6G Sub-THz / mmWave Patent Landscape 2026
The 6G Sub-THz and mmWave patent space is in a growth phase, with Samsung Electronics holding an overwhelming dominant position that sets it apart from all other filers. Activity has expanded sharply on a multi-year basis, though the most recent filing periods remain understated by publication lag.
Samsung Electronics leads a highly concentrated field
Samsung Electronics sits at the top of the applicant ranking with 1,240 patent families, a lead that dwarfs every other filer in the corpus. The next-ranked applicant, Fractal Networks LLC, holds 22 patent families, followed by AT&T Intellectual Property I L. P. with 19.
The top five filers account for 89% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, signaling extreme concentration. The gap between Samsung and the second tier is structural, not marginal — the challenger tier consists primarily of specialized entities, telecom operators, and universities, none of whom approach Samsung’s volume.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 1,240 | |
| 2 | Fractal Networks LLC | 22 | |
| 3 | AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P | 19 | |
| 4 | Southeast University | 14 | |
| 5 | AT&T MOBILITY II LLC | 10 | |
| 6 | SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY R&DB FOUNDATION | 6 | |
| 7 | SwiftLink Technologies Inc. | 5 | |
| 8 | Fudan University | 4 | |
| 9 | Bapatla Engineering College | 4 | |
| 10 | Qualcomm Incorporated | 4 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Parallel Wireless Inc. | 4 | |
| 12 | SAVEETHA INST OF MEDICAL & TECH SCI | 3 | |
| 13 | Chandigarh University | 3 | |
| 14 | Xidian University | 3 | |
| 15 | NANJING UNIV OF POSTS & TELECOMM | 3 | |
| 16 | CORNING RES & DEV CORP | 3 | |
| 17 | AAC Precise Manufacturing Technology (Changzhou) Co., Ltd. | 3 | |
| 18 | Yonsei University Industry Foundation | 3 | |
| 19 | JRD Communication (Shenzhen) Ltd. | 3 | |
| 20 | BEIJING SAMSUNG TELECOM R&D CENT | 3 |
Samsung’s dominance implies that any new entrant or challenger must either carve out a highly differentiated technical niche or accept operating in the long tail of this landscape. Universities and research institutes make up a meaningful share of the mid-ranking positions, suggesting the field still has active academic exploration outside the industrial leader.
Filing counts for the most recent 18–24 months are understated due to standard patent publication lag; apparent softening in 2025–2026 data should not be interpreted as a real decline in activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Rapid multi-year growth with transmission and wireless networks dominating the technology mix
Annual filings grew from near-zero in 2017 to a corpus-period peak in 2023, reflecting a field that has moved quickly from exploratory research to substantive patenting activity. The technology composition is heavily weighted toward core wireless transmission and network protocols, with antenna hardware and AI-assisted computing as secondary clusters.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible through 2019, then accelerated sharply from 2020 onward, reaching a corpus peak in 2023. The apparent step-down in 2024–2026 reflects publication lag rather than a real deceleration; treat recent-year bars as lower-bound estimates.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H04B (Transmission, general) and H04W (Wireless communication networks) together account for the large majority of classified records, confirming that air-interface and network-layer protocols are the primary battleground. H04L (Digital information transmission), H01Q (Antennas), and G06N (AI models) form a secondary tier, while all remaining branches hold single-digit or token counts.
↗ 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.
RF frontend for universal 5g/6g and leo satellite …
According to one embodiment, a millimeter wave (mmWave) antenna unit includes at least one dual-polarized radiating element having a dual feed including a first feed point and a second feed point, a first antenna feed line coupled to the at least one dual-polarized radiating element at the first feed point, and a second antenna feed line coupled to the at… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facilitation of dynamic edge computations for 6g o… | 153 |
| 2 | Cellular system | 33 |
| 3 | Cellular system | 23 |
| 4 | Fast multi-beam listen before talk | 21 |
| 5 | Facilitation of dynamic edge computations for 6G o… | 19 |
| 6 | Method and apparatus for monitoring and reporting … | 18 |
| 7 | Method and device for RIS automatic setup | 18 |
| 8 | Cellular system | 17 |
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 a single dominant incumbent, rapid recent growth, and a sparse second tier creates both constraints and openings for R&D planners. Understanding each dimension helps allocate effort efficiently.
Growth stage — annual filings expanding, multi-year trajectory positive
The lifecycle evidence places this field in the Growth stage, with annual filings still rising and recent years understated by publication lag. The field moved from essentially zero activity in 2017 to a corpus-period peak in 2023, indicating a fast-developing technology area that has not yet reached saturation. Early movers filing now can still shape the claim landscape before consolidation.
Growth stageExtreme concentration — one dominant incumbent, fragmented second tier
The top five filers hold 89% of the combined total among the hundred largest filers, and the leader alone accounts for 1,240 patent families against a next-best of 22. New entrants face a landscape where the dominant player has established deep coverage in H04B and H04W. Strategic entry paths are more viable in adjacent or underserved branches than in the core transmission and network-protocol space.
High concentrationSamsung-anchored co-filing network, with AT&T as the most active independent pair
The most active co-filing pair is AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. and AT&T Mobility II LLC, with 10 joint families, reflecting an intra-group collaboration strategy. Samsung Electronics co-files with its Beijing R&D center (6 families), Seoul National University R&DB Foundation (5 families), and Yonsei University’s industrial foundation (3 families), demonstrating a hub-and-spoke model linking the industrial leader to academic partners. Southeast University co-files with Purple Mountain Laboratory and Nanjing Falcon Eye Electronic Technology, pointing to an emerging Chinese academic-industry cluster.
