Cognitive Radio Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2020. the peak year of 92 families has given way to a slower run rate, with the partial 2026 count sitting well below the 2022 midpoint of 86.
- Wireless networking claims dominate. H04W accounts for 1,714 of the records, more than double the transmission-layer subclass H04B, so most contested claim space sits in network-layer coordination rather than radio-front-end design.
- Filing is split across six major offices. the United States (578) and China (565) lead, but Europe, WIPO, India and South Korea each carry meaningful volume, making this a genuinely multi-jurisdictional filing picture rather than a single-market race.
Filing growth compares 2021 (77 records) with 2024 (70) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 2,112 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access cover the methods by which a radio system senses, negotiates or is assigned access to spectrum that is not permanently or exclusively licensed to it. This landscape tracks patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine those concepts with claim language on spectrum sensing, interference avoidance, database-assisted access, coexistence or regulatory framework mechanics, classified under the wireless-networking, wireless-transmission and general-radio IPC groups.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate actual filing activity; treat the tail of the curve as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The dataset spans 2,112 published patent families across six major receiving offices, with technology concentrated in a small number of IPC subclasses.
A peak-and-plateau filing curve
Filings rose from 73 in 2017 to a peak of 92 in 2020, then settled near the 2022 midpoint of 86 before tapering toward the partial 2026 figure of 25. That shape is consistent with a technology area where the core claim space around sensing and coexistence has already been staked out, and later filers are working narrower variations rather than opening new ground.
Wireless networking carries the claim density
H04W (wireless communication networks) covers 1,714 records, well ahead of H04B (general transmission, 890) and H04L (digital information transmission, 387). Smaller but notable clusters sit in G06N (AI-based computing, 96), H04J (multiplex communication, 75), G06F (data processing, 47), H04Q (switching and selecting, 42) and G01R (electric and magnetic measurement, 15) — the AI cluster in particular signals where sensing decisions are starting to move from fixed rules to learned models.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,112 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cognitive Radio and Dynamic Spectrum Access with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records and a representative claim
Method of inter-system coexistence and spectrum sharing for dynamic spectrum access networks-on-demand spectrum contention
This invention relates to cognitive radio based wireless communications of dynamic spectrum access networks, and more particularly to a method of addressing inter-systems (cells) coexistence and spectrum sharing. The described method, called On-Demand Spectrum Contention, integrates Dynamic Frequency Selection and Transmission Power Control with iterative on-demand spectrum contentions and provides fairness, adaptability, and efficiency of spectrum access for dynamic spectrum access systems using active inter-system coordination.Filed by STMicroelectronics International N.V., published 2008-04-17.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100075704A1 | Method and System for Dynamic Spectrum Access Using Specialty Detectors and Improved Networking | 688 |
| 2 | US20120039284A1 | Method and apparatus for use of licensed spectrum for control channels in cognitive radio communications | 580 |
| 3 | US8515473B2 | Cognitive radio methodology, physical layer policies and machine learning | 504 |
| 4 | US20120120887A1 | Systems, apparatuses, and methods to support dynamic spectrum access in wireless networks | 477 |
| 5 | US20060083205A1 | Method and system for wireless networking using coordinated dynamic spectrum access | 439 |
| 6 | US20100173586A1 | Method and System for Dynamic Spectrum Access | 429 |
| 7 | US20200153535A1 | Reinforcement learning based cognitive Anti-jamming communications system and method | 427 |
| 8 | US20150296386A1 | System and method for spectrum sharing | 425 |
| 9 | US9538040B2 | Active sensing for dynamic spectrum access | 363 |
| 10 | US20180352441A1 | Devices, methods, and systems with dynamic spectrum sharing | 354 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and skew toward older, earlier-filed records; read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once filing counts, IPC composition and jurisdiction spread are read together.
Growth has flattened, not accelerated
The curve peaks in 2020 and holds roughly flat through the 2022 midpoint of 86 before declining. New entrants are more likely to be filing narrow, defensive variations around occupied claim space than opening new technical ground.
Network-layer coordination is the crowded zone
H04W carries nearly double the volume of the next largest subclass, H04B. Claims on how a radio negotiates, schedules or is assigned spectrum access are far more contested than claims on the radio front end itself.
