5G New Radio Channel Coding Patent Landscape 2026
Samsung Electronics holds an overwhelming lead in 5G NR channel coding, accounting for the vast majority of activity among the top filers, with wireless communication networks as the dominant technology route. The field reached its annual peak in 2020 and has since eased, with recent low counts reflecting publication lag rather than a confirmed exit from activity.
Samsung Electronics leads a heavily concentrated field
Samsung Electronics is ranked first by a wide margin, with 6,632 patent families, followed distantly by Qualcomm (278), Intel (210), Apple (155), and Nvidia (86). The top five filers account for 93% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, signalling an exceptionally concentrated competitive structure.
The tier gap between the leader and its nearest challenger is stark: Samsung’s portfolio is roughly 24 times larger than Qualcomm’s. Beyond the top five, the remaining ranked applicants each hold fewer than 90 patent families, forming a long tail of universities, start-ups, and regional operators.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 6,632 | |
| 2 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 278 | |
| 3 | Intel Corporation | 210 | |
| 4 | Apple Inc. | 155 | |
| 5 | Nvidia Corporation | 86 | |
| 6 | Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 53 | |
| 7 | Sharp Corporation | 40 | |
| 8 | Nokia Technologies Oy | 32 | |
| 9 | MediaTek Inc. | 28 | |
| 10 | FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | 28 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | RES & BUSINESS FOUND SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIV | 24 | |
| 12 | EdgeQ Inc. | 22 | |
| 13 | InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. | 15 | |
| 14 | KOREA UNIV RES & BUSINESS FOUND | 14 | |
| 15 | POSTECH Academy-Industry Foundation | 14 | |
| 16 | NOKIA SOLUTIONS & NETWORKS OY | 12 | |
| 17 | Lenovo (Beijing) Ltd. | 12 | |
| 18 | LG Electronics Inc. | 12 | |
| 19 | Charter Communications Operating LLC | 11 | |
| 20 | Intel IP Corporation | 11 |
Samsung’s scale implies deep prior-art coverage across the core wireless and digital-transmission classes, creating high freedom-to-operate risk for new entrants targeting the mainstream H04W and H04L subclasses. Challengers and academic entrants are differentiating in narrower coding-theory (H03M) and multiplexing (H04J) branches.
Filing counts for 2024–2026 are expected to be significantly under-counted due to the 18–24 month patent publication lag; the apparent sharp decline in those years should not be interpreted as a confirmed market exit. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2020; wireless network classes dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend reveals a sharp build-up from 2017 to a 2020 peak, followed by an easing trajectory. The technology composition is heavily concentrated in wireless and digital-transmission classes, with a small but notable tail of coding-theory and multiplexing filings.
Annual filing trend
Filings climbed from 814 in 2017 to a peak of 1,404 in 2020, then declined through 2022 (741) and 2023 (483). The 2024–2026 values are materially suppressed by publication lag and should not be read as confirmed final counts.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H04W (Wireless communication networks) and H04L (Digital information transmission) dominate, reflecting the core NR air-interface focus of the corpus. H04B (Transmission, general) ranks third, while H03M (Coding and code conversion) and H04J (Multiplex communication) each hold smaller but technically distinct shares, pointing to the algorithm-level and multiplexing layers of channel coding.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Apparatus and method for decoding data in mobile c…
The present disclosure relates to a communication method and system for converging a 5th-Generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4th-Generation (4G) system with a technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the 5G communication technology and the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method and apparatus for transmitting group messag… | 326 |
| 2 | Method and device for transmitting or receiving gr… | 315 |
| 3 | Method and apparatus for managing user plane opera… | 276 |
| 4 | Method and apparatus for performing and reporting … | 239 |
| 5 | Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) blind de… | 210 |
| 6 | Apparatus and method of transmitting/receiving sig… | 209 |
| 7 | Parallel de-rate-matching and layer demapping for … | 205 |
| 8 | Method and apparatus for downlink control informat… | 198 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of high concentration, a post-peak lifecycle, and a well-established dominant filer creates a clear strategic context: the core air-interface coding space is mature and crowded, while adjacent coding-theory and multiplexing branches offer relatively more room.
Field is in decline from a 2020 peak
The lifecycle stage is classified as Decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2020 peak of 1,404 families. On a multi-year basis the corpus still represents substantial accumulated prior art (7,389 patent families), but the forward filing pace has slowed markedly. New entrants should expect dense prior art in core NR coding subclasses and price their freedom-to-operate assessments accordingly.
Post-peak · 2020 apexSingle-firm dominance creates asymmetric barriers
The top five filers’ 93% share of the hundred largest filers’ combined total is exceptionally high for a broad telecommunications technology area. Samsung’s 6,632-family portfolio alone dwarfs the rest of the field combined. Any entrant seeking to license or design around the core wireless-network and digital-transmission classes must treat Samsung’s portfolio as the primary freedom-to-operate constraint, with Qualcomm and Intel as secondary considerations.
Top-5 share: 93%Samsung anchors a university-heavy co-filing ecosystem
The most active co-filing pair is Sharp and FG Innovation (32 joint families), reflecting a technology-transfer arrangement. Samsung co-files extensively with Korean universities: Sungkyunkwan University (24 families), Korea University (14), and POSTECH (14) are its most active academic partners, with smaller collaborations extending to KAIST, Seoul National University, and Chonnam National University. Intel co-files with Intel IP Corp (6 families). This pattern suggests that foundational coding-algorithm research is being channelled from Korean academia directly into Samsung’s portfolio.
University-anchored ecosystemUS and EPO lead filings; India and China are secondary markets
The United States is the leading jurisdiction with 2,761 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 2,310 and WIPO/PCT at 892. India ranks fourth at 715 records, ahead of China at 572, reflecting strategic filing decisions oriented toward large 5G deployment markets. South Korea and Japan together account for fewer than 100 records, which is notable given the Korean and Japanese nationality of several top applicants.