Hub-and-spoke ecosystemPCT and EPO lead filings; US and China follow as key national offices
WIPO (PCT) and Europe (EPO) are the top two filing destinations, indicating that applicants are prioritizing broad international protection. The United States and China rank third and fourth respectively, while India ranks fifth — an unusual placement that likely reflects the volume of individual and academic filers from that jurisdiction. Japan, South Korea, and other offices hold minimal counts, suggesting limited national-phase entry outside the main four markets.
PCT-first strategyGo 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 | 10 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | 6 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Seoul National University R&DB Foundation | 5 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Yonsei University Industry Foundation | 3 |
| Southeast University | Purple Mountain Laboratory | 2 |
| Southeast University | Nanjing Falcon Eye Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Yonsei University | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Samsung Electronics leads by a structural margin; challengers occupy narrow technical niches
The applicant field divides into one overwhelmingly dominant industrial filer and a dispersed second tier of telecom operators, specialized entities, and universities. Momentum data reinforces Samsung’s trajectory while showing divergent paths among challengers.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics holds 1,240 patent families and shows a momentum trend of 21× vs its prior three-year period, confirming that this is an accelerating commitment rather than a legacy position. Its technical focus is concentrated in H04B 7 (Transmission, general), H04W 72 (Wireless communication networks), and H04L 5 (Digital information transmission) — the three core air-interface and network-protocol classes that define the field’s mainstream. Its Beijing R&D subsidiary co-files on a subset of these families, extending the portfolio with local research output.
patent families: 1,240Fractal Networks LLC
Fractal Networks LLC holds 22 patent families and is the highest-ranked filer outside Samsung, though its volume is roughly 56 times smaller. Momentum data for this entity is not separately reported in the evidence. AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P., the third-ranked filer with 19 patent families, shows a declining momentum trend of –80% vs its prior period, suggesting a pullback in active prosecution in this space. Both challengers focus on H04B 7 and H04W classes, overlapping directly with the leader’s core territory.
patent families: 22| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 997 | ▲ 21× vs prior 3-yr |
| AT&T知识产权一部有限合伙公司 | 3 | ▼ -80% |
| Southeast University | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| AT&T移动第二有限责任公司 | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | 6 | ▲ new entrant |
| SwiftLink Technologies Inc. | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant transmission core
Several IPC branches appear in the corpus at notably lower counts relative to the dominant H04B and H04W classes. These represent observations of relative sparsity; where technical value and a plausible entry path exist, they are noted.
H01Q · Antennas
Antenna design holds 157 patent records — a count that is sparse relative to the transmission and networking classes but represents a branch with clear technical relevance to Sub-THz and mmWave propagation. Beam-steering arrays, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and compact high-gain antenna structures are active research problems in the 6G frequency range. An entrant with antenna hardware expertise could file in H01Q with lower head-to-head overlap against Samsung’s predominantly protocol-layer portfolio; Southeast University and SwiftLink Technologies are among the few current filers with an H01Q emphasis.
Search this in Eureka →G06N · AI-driven signal processing
G06N (Computing based on AI models) holds 118 patent records, placing it fourth in the technology composition but well below the transmission core. The intersection of machine-learning inference with Sub-THz channel estimation, beam management, and interference mitigation is an emerging technical area where the patent record is still thin. An entrant combining AI/ML expertise with wireless domain knowledge could find less contested ground here than in core H04B or H04W filings.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | H04B 7 · Transmission (general) | H04W 72 · Wireless communication networks | H04L 5 · Digital information transmission | H04W 24 · Wireless communication networks | H04B 17 · Transmission (general) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Strong · 1,214 | Strong · 689 | Moderate · 597 | Moderate · 303 | Emerging · 228 |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | Strong · 19 | Moderate · 7 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Beijing Samsung Telecom R&D Center | Strong · 6 | Strong · 4 | Moderate · 2 | Strong · 4 | Moderate · 2 |
| AT&T Mobility II LLC | Strong · 10 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Southeast University | Strong · 7 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Moderate · 3 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 1,456 patent families. Filing activity began in earnest in 2018 and grew sharply through 2023, though the most recent 18–24 months are understated by publication lag.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. holds 1,240 patent families, making it by far the largest filer. The next-ranked applicant, Fractal Networks LLC, holds 22 patent families — a gap of more than 56 times.
WIPO (PCT) and Europe (EPO) are the top two filing destinations, followed by the United States, China, and India. The PCT-first pattern indicates applicants are seeking broad international protection before selecting national phases.
H04B (Transmission, general) and H04W (Wireless communication networks) dominate the classified record, with H04L (Digital information transmission) forming a strong secondary cluster. Antenna work (H01Q) and AI-model computing (G06N) are present but at much lower counts.
The most active co-filing pair is AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. and AT&T Mobility II LLC with 10 joint patent families. Samsung Electronics co-files most actively with its Beijing R&D center (6 families), Seoul National University R&DB Foundation (5 families), and the Yonsei University industrial foundation (3 families). Southeast University collaborates with Purple Mountain Laboratory and Nanjing Falcon Eye Electronic Technology.
The field is classified in the Growth stage. Annual filings rose sharply from near-zero in 2017 to a corpus-period peak in 2023, and recent years are understated by publication lag. The multi-year growth rate stands at 1,036% over the period in scope.
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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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