5G New Radio Waveform and Modulation Patent Landscape
5G New Radio Waveform and Modulation Patent Landscape in 2026
Qualcomm holds a commanding lead in 5G NR waveform and modulation IP, with the top five filers accounting for nearly two-thirds of the hundred largest filers’ combined output. The field has moved past its 2018 peak, indicating that foundational waveform and modulation positions are now largely staked and competition is shifting toward adjacent or second-order technical problems.
Qualcomm leads a highly concentrated field with a clear tier gap to challengers
Qualcomm is the dominant filer in 5G NR waveform and modulation, ranking first with 245 patent families — more than double the second-ranked Apple at 99 patent families. Sharp ranks third at 85, followed by FG Innovation at 50 and Samsung Electronics at 41.
The top five filers together account for 63% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, signaling a highly concentrated competitive structure. There is a pronounced tier gap between the top three (Qualcomm, Apple, Sharp) and the mid-tier players clustered between 36 and 50 patent families.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 245 | |
| 2 | Apple Inc. | 99 | |
| 3 | Sharp Corporation | 85 | |
| 4 | FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | 50 | |
| 5 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 41 | |
| 6 | Intel Corporation | 36 | |
| 7 | Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. | 36 | |
| 8 | MediaTek Inc. | 26 | |
| 9 | PCTEL, Inc. | 12 | |
| 10 | InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. | 12 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Nokia Technologies Oy | 11 | |
| 12 | Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 11 | |
| 13 | Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 10 | |
| 14 | Lenovo (Beijing) Ltd. | 10 | |
| 15 | T-Mobile US, Inc. | 9 | |
| 16 | Software Radio Systems Limited | 9 | |
| 17 | NVIDIA Corporation | 9 | |
| 18 | Sony Group Corporation | 7 | |
| 19 | Active Wireless Technologies LLC | 6 | |
| 20 | Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc. | 5 |
Qualcomm’s position, roughly 2.5 times larger than Apple’s, reflects early and sustained standards-engagement activity; challengers at or below 50 patent families will find it difficult to contest the core waveform IP stack without targeted licensing or partnership strategies.
Activity from approximately 2024 onward is subject to publication lag and will likely revise upward as pending applications publish; figures for those years should be treated as provisional. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 and has eased; digital-transmission classes dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend and technology composition charts together show a field that crystallized rapidly around a core set of IPC classes and has since shifted from volume growth to consolidation.
Annual filing trend
Filings peaked sharply in 2018 at 190 and have declined in every subsequent year, reflecting the maturation of foundational 5G NR waveform specifications. Data from 2024 onward reflects publication lag and should be read as a lower bound rather than a true decline; the multi-year window still captures a substantial body of activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H04L (Digital information transmission) is the dominant class by a wide margin, followed by H04W (Wireless communication networks) and H04B (Transmission, general). Multiplex communication (H04J), radar and positioning (G01S), and coding and code conversion (H03M) are present at much lower volumes, indicating that the core waveform and modulation problem set sits firmly within the digital-transmission and wireless-networking branches.
↗ 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.
Systems and methods for locating all synchronizati…
Embodiments disclosed herein include systems and methods for locating all synchronization signal blocks on a 5G new radio channel. Such systems and methods can include measuring downlink signal energy over a bandwidth of the 5G new radio channel to identify a center frequency of a signal broadcast on the 5G new radio channel, processing the signal at the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
Open this patent in Eureka →| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apparatus and method to support ultra-wide bandwid… | 283 |
| 2 | Parallel de-rate-matching and layer demapping for … | 205 |
| 3 | Beam indication for 5g new radio | 121 |
| 4 | Beam indication for 5g new radio | 119 |
| 5 | Physical Downlink Control Channel Design for NR Sy… | 114 |
| 6 | SHORT PUCCH FORMATS AND SCHEDULING REQUEST (SR) TR… | 80 |
| 7 | Bandwidth group (BWG) for enhanced channel and int… | 69 |
| 8 | Null resource elements for dynamic and bursty inte… | 62 |
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 patent structure means for R&D investment decisions
The combination of high concentration, a post-peak filing curve, and a tightly defined IPC footprint shapes where new entrants and incumbents alike should direct effort.
Field is in decline from a 2018 peak
The lifecycle stage is Decline: annual filings have eased back from the 2018 peak of 190 and the recent-window growth rate stands at -55%. Foundational waveform and modulation positions are largely established, meaning incremental improvements to the core physical-layer design offer diminishing IP returns. R&D effort is better directed toward adjacent problems — such as multiplexing schemes, integrated sensing, or interference management — where the filing density remains lower.
Post-peak · 2018 apexTop five filers hold nearly two-thirds of the leading-100 share
With 63% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output concentrated in five assignees, the core IP stack is effectively controlled by a small group led by Qualcomm, Apple, and Sharp. New entrants face a high licensing or design-around burden in the primary H04L and H04W branches. Mid-tier players such as Intel and Xiaomi hold meaningful but significantly smaller positions and may represent acquisition or licensing targets for companies seeking faster access to the stack.
High concentrationSharp and FG Innovation are the field’s most active co-filers
The only documented co-applicant relationship in the evidence is between Sharp and FG Innovation, with 59 jointly filed patent families. This pairing accounts for a meaningful share of both assignees’ portfolios and suggests a sustained, structured R&D collaboration rather than ad-hoc joint filing. No other co-applicant pairs are recorded in the evidence, indicating that the broader field operates primarily through independent filings.
