Image & Video Processing Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Image and video processing patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
21.2% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees account for 7,600 of the 35,869 records in scope, but the remaining filers form a long tail. Filings rose from 1,042 in 2017 to a peak of 1,949 in 2021, then declined to 1,235 by 2024, a -37% move over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continued slide.
- 1NVIDIA CORP6.8%
- 2QUALCOMM INC4.2%
- 3INTEL CORP3.5%
- 4SNAP INC3.5%
- 5SONY GROUP CORP3.2%
See the full image & video processing patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Questions practitioners ask about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in image and video processing?
The assignee ranking in this dataset covers 100 companies, with the leading filer holding 2,442 records compared with 542 at tenth place — a steep drop after the first handful of names. The top 5 assignees combined account for 21.2% of all 35,869 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 32.4%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of smaller filers, so leadership at the top does not mean the field is closed to new entrants.
Is filing activity in image and video processing growing or shrinking?
Filings grew from 1,042 in 2017 to a peak of 1,949 in 2021, then fell to 1,235 by 2024, a decline of 37% over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as continued decline. 2024 is the most recent year that can reasonably be treated as a complete filing count.
Which patent classification covers the most image and video processing filings?
H04N, the pictorial communication and video/TV transmission class, covers 26.2% of the 35,869 records in scope, making it the single largest classification in this landscape. G06T (image data processing and generation) follows at 15.9%, and G06F (electric digital data processing) at 10.9%. Because a single patent record can carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, which is expected rather than an error.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Image & Video Processing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.