6G Network Slicing Patent Landscape 2026
The 6G network slicing patent field is in a growth phase, with multi-year filing activity expanding sharply from a near-zero base, though annual volume has eased from its 2023 peak. Samsung Electronics dominates with exceptional concentration, holding the large majority of activity among the top filers, while WIPO (PCT) leads as the primary filing jurisdiction.
Samsung Electronics leads an exceptionally concentrated field
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd sits at the top of the applicant ranking with 1,699 patent families — a position that dwarfs every other filer in this space. AT&T Intellectual Property I L. P. is the distant second-ranked entity, followed by Huawei Technologies, Intel, and AT&T Mobility II in the next tier.
The top five filers collectively account for 94% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, signalling one of the highest concentration ratios seen in an emerging wireless technology area. The gap between the top-ranked applicant and the second-ranked is structural rather than marginal, reflecting Samsung’s early and sustained commitment to 6G slicing IP.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | 1,699 | |
| 2 | AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P | 43 | |
| 3 | Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd | 20 | |
| 4 | Intel Corporation | 18 | |
| 5 | AT&T MOBILITY II LLC | 17 | |
| 6 | Jio Platforms Ltd | 7 | |
| 7 | Boost Subscriberco LLC | 5 | |
| 8 | Nanjing University OF POSTS & TELECOMM | 5 | |
| 9 | InterDigital Patent Holdings Inc. | 4 | |
| 10 | Nokia Technologies Oy | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Apple Inc. | 3 | |
| 12 | Medicaps University | 2 | |
| 13 | Northeastern University | 2 | |
| 14 | ZTE Corporation | 2 | |
| 15 | EBOS Technologies | 2 | |
| 16 | Vardhaman College of Engineering | 2 | |
| 17 | NEC Corporation | 2 | |
| 18 | China Post Construction Technology Co. Ltd | 2 | |
| 19 | Radisys India Pte. Ltd | 2 | |
| 20 | Dr. Umar Farooq | 1 |
Samsung’s dominance implies that challengers seeking to compete on core network slicing protocols face a formidable prior-art barrier. Entrants building on adjacent or application-layer claims may find more navigable terrain, particularly in branches where Samsung’s coverage is thinner.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are under-represented due to standard patent publication lag; apparent moderation in 2024–2026 counts should not be read as a slowdown. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Explosive multi-year growth anchored in wireless network management
The filing trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that accelerated sharply from 2022 onward, built almost entirely on wireless network infrastructure classes, with smaller but strategically relevant activity in AI and general transmission branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible through 2020, then surged from 2022 (379 families) to a 2023 peak of 660 families before easing to 490 in 2024 and 257 in 2025 — with 2026 recording only 13 families to date. The 2023 peak and the subsequent apparent decline through 2026 must be read in light of publication lag, which routinely suppresses counts in the most recent 18–24 months. The multi-year growth rate of roughly 2,898% from the prior three-year window confirms the field is still expanding on a structural basis.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H04W (wireless communication networks) is the dominant IPC class with 1,756 records, reflecting that network slicing is fundamentally a radio access and core network management problem. H04L (digital information transmission) is a substantial secondary branch at 803 records. H04B, G06N (AI models), and H04J are present at materially lower levels, pointing to emerging but underserved intersections with physical-layer transmission, machine learning, and multiplexing.
↗ 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.
Methods and systems for providing enhanced network…
The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. A device and a method for managing network slice subnet feasibility in a wireless network are provided. The method includes receiving, from a network slice subnet management service consumer entity, a request message for a feasibility check of at least… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facilitation of dynamic edge computations for 6g o… | 153 |
| 2 | Facilitation of dynamic edge computations for 6g o… | 147 |
| 3 | Intelligence and Learning in O-RAN for 5G and 6G C… | 95 |
| 4 | Method and system for DSS between LTE cell and NR … | 88 |
| 5 | Device contexts, operational modes, and policy dri… | 21 |
| 6 | Method and device for header compression or decomp… | 20 |
| 7 | Methods and systems for AF control of network slic… | 20 |
| 8 | Facilitating notification and corrective actions r… | 20 |
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
The landscape’s extreme concentration, rapid growth trajectory, and heavy wireless-protocol orientation have concrete implications for how new entrants and challengers should position their R&D portfolios.