Sharp × FG Innovation · 59 familiesUS and EPO dominate; India is a notable emerging filing destination
The United States is the leading filing jurisdiction, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT). India ranks fourth ahead of China, which is an unusual pattern for wireless-technology IP and likely reflects the market strategies of device OEMs and chipset vendors targeting the Indian mobile market. Taiwan and South Korea also appear in the top ten, consistent with the presence of MediaTek, Samsung, and Sharp Laboratories among the top filers.
US · EPO · India top threeGo 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. | 59 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Qualcomm leads on volume and breadth; Apple holds the strongest challenger position
Both top players concentrate their filings in H04L digital-transmission and H04W wireless-network subclasses, but Qualcomm’s scale advantage in H04L 27 (modulation) differentiates its portfolio from Apple’s more resource-management-oriented emphasis.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm leads with 245 patent families, more than double Apple’s tally. Its portfolio is concentrated in H04L 5 (multi-carrier transmission, 191 filings), H04L 27 (modulation, 83 filings), and H04W 72 (resource scheduling, 76 filings), giving it broad coverage across the core waveform design space. Recent momentum shows a trend of -66%, consistent with the field-wide post-peak pattern rather than a specific strategic withdrawal.
245 patent familiesApple
Apple ranks second with 99 patent families, focused on H04L 5 (83 filings), H04W 72 (27 filings), and H04L 27 (18 filings). Its portfolio skews toward multi-carrier and scheduling aspects rather than the modulation-waveform depth that defines Qualcomm’s position. Recent momentum is –62%, broadly in line with the field trend, suggesting Apple is maintaining relative standing rather than ceding ground.
99 patent families| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 29 | ▼ -66% |
| Apple Inc. | 24 | ▼ -62% |
| Sharp Corporation | 1 | ▼ -93% |
| FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | 1 | ▼ -92% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 4 | ▼ -86% |
| Intel Corporation | 19 | ▬ -5% |
| Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. | 15 | ▼ -6% |
| MediaTek Inc. | 4 | ▼ -64% |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant waveform core
Three IPC classes sit at the periphery of the dominant H04L/H04W core with notably lower filing density; two have plausible technical relevance to next-generation NR evolution and merit closer inspection before concluding they represent investable white space.
H04J · Multiplex communication
With 75 patent records, H04J is the largest of the lower-share branches but represents only about 5% of the technology composition. Multiplexing schemes — including non-orthogonal multiple access and hybrid numerology multiplexing — are central to 6G waveform evolution and NR enhancements. The relatively sparse filing density compared to H04L suggests that firms with strong multi-carrier signal-processing capabilities could find room to establish differentiated positions, though the PCTEL and Nokia filings already present indicate some incumbent activity to map before entry.
Search this in Eureka →G01S · Radar, sonar and positioning (integrated sensing)
G01S accounts for only 17 patent records — roughly 1% of the technology composition — despite integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) being a stated feature area for 5G-Advanced and 6G NR. The sparse filing density in this branch relative to the dominant digital-transmission classes suggests that the waveform-design community has not yet extensively claimed the overlap between NR waveform design and sensing functions. Entry cost is lower here than in the saturated H04L core, and the technical value is high given 3GPP Release 18 and 19 ISAC work items. Realistic entry requires expertise bridging signal-processing and radar systems.
Search this in Eureka →How top filers differ across technology sub-routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H04L 5 · Digital information transmission | H04W 72 · Wireless communication networks | H04L 27 · Digital information transmission | H04L 1 · Digital information transmission | H04B 7 · Transmission (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Incorporated | Strong · 191 | Moderate · 76 | Moderate · 83 | Emerging · 27 | Moderate · 39 |
| Apple Inc. | Strong · 83 | Moderate · 27 | Moderate · 18 | Emerging · 15 | Emerging · 9 |
| Sharp Corporation | Strong · 68 | Moderate · 22 | Absent | Moderate · 21 | Emerging · 11 |
| FG Innovation Co., Ltd. | Strong · 59 | Moderate · 13 | Absent | Moderate · 21 | Emerging · 10 |
| Intel Corporation | Strong · 35 | Strong · 22 | Moderate · 8 | Moderate · 17 | Moderate · 13 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Strong · 37 | Strong · 25 | Emerging · 5 | Emerging · 6 | Emerging · 6 |
| Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc. | Strong · 29 | Strong · 22 | Absent | Moderate · 14 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus in scope contains 753 patent families. This total reflects the defined search scope and should be treated as a bounded sample rather than an exhaustive count of all global filings touching this technology area.
Qualcomm leads with 245 patent families, which is more than double the second-ranked applicant, Apple, at 99 patent families. Qualcomm’s portfolio concentrates on multi-carrier transmission (H04L 5), modulation (H04L 27), and resource scheduling (H04W 72).
Annual filings peaked in 2018 at 190 and have declined in each subsequent year, placing the field in a Decline lifecycle stage. For new entrants, this means the foundational IP positions — particularly in H04L and H04W — are largely established, and differentiation is more achievable in lower-density adjacent branches such as H04J (multiplex communication) or G01S (integrated sensing).
The United States leads with 257 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 134, WIPO (PCT) at 95, India at 69, and China at 60. India’s rank ahead of China is notable and likely reflects device-market strategies by OEM and chipset filers targeting the Indian mobile ecosystem.
Yes. The only documented co-applicant relationship in the evidence is between Sharp and FG Innovation, with 59 jointly filed patent families. This represents a sustained, structured R&D collaboration. No other co-applicant pairs are recorded in the evidence.
The most-cited work in the evidence covers ultra-wideband apparatus and methods (283 citations), parallel de-rate-matching and layer demapping (205 citations), beam indication for 5G NR (121 and 119 citations for two related documents), and physical downlink control channel design for NR systems (114 citations). These high-citation documents are concentrated in physical-layer resource management and beamforming control, reflecting the central design challenges of the NR air interface.
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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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