No single office dominates the filing
The United States and China are close in volume, with Europe, WIPO, India and South Korea each contributing well over 100 records. A freedom-to-operate review limited to one jurisdiction will miss a large share of the relevant art.
Learned sensing models are a small but distinct cluster
G06N filings sit well below the core wireless subclasses but represent a technically distinct approach: spectrum-sensing decisions framed as a machine-learning task rather than a fixed detection rule.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and recent momentum
Filing activity is spread across telecom equipment makers, chipset vendors and university labs, with co-assignee filings pointing to specific corporate-academic collaborations.
Even active filers are pulling back
Qualcomm recorded 2 families in the latest year, down 33% year-on-year, while Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and Sony show zero latest-year filings in this dataset — consistent with the broader plateau in the filing trend.
Corporate-academic pairs run deepest at the top
The strongest co-assignee pair links Sony with Tsinghua University at 12 shared families; Motorola appears in two of the next-strongest pairs with individual named inventors, suggesting internally driven rather than externally partnered filing.
Formal co-filing is the exception, not the rule
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across 2,112 families, meaning most filings are single-assignee efforts. Sole-owned filings dominate, so licensing and freedom-to-operate diligence should default to single-entity searches first.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 2 | -33% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nokia Corporation | 0 | — |
| Motorola, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| University of Electronic Science and Technology of China | 0 | -100% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | — |
| InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this next
The filing plateau and the jurisdictional spread both raise questions that a static landscape view cannot answer on its own.
Map claim scope inside H04W
The 1,714 records in H04W are not uniform; breaking that subclass down by specific claim mechanics would show which network-coordination approaches are actually crowded versus merely counted together.
Explore claim breakdowns in EurekaTrack the AI-sensing cluster forward
G06N filings are small in absolute terms but represent a different technical approach to spectrum sensing; watching this cluster's growth rate separately from the core wireless subclasses would flag a shift before it shows up in aggregate counts.
Set up cluster tracking in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate by office
With filing spread across six offices at meaningful volume, a single-jurisdiction clearance search is not sufficient; a multi-office check against the most-cited records is the safer starting point.
Run a multi-office search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This dataset counts 2,112 published patent families filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine cognitive radio or dynamic spectrum access terminology with claim language on spectrum sensing, interference avoidance, database-assisted access, coexistence or regulatory framework mechanics. The count is drawn from a defined search string limited to specific IPC classes (H04W16, H04W72, H04B1), so it represents a focused slice of the broader wireless-communications patent universe rather than every filing that touches spectrum sharing. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true 2025-2026 filing volume is understated in any count taken today.
No, the trend has flattened rather than continuing to climb. Filings rose from 73 in 2017 to a peak of 92 in 2020, held near that level through a 2022 midpoint of 86, and have since declined toward a partial 2026 count of 25. That pattern is more consistent with a maturing claim landscape, where core sensing and coexistence mechanisms are already covered, than with an area still in an early growth phase.
H04W, the wireless-communication-networks subclass, covers the largest share at 1,714 records, more than double the next largest, H04B (general transmission) at 890. H04L, covering digital information transmission, follows at 387. Smaller clusters appear in G06N (AI-based computing, 96), H04J (multiplex communication, 75), G06F (data processing, 47), H04Q (switching and selecting, 42) and G01R (electric and magnetic measurement, 15), with the G06N cluster marking where sensing decisions are increasingly framed as machine-learning tasks.
The United States leads with 578 records, closely followed by China at 565. Europe, filed through the EPO, accounts for 273, with WIPO PCT filings at 204, India at 146 and South Korea at 131. The close US-China totals combined with meaningful volume across four other offices mean this is a genuinely multi-jurisdictional filing pattern, and any clearance or licensing review should check multiple offices rather than defaulting to a single market.
Filing activity spans major telecom equipment vendors, chipset makers and university research groups, with recent-year momentum data showing most large historical filers, including Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and Sony, recording zero families in the latest year, and Qualcomm down 33% year-on-year to 2 families. The strongest collaborative link in the dataset is a co-assignee pairing between Sony and Tsinghua University at 12 shared families. The overall picture is a field where early leaders have slowed their filing pace rather than one with a single dominant, currently active assignee.
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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.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.