6G Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) Patent Landscape
The 6G ISAC patent field is in a confirmed growth stage, with Samsung Electronics holding a commanding position that dwarfs all other filers. PCT is the dominant filing route, reflecting a globally oriented race by a small number of corporate and academic players.
Samsung leads a highly concentrated field with a dominant share among the top filers
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd ranks first with 417 patent families, more than eighteen times the output of the second-ranked applicant, Fractal Networks LLC, which holds 22 patent families. Nokia Technologies Oy follows in third place with 15 patent families.
The top five filers account for 74% of the combined output of the hundred largest filers, indicating extreme concentration. A sharp tier gap separates Samsung from all challengers; no other applicant approaches a comparable scale in this space.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | 417 | |
| 2 | Fractal Networks LLC | 22 | |
| 3 | Nokia Technologies Oy | 15 | |
| 4 | Jio Platforms Ltd | 9 | |
| 5 | Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd | 7 | |
| 6 | NANJING UNIV OF POSTS & TELECOMM | 6 | |
| 7 | BEIJING UNIV OF POSTS & TELECOMM | 5 | |
| 8 | LG Electronics Inc | 5 | |
| 9 | CHONGQING UNIV OF POSTS & TELECOMM | 4 | |
| 10 | Southeast University | 4 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Parallel Wireless Inc | 4 | |
| 12 | SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY R&DB FOUNDATION | 4 | |
| 13 | AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P | 4 | |
| 14 | Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co. Ltd | 4 | |
| 15 | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology | 3 | |
| 16 | Intel Corporation | 3 | |
| 17 | Zhuhai UM Science and Technology Research Institute | 3 | |
| 18 | HEGDE BHARGAVA S | 3 | |
| 19 | MANDERWAD PRAMOD KUMAR V | 3 | |
| 20 | SR University | 3 |
Samsung’s lead position signals sustained, deliberate R&D investment in ISAC waveform design, beamforming, and resource management for 6G. Challengers and academic entrants currently operate at volumes that leave most technical sub-areas open for competitive entry.
Filing counts for the most recent 18–24 months are understated due to publication lag; the true volume of recent activity is likely higher than current records reflect. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filings have grown sharply since 2021, dominated by wireless communication and transmission classes
The annual filing trend and technology composition together reveal a field that accelerated dramatically from 2021 onward, concentrated in wireless networking and transmission IPC classes, with AI and radar as smaller but noteworthy adjacent branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible before 2020, then rose from 11 families in 2020 to 76 in 2022, 155 in 2023, and 176 in 2024. The 2025 and 2026 figures are understated by publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown; the overall multi-year growth rate stands at 1,031%.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H04W (wireless communication networks) and H04B (transmission general) account for the largest share of technical coverage, followed by H04L (digital information transmission). G06N (AI models) and G01S (radar and positioning) are present but at much lower volumes, pointing to under-developed intersections between ISAC and AI-driven or radar-specific techniques.
↗ 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.
Stepped carrier on-off keying method for integrate…
The present invention relates to stepped carrier On-Off keying method for integrated sensing and communication system in THz band. Main purpose of the invention is to provide to create an ISAC structure with OOK modulation, which is among the important requirements for 6G. (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cellular system | 33 |
| 2 | Cellular system | 23 |
| 3 | Fast multi-beam listen before talk | 21 |
| 4 | Apparatus and method performed by the same in wire… | 18 |
| 5 | Cellular system | 17 |
| 6 | 通信方法及装置 | 15 |
| 7 | Communication method and user equipment | 14 |
| 8 | Method and apparatus for transmitting and processi… | 10 |
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 strategy
Three structural features stand out for engineering teams evaluating investment: the field is early-growth, heavily concentrated in one player, and PCT-centric with selective geographic coverage.
Growth stage — annual volume still rising from a low base
The lifecycle is classified as Growth, with annual filings still rising and recent years understated by publication lag. The 1,031% multi-year growth rate confirms the field is far from saturation. Entry costs in under-served sub-branches remain relatively low compared to a maturing field.
Lifecycle: GrowthExtreme single-player dominance with a wide tier gap
Samsung Electronics holds 417 patent families against a second-ranked applicant at 22. The top five filers account for 74% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output. This concentration means most sub-areas lack competitive depth and a focused challenger could establish meaningful positions in specific technical niches.
HHI: Very HighSamsung–Beijing Samsung R&D Center is the most active co-filing pair
The most active co-applicant relationship is between Samsung Electronics (Korea) and Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center, with 6 jointly filed patent families. Samsung Electronics and the Seoul National University R&D Foundation have co-filed 3 families. Collaboration activity beyond the Samsung ecosystem is sparse at present.
