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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/immersive-and-volumetric-media-coding-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Media CodecsImmersive and Volumetric Media Coding Patents: Concentration, Trends and Open Ground
- 63.8% of all 5,399 records sit with just five assignees — the field is claim-dense at the top and thin everywhere else.
- Filings fell 42% from the 2021 peak to 2024 (1,079 to 621), the last year the data can call complete; 2025 onward is still filling in.
- H04N and G06T together anchor the field, at 66.1% and 59.7% of records respectively, while positioning-adjacent classes like G01S sit near 2%.
5,399
Published Records
64%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-42%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,079 records) with 2024 (621) — 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 5,399 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Immersive and volumetric media coding spans the pipeline that turns a 3D scene — a point cloud, a mesh, a volumetric capture — into a bitstream a device can decode and render on demand. That includes geometry coding (often via octree structures), attribute coding for colour and texture, level-of-detail schemes for progressive reconstruction, and viewport-dependent delivery for streaming only what a viewer can currently see. Camera calibration ties the capture side to the encoding side.
The 5,399 records in scope run from 2015 through the middle of 2026, tracking the field from early 3D mesh compression patents through the point cloud compression standardisation era to the current generation of learning-based coding frameworks.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The Data
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 5,399 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the underlying technical claims.
A sharp rise, then a pullback from peak
Filings climbed from 82 in 2017 to a peak of 1,079 in 2021, then declined to 621 by 2024 — a 42% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; they should not be read as a continuation of the decline.
Video and image processing dominate the classification mix
H04N (pictorial communication) appears on 66.1% of records and G06T (image data processing) on 59.7%, confirming this is fundamentally a video/image coding field with 3D structure layered on top. Coding-specific classes like H03M and transmission classes like H04L sit in the low single digits, and positioning-related G01S barely registers at 2.2% — each record can carry multiple classes, so these figures do not sum to 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 5,399 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding with Eureka
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Representative and most-cited filings
Representative Recent Filing
End-to-end learning-based point cloud attribute coding framework
INTERDIGITAL VC HOLDINGS, INC.
The application, filed by InterDigital VC Holdings, describes decoding point cloud attributes by first decoding a feature representing voxel attributes within an octree structure, using that decoded feature to determine an attribute probability for a current voxel, then decoding the attribute information itself based on that probability before reconstructing the point cloud.Filed 2026-02-26 — illustrates the shift toward learned, probability-driven attribute coding layered on top of established octree geometry structures.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7257237B1 | Real time markerless motion tracking using linked kinematic chains | 460 |
| 2 | US20190080483A1 | Point Cloud Compression | 376 |
| 3 | US20170214943A1 | Point Cloud Compression using Prediction and Shape-Adaptive Transforms | 287 |
| 4 | US20160086353A1 | Method and apparatus for near-lossless compression and decompression of 3D meshes and point clouds | 272 |
| 5 | US20210090301A1 | Three-Dimensional Mesh Compression Using a Video Encoder | 264 |
| 6 | US20190081638A1 | Hierarchical point cloud compression | 252 |
| 7 | US20180035134A1 | Encoding and decoding virtual reality video | 247 |
| 8 | US20200153885A1 | Apparatus for transmitting point cloud data, a method for transmitting point cloud data, an apparatus for rec… | 169 |
| 9 | US20190318488A1 | 3D point cloud compression systems for delivery and access of a subset of a compressed 3D point cloud | 163 |
| 10 | US20190139266A1 | Point cloud compression using non-orthogonal projection | 153 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older filings — including foundational motion-tracking and early point cloud compression work — lead the table regardless of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the classification mix are read together.
Concentration
63.8% / 5 assignees
share of all 5,399 records
The top of the field is crowded, the rest is thin
Five assignees hold 63.8% of all records, and the top ten hold 78.1%. That leaves the ranked long tail — companies ranked below tenth place, where the tenth-place holder has 131 records against the leader's 985 — filing into a field where claim space near the core techniques is already dense.
Filing here means designing around, not into, the core octree and attribute-coding claims.
Momentum
-42% (2021→2024)
peak to last complete year
Growth has cooled from a 2021 peak, not collapsed
Filings peaked at 1,079 in 2021 and fell to 621 by 2024. Momentum data on individual leaders shows steep year-on-year declines in the double digits, but this reads more as a maturing wave following standardisation activity than as an exit from the field.
2025-2026 figures are undercounted due to publication lag and should not be read as continued decline.
