventions rather than as antenna hardware (H01Q, 12.5%) or AI-driven control (G06N, 2.6%).
A record can carry several IPC classes, so shares exceed 100% combined.
Collaboration
10 pairs
co-assignee pairings identified
Co-filing is limited and tightly clustered
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings repeat the same small set of names, suggesting most RIS patent activity is filed by single entities rather than through joint development structures.
Strongest pairing recorded at 77 shared records.
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Co-filing patterns
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Inc. | ZHANG YU | 77 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | LY HUNG DINH | 48 |
| ZHANG YU | LY HUNG DINH | 48 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | ELSHAFIE AHMED | 41 |
| ZHANG YU | ELSHAFIE AHMED | 41 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | XU HAO | 40 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | HUANG MIN | 40 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | MUKKAVILLI KRISHNA KIRAN | 35 |
The small number of co-assignee pairs, and the repetition of the same names across the strongest pairings, indicates joint filing is the exception rather than the norm in this field.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Next Steps
Where to take this analysis
The trends above point to a field with occupied core claims but open adjacent branches. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio building, or partner scouting.
Map freedom-to-operate against the leading holders
Run a claims-level comparison against the assignees holding the densest positions in H04B and H04W before committing to a beam-steering or surface-control architecture.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed intersections
G06N and H02J classes remain thin relative to H04B, suggesting AI-driven RIS control and power-management integration are less contested and worth watching as filing volume catches up.
Monitor emerging classes in EurekaWatch 2025-2026 filings as they publish
Because of the roughly 18-month publication lag, the most recent filing years will keep revising upward; re-run this analysis periodically rather than treating the latest year as final.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about RIS patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset covers 100 companies drawn from 2,825 published records, and it is led by a single company holding 953 records. The top 5 assignees combined account for 46.5% of all records in scope, with the top 10 reaching 57.3%. That level of concentration means a small number of holders control most of the core surface-control and beam-steering claim space, though a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants still exists beyond the ranked leaders.
Filing volume was effectively zero in 2017 and stayed low through the late 2010s before rising sharply from 2021 onward. The peak year recorded so far is 2023 with 705 filings, and volume grew 20% from 461 records in 2021 to 553 in 2024. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any chart will continue to be revised upward as more applications publish.
The dominant classification is H04B, covering transmission techniques in general, which appears on 63.6% of the 2,825 records in scope. H04W (wireless communication networks) follows at 42.9%, and H04L (digital information transmission) at 20.8%. Hardware-focused classes like H01Q (antennas, 12.5%) and positioning-related G01S (11.8%) are present but smaller, and AI-adjacent G06N sits at just 2.6%, indicating that machine-learning-driven RIS control is still an early, under-claimed area relative to core transmission and network claims.
US20240429969A1, filed by POSTECH Research and Business Development Foundation and published on 2024-12-26, claims a reconfigurable intelligent surface built from unit cells arranged in a mesh, split between reflection cells steered by a beam-steering module and sensing cells that support the steering decision. It is a representative rather than uniquely dominant filing: the broader dataset shows dense prior art in beam-steering and surface-control claims held by the leading assignees, so any design using a mesh-based reflect/sense cell split should be checked against this filing and against the top-ranked holders' portfolios rather than assumed clear by default.
Relative to the dominant transmission and network classes, AI-based control of RIS surfaces (G06N, 2.6% of records) and power-supply integration (H02J, 1.5%) are comparatively under-claimed. This does not mean these areas are technically immature, only that fewer claims currently occupy them, which typically makes freedom-to-operate easier and first-mover claims stronger. Co-assignee filing is also sparse — only 10 pairs identified across the dataset — suggesting joint-development patent strategies remain largely unexplored in this field.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on 5G & 6G: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.