US · EPO · India leadGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Sharp Corporation | FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | 32 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Sungkyunkwan University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation | 24 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Korea University Research and Business Foundation | 14 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | POSTECH Academy-Industry Foundation | 14 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | 7 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 韩国科学技术院 | 6 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Seoul National University R&DB Foundation | 6 |
| Intel Corporation | Intel IP Corporation | 6 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 全南大学校产学协力团 | 5 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 延世大学校产学协力团 | 4 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Samsung Electronics leads; Intel shows a divergent upward momentum
The top two ranked applicants — Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm — both show declining recent filing rates, while Intel and Nvidia diverge with positive momentum, and Huawei’s recent activity remains limited.
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics holds 6,632 patent families, the largest portfolio in this space by a wide margin. Its technology emphasis centres on H04W 72 (wireless network resource scheduling), H04L 5 (multi-carrier and duplex transmission), and H04L 1 (error detection and correction), reflecting end-to-end NR air-interface coverage. Recent filing momentum shows a decline of 64% versus the prior three-year period, consistent with the field-wide post-peak easing rather than a strategic withdrawal.
patent families: 6,632Intel Corporation
Intel ranks third overall with 210 patent families and is the notable positive outlier among top filers, with recent filing activity running at 3.3 times its prior three-year pace. Its technology focus mirrors the mainstream — H04W 72, H04L 5, and H04L 1 — suggesting Intel is deepening coverage in core NR scheduling and transmission rather than differentiating into adjacent branches. This momentum is worth monitoring as a signal of renewed or redirected 5G modem investment.
patent families: 210| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 1,132 | ▼ -64% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 39 | ▼ -71% |
| Intel Corporation | 145 | ▲ 3.3× vs prior 3-yr |
| Apple Inc. | 27 | ▼ -72% |
| Nvidia Corporation | 42 | ▲ +11% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 7 | ▼ -59% |
Under-served branches in coding theory and multiplex communication
Two IPC classes sit adjacent to the dominant wireless-network core but hold comparatively low filing volumes, making them worth examining for teams with algorithm-level or physical-layer differentiation strategies.
H03M · Coding and Code Conversion
H03M holds 409 patent records — roughly 3% of the records in the top IPC classes — despite being the most directly relevant class to channel-coding algorithms (turbo, LDPC, polar codes). The sparse coverage relative to the H04W and H04L dominant classes suggests that algorithm-level innovations are less contested at the patent level. Huawei and Nvidia both show H03M 13 as their leading subclass focus, and Sungkyunkwan University’s academic portfolio is also anchored here. Teams developing novel encoding/decoding architectures or AI-assisted coding schemes could find more navigable prior art in this branch than in the core wireless classes.
Search this in Eureka →H04J · Multiplex Communication
H04J (Multiplex communication) accounts for 230 patent records — approximately 2% of the top-class records — despite OFDM and NOMA being central to 5G NR physical-layer design. The relative sparsity may reflect how most multiplexing innovations are filed under H04W or H04L subclasses rather than H04J directly, but it also indicates that H04J-specific claims could be filed with less prior-art crowding. Entrants working on novel waveform multiplexing, non-orthogonal multiple access, or spectral-efficiency techniques may find this an accessible adjacent branch.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across NR coding subclasses
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H04W 72 · Wireless communication networks | H04L 5 · Digital information transmission | H04L 1 · Digital information transmission | H04W 76 · Wireless communication networks | H04B 7 · Transmission (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Strong · 3,354 | Strong · 2,282 | Strong · 1,725 | Moderate · 1,259 | Moderate · 954 |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | Strong · 113 | Strong · 102 | Strong · 77 | Moderate · 29 | Moderate · 49 |
| Intel Corporation | Strong · 132 | Strong · 84 | Moderate · 41 | Moderate · 33 | Moderate · 36 |
| Apple Inc. | Strong · 61 | Strong · 63 | Moderate · 17 | Emerging · 11 | Moderate · 26 |
| Nvidia Corporation | Strong · 16 | Moderate · 5 | Strong · 22 | Absent | Strong · 17 |
| Sharp Corporation | Moderate · 9 | Strong · 35 | Absent | Absent | Moderate · 10 |
| FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | Absent | Strong · 32 | Absent | Absent | Moderate · 9 |
Frequently asked questions
The analysis covers 7,389 patent families in 5G New Radio channel coding, spanning filings from 2017 through 2026.
Samsung Electronics is the leading filer by a very wide margin, with 6,632 patent families. The next largest filer, Qualcomm, holds 278 patent families, making Samsung’s portfolio roughly 24 times larger than its nearest challenger.
No. The field reached its annual peak in 2020 with 1,404 families filed that year, and annual volume has eased since. The lifecycle stage is classified as Decline. Filing counts for 2024–2026 are under-counted due to publication lag, so the exact current pace cannot yet be confirmed.
The United States leads with 2,761 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 2,310 and WIPO/PCT at 892. India ranks fourth at 715 records and China fifth at 572, reflecting the importance of large 5G deployment markets as filing destinations.
H04W (Wireless communication networks) and H04L (Digital information transmission) are by far the most crowded classes. H03M (Coding and code conversion) at 409 records and H04J (Multiplex communication) at 230 records are comparatively less filed, representing adjacent branches with potentially more navigable prior-art landscapes for algorithm-level and waveform innovations.
Intel Corporation is the most notable positive outlier among top filers, with recent filing activity running at 3.3 times its prior three-year pace. Nvidia shows a modest positive trend of 11% in recent filings. In contrast, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Apple have all seen recent filing rates decline relative to their prior three-year periods.
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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.
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