Growth stage, easing from 2023 peak
The field carries a Growth lifecycle designation: recent three-year filing volumes sit well above the prior three-year window, confirming that overall activity is still expanding on a multi-year basis. Annual volume has eased from its 2023 peak of 660 families, though publication lag means recent-year counts understate true activity. Early movers who entered around 2022–2023 have already staked out core wireless slicing claims, making differentiated positioning increasingly important for later arrivals.
Lifecycle: GrowthNear-monopolar at the top; long tail of small filers
The top five filers hold 94% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, with Samsung Electronics alone accounting for 1,699 patent families. Below the top tier, filers such as AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. (43 families), Huawei Technologies (20), and Intel (18) form a distinct second tier with substantially thinner portfolios. A long tail of academic and startup entities — including Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, InterDigital, and Nokia Technologies — holds single-digit family counts, suggesting ample room for niche portfolio growth outside Samsung’s core claims.
Top-5 share: 94%Co-filing concentrated within the AT&T group
The most active co-filing relationship observed is between AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. and AT&T Mobility II LLC, with 17 jointly filed patent families — consistent with intra-group IP coordination within the AT&T corporate family. Samsung Electronics and Beijing Samsung Communications Technology Research also appear as co-filers on 3 families, indicating a headquarters-subsidiary collaboration model. Cross-organization collaboration between independent entities remains limited in the evidence, suggesting the ecosystem has not yet formed significant open-innovation alliances.
Co-filing: AT&T intra-groupPCT and EPO dominate; Asia filing underweights population
WIPO (PCT) leads jurisdictions with 635 records and Europe (EPO) is close behind at 615, reflecting applicants’ preference for broad international protection via the PCT route. The United States holds 395 records. India (76) and China (73) are the leading national offices beyond the US, with South Korea (31) and Japan (13) recording notably fewer filings relative to their telecom industry weight. This suggests that some key Asian markets remain comparatively under-protected, which may create freedom-to-operate opportunities for local entrants.
Lead office: WIPO (PCT)Go 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 |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T知识产权一部有限合伙公司 | AT&T移动第二有限责任公司 | 17 |
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Beijing Samsung Communications Technology Research Co. Ltd | 3 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Samsung Electronics leads; AT&T and Huawei are distant challengers
The player landscape is effectively two-tiered: Samsung Electronics with a commanding portfolio, and a cluster of telecom operators and infrastructure vendors each holding one to two orders of magnitude fewer patent families.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
Samsung Electronics holds 1,699 patent families, the overwhelming majority of which were filed recently (1,458 families in the most recent window, classified as a new entrant trajectory on a prior near-zero base). Its technology emphasis centres on H04W 48 and H04W 76 (wireless network access and connection management) and H04L 41 (network management for digital transmission), indicating deep coverage of the core slicing control-plane and radio access layers. The scale and recency of this portfolio signal a deliberate effort to establish foundational IP ahead of 6G standardisation.
patent families: 1,699AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P.
AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. ranks second with 43 patent families, with a recent-period trajectory showing a decline of 54% versus the prior window — indicating reduced new filing activity in this specific space. Its technology focus is on H04W 28 (wireless data transfer), H04B 7 (radio transmission), and H04W 24 (network quality and monitoring), reflecting an operator-centric view of slicing oriented toward service quality and spectrum management. Together with its affiliate AT&T Mobility II LLC (17 families, down 75%), AT&T retains a modest but application-specific portfolio.
patent families: 43| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | 1,458 | ▲ new entrant |
| AT&T知识产权一部有限合伙公司 | 13 | ▼ -54% |
| Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd | 6 | ▼ -57% |
| Intel Corporation | 14 | ▲ new entrant |
| AT&T移动第二有限责任公司 | 3 | ▼ -75% |
| Jio Platforms Ltd | 7 | ▲ new entrant |
| DISH Wireless LLC | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications | 5 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches in AI and physical-layer transmission
Three IPC branches sit at materially lower filing densities relative to the dominant H04W core, representing observations of relative sparsity that may carry technical value for differentiated R&D positioning.
G06N · AI and machine-learning models for slice management
G06N (computing based on AI models) accounts for 82 records — roughly 3% of the IPC distribution — despite AI-driven dynamic slice orchestration being a widely cited technical requirement for 6G. The sparse coverage suggests that the intersection of neural network inference and real-time slice lifecycle management is not yet heavily patented. Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications is among the few filers with documented G06N activity in this corpus. R&D teams working on reinforcement-learning-based slice admission control or federated learning for network management would be entering a comparatively open claim space.
Search this in Eureka →H04B · Physical-layer transmission integration with slicing
H04B (transmission in general) holds 85 records at roughly 3% share, indicating limited patenting at the interface between physical-layer innovations — such as beamforming, massive MIMO configuration, and waveform adaptation — and the slicing control plane. AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. and AT&T Mobility II LLC are among the few entities with H04B activity in this space. Linking physical-layer resource allocation directly to slice SLA enforcement is a technically plausible and under-claimed area, particularly as 6G targets sub-terahertz bands where tight PHY–slice coupling becomes critical.
Search this in Eureka →How leaders differ by technology route across IPC branches
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H04W 48 · Wireless communication networks | H04W 76 · Wireless communication networks | H04W 28 · Wireless communication networks | H04L 41 · Digital information transmission | H04W 8 · Wireless communication networks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Strong · 1,019 | Moderate · 508 | Moderate · 421 | Moderate · 424 | Moderate · 404 |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. | Emerging · 1 | Emerging · 5 | Strong · 41 | Emerging · 3 | Emerging · 6 |
| Intel Corporation | Moderate · 4 | Strong · 6 | Moderate · 3 | Strong · 11 | Absent |
| Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd | Emerging · 3 | Absent | Strong · 15 | Moderate · 5 | Absent |
| AT&T Mobility II LLC | Emerging · 1 | Emerging · 2 | Strong · 16 | Absent | Emerging · 3 |
| Jio Platforms Ltd | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 4 | Moderate · 1 |
| DISH Wireless LLC | Absent | Strong · 2 | Strong · 3 | Strong · 3 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus in scope contains 1,851 patent families. WIPO (PCT) is the leading filing office, followed closely by Europe (EPO) and then the United States.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd holds 1,699 patent families, making it the commanding leader. The next-ranked filer, AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P., holds 43 patent families — a gap of more than an order of magnitude.
The field is classified as Growth. Recent three-year filing volumes are substantially above the prior three-year window, confirming ongoing multi-year expansion. Annual volume peaked in 2023 at 660 families and has eased since, though publication lag suppresses apparent recent counts.
H04W (wireless communication networks) dominates with 1,756 records, supported by H04L (digital information transmission) at 803. G06N (AI models), H04B (transmission general), and H04J (multiplex communication) are comparatively sparse, each representing roughly 1–3% of the IPC distribution.
WIPO (PCT) leads with 635 records, Europe (EPO) follows at 615, and the United States holds 395. India (76) and China (73) are the leading national offices beyond the US. South Korea (31) and Japan (13) are under-represented relative to their telecom industry weight.
The most active co-filing relationship is intra-group: AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. and AT&T Mobility II LLC jointly filed 17 patent families. Samsung Electronics and its Beijing research subsidiary co-filed 3 families. Cross-organisation collaboration between independent entities is limited in the current evidence.
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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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