Co-filing: LimitedPCT leads; US, Europe, India, and China are secondary targets
WIPO (PCT) is the top filing office with 208 records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 149 and the United States with 101. India ranks fourth with 88 records, ahead of China’s 73, which is notable given China’s typically strong domestic filing patterns. South Korea, Japan, and other markets are represented at much lower volumes.
Lead Office: PCTGo 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | 6 |
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Seoul National University R&DB Foundation | 3 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Samsung dominates on wireless and transmission routes; Nokia leads the closest challenger cluster
The patent family ranking is two-tiered: Samsung Electronics at a scale of its own, and a cluster of challengers including Fractal Networks LLC and Nokia Technologies Oy at volumes that are one to two orders of magnitude smaller.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
Samsung holds 417 patent families, concentrated in H04W 72 (wireless resource scheduling), H04B 7 (multi-antenna transmission), and H04L 5 (multi-carrier transmission) — the core technical pillars of ISAC waveform and beamforming design. The applicant momentum data records this position as a new entrant classification over the recent window, with 314 families filed in the recent period, reflecting the speed at which Samsung has built this portfolio. Co-filings with Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center and Seoul National University reinforce a structured, multi-node IP strategy.
families: 417Nokia Technologies Oy
Nokia Technologies Oy ranks third with 15 patent families, focused on H04B 7 (transmission general), H04W 72 (wireless network scheduling), and H04W 24 (network monitoring and testing). Momentum is classified as a new entrant over the recent window, with 9 families filed recently, indicating Nokia is actively building rather than coasting on legacy filings. Its transmission-centric focus is technically adjacent to Samsung’s but differentiated at the sub-class level.
families: 15| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | 314 | ▲ new entrant |
| Nokia Technologies Oy | 9 | ▲ new entrant |
| Jio Platforms Ltd | 9 | ▲ new entrant |
| Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd | 5 | ▲ new entrant |
| Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
AI models and radar/positioning are the sparsest branches with plausible technical value
Five IPC branches sit at the lower-share edge of the ISAC corpus and are adjacent to the dominant wireless communication core. Two stand out as under-served with clear technical relevance and a realistic entry path for focused teams.
G06N · AI models applied to ISAC signal processing
With 71 records against a dominant corpus of wireless and transmission filings, the AI-for-ISAC intersection is relatively sparse. There is plausible technical value: machine learning can optimize joint sensing-communication waveform design, channel estimation, and interference management in ways that deterministic algorithms cannot. Teams with AI signal-processing expertise could enter this sub-area with targeted filings on neural-network-based beam management or learned sensing-communication trade-off schedulers.
Search this in Eureka →G01S · Radar and positioning techniques for ISAC
G01S holds 38 records, modest relative to the H04W and H04B core. This branch covers the sensing side of ISAC most directly — target detection, ranging, and positioning algorithms — yet it accounts for only about 3% of the adjacent branch coverage among the top hundred filers. Radar signal processing expertise from defense or automotive radar domains translates directly here, and the low filing density suggests incumbents have not locked down this sub-space.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across filing jurisdictions
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H04B 7 · Transmission (general) | H04W 72 · Wireless communication networks | H04W 4 · Wireless communication networks | H04L 5 · Digital information transmission | H04W 24 · Wireless communication networks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Strong · 227 | Strong · 263 | Moderate · 111 | Strong · 137 | Moderate · 113 |
| Nokia Technologies Oy | Strong · 13 | Strong · 8 | Moderate · 3 | Moderate · 5 | Moderate · 6 |
| Jio Platforms Ltd | Strong · 5 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 3 | Strong · 4 |
| Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | Absent | Strong · 6 | Absent | Strong · 4 | Moderate · 2 |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I L P | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence corpus covers 639 patent families in 6G Integrated Sensing and Communication. Filing activity was negligible before 2020 and has grown at a multi-year rate of 1,031%, with 176 families recorded in 2024 alone.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd is the clear leader with 417 patent families, more than eighteen times the output of the second-ranked applicant, Fractal Networks LLC at 22 families. Nokia Technologies Oy ranks third with 15 families.
WIPO (PCT) leads with 208 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 149, the United States at 101, India at 88, and China at 73. The PCT dominance reflects a globally oriented protection strategy among the major filers.
The field is classified as Growth. Annual filings have risen sharply since 2021, and the most recent 18–24 months are understated by publication lag. The overall multi-year growth rate is 1,031%, indicating the field is far from saturation.
G06N (AI models) with 71 records and G01S (radar and positioning) with 38 records are the sparsest branches with clear technical relevance to ISAC. H01Q (antennas) also appears at 38 records relative to the dominant wireless and transmission core.
Collaboration is limited. The most active co-applicant pair is Samsung Electronics (Korea) and Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center with 6 jointly filed families, followed by Samsung Electronics and the Seoul National University R&D Foundation with 3. Cross-company or cross-institution collaboration beyond the Samsung ecosystem is sparse in the current evidence.
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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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