Technology mix
66.1% H04N · 59.7% G06T
share of 5,399 records
Video coding infrastructure carries most of the claim weight
The two largest classes are conventional video/image processing, not 3D-specific codes. Positioning and recognition classes (G01S, G06V, G06K) each sit under 2.5%, suggesting capture-and-calibration and semantic-recognition angles are comparatively under-claimed relative to core coding.
A record can carry several IPC classes, so these shares overlap rather than sum.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to immersive and volumetric media coding, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked leaders file heavily on core geometry and attribute coding; two co-assignee clusters point to close collaboration between corporate labs and university research groups.
Leader
985 records
leading assignee
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 985 records against 450 for the fifth-ranked assignee and 131 for the tenth — a steep drop-off that marks this as a field with one dominant filer rather than a tight cluster of peers.
Recent-year momentum shows even the leader's filings down sharply year on year, consistent with the post-2021 pullback.
Collaboration
151 shared records
strongest co-assignee pair
Corporate-affiliate filing pairs dominate co-assignment
Of six identified co-assignee pairs, the strongest links two affiliated entities at 151 shared records — far ahead of the next strongest pairs, which link corporate filers to university research groups at 46 and 11 shared records.
University-linked co-filing suggests active sponsored research feeding directly into corporate portfolios.
Geography
1,883 US filings
leading receiving office
Filing is US- and Europe-weighted, with China and India rising
The United States receives the most filings (1,883), followed by the EPO (949) and WIPO/PCT (833). China (382), India (297) and Japan (232) trail but represent meaningful secondary filing strategies for the same underlying technology.
PCT volume of 833 indicates many filers are still deciding on final national coverage.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America | 13 | -87% |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 8 | -65% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 8 | -69% |
| ByteDance Ltd. | 6 | -86% |
| Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. | 5 | -88% |
| Douyin Vision Co., Ltd. | 5 | -88% |
| InterDigital VC Holdings, Inc. | 4 | -86% |
| Nokia Technologies Oy | 1 | -88% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or technical scouting.
Map claims against the leading five assignees
With 63.8% of records held by five filers, any new filing in geometry or attribute coding should be checked claim-by-claim against their portfolios before drafting.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the post-2021 filing pullback by sub-area
The aggregate decline from 1,079 to 621 filings may not be even across geometry coding, attribute coding and delivery — breaking it down by IPC subclass shows where activity is actually holding steady.
Run a subclass trend query in EurekaScout the under-claimed branches directly
Camera calibration, viewport-dependent tiling and positioning-assisted geometry coding show low class shares relative to the coding core — each is a candidate for a focused freedom-to-operate or whitespace search.
Search white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads clearly with 985 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 450 and the tenth at 131. The top five assignees combined account for 63.8% of all 5,399 records in scope, and the top ten account for 78.1%. This means the field has a dominant leader plus a small cluster of major filers, with a long tail of smaller entrants below tenth place holding comparatively few records each.
Filings peaked in 2021 at 1,079 and had fallen to 621 by 2024, a 42% decline over that span — the last year with reasonably complete data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual drop in filing activity. The honest read is a cooling from a 2021 peak, not a field in retreat.
It covers the full pipeline from capturing a 3D scene to delivering it as a decodable bitstream: geometry coding (frequently via octree structures), attribute coding for colour and texture, level-of-detail schemes for progressive rendering, viewport-dependent delivery for streaming, and camera calibration linking capture to encoding. In IPC terms, the bulk of records classify under H04N (pictorial communication, 66.1% of records) and G06T (image data processing, 59.7%), reflecting the field's roots in video and image coding extended to 3D structures.
Classes adjacent to the coding core carry much lower filing shares: G01S (positioning) sits at 2.2% of records, G06V (image/video recognition) at 1.9%, and G06K (data recognition) at 1.7%, compared to 59.7%-66.1% for the two dominant coding classes. This gap suggests capture-and-calibration techniques, semantic recognition applied to point clouds, and positioning-assisted geometry coding are comparatively under-claimed relative to core octree and attribute coding, making them worth a closer freedom-to-operate look.
A February 2026 filing from InterDigital VC Holdings, covering an end-to-end learning-based point cloud attribute coding framework, is representative of current direction: it decodes voxel attribute features within an existing octree structure, then uses a learned probability model to decode the attribute information itself. This pairs an established structural approach (octree geometry) with a newer learned-coding layer, which is a pattern worth watching in adjacent filings from the same and competing assignees.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Immersive and Volumetric Media Coding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.