PTP Patents: Who Leads in Network Timing & Sync 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (369 records) with 2024 (228) — 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 3,595 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the Precision Time Protocol patent record shows
Precision Time Protocol (PTP, IEEE 1588) filings sit at the intersection of telecom infrastructure, industrial automation and data-centre synchronization. The dataset in scope spans 3,595 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search anchored on Precision Time Protocol terminology in titles, abstracts and claims. Filing activity is not evenly spread: a handful of telecom equipment and chipset vendors account for a disproportionate share of the record, while a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants fills out the remainder of the ranking.
The picture that emerges is one of a maturing but still-active filing space. Volume rose sharply through the late 2010s, peaked in 2021, and has since declined through the last complete filing year on record. Technology claims cluster heavily around digital transmission and multiplex communication classes, with wireless, positioning and dedicated clock-hardware classes making up smaller, less contested pockets of the same search space.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The two views below use the same 3,595-record scope: one tracks filing volume by year, the other breaks the same records down by IPC subclass. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the class shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filings rose to a 2021 peak, then eased
Annual filings climbed from 192 in 2017 to a peak of 369 in 2021, then declined to 228 by 2024 — a complete-year drop of 38% over that three-year span. Years after 2024 are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates, typically by around 18 months, so the most recent bars in the chart understate true filing activity and should not be read as a continued decline.
Digital transmission and multiplex classes dominate
H04L (digital information transmission) and H04J (multiplex communication) each appear in close to half of all records — 46.8% and 44.9% of the 3,595 records in scope, respectively — reflecting PTP's core role in network-level timestamp exchange. Wireless networks (H04W, 21.8%), general-purpose computing (G06F, 10.7%) and video/pictorial communication (H04N, 6.3%) follow at meaningfully lower density, with radar/positioning (G01S, 3.1%) and dedicated clock hardware (G04G, 2.4%) the thinnest classes tracked.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,595 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Interworking agent adapted to interact between network and precision time protocol entities
The filing describes an interworking agent installed in a network node running a PTP module. The agent's synchronization-side interface measures PTP metrics to detect a PTP signal failure and can read and modify PTP parameters on the module, while a separate network-side interface handles the node's broader network interactions.Filed by RPX Corporation, published 2013-09-12 as US20130235888A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110170534A1 | Method and apparatus for synchronizing measurements taken by multiple metrology devices | 174 |
| 2 | US8630314B2 | Method and apparatus for synchronizing measurements taken by multiple metrology devices | 168 |
| 3 | US7447931B1 | Step time change compensation in an industrial automation network | 156 |
| 4 | US20120310559A1 | Distributed data collection for utility grids | 145 |
| 5 | US20110200051A1 | Ethernet network synchronization systems and methods | 139 |
| 6 | US20130034197A1 | Method and system for frequency synchronization | 134 |
| 7 | US20070159924A1 | Acoustic location and enhancement | 133 |
| 8 | US9998247B1 | Controller-based network device timing synchronization | 129 |
| 9 | US20100235486A1 | Systems, methods and computer-readable media for configuring receiver latency | 125 |
| 10 | US20160057317A1 | Content synchronization using watermark timecodes | 123 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings — treat them as a signal of technical influence, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three figures anchor how concentrated — and how open — this field actually is once the record is broken down by assignee, year and technology class.
The lead position is unusually large
The single leading assignee holds 324 records on its own, and the top five combined reach 790 records — 22.0% of all filings in scope. The gap between first and fifth place (324 versus 68) shows one filer well ahead of a more closely packed group behind it.
Volume has pulled back from its 2021 peak
Filings rose from 192 in 2017 to a peak of 369 in 2021, then eased to 228 by 2024 — a 38% decline over that three-year window. That is the most recent period that can be read as a complete trend; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in.
Core transmission classes dwarf clock hardware
H04L and H04J each sit near half of all 3,595 records, showing that most PTP claims are framed as network-transmission or multiplexing problems rather than dedicated timekeeping hardware. G04G, the electronic-clock class, appears in only 2.4% of records, and G01S positioning claims in 3.1%.
One telecom-and-research cluster stands out
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the data, and the strongest pairing links a national telecom operator with a research university partner at a level well above the other tracked pairs. Co-filing is otherwise rare in this field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to network timing & synchronization: precision time protocol patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a dominant early filer, a cooling-but-active filing rate, and technology claims still concentrated on transmission-layer framing rather than dedicated timing hardware.
Map claim scope against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 324 of 3,595 records, freedom-to-operate work in PTP transmission and multiplex claims should start by mapping that portfolio's independent claims before drafting around them.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the wireless and positioning branches
H04W, G01S and G04G carry far lower filing density than H04L and H04J, suggesting synchronization claims tied to wireless timing distribution or dedicated clock hardware are comparatively less crowded.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the post-2024 filing signal separately
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 volumes will keep rising as more records publish; treat the 2021-to-2024 decline as the reliable trend and revisit later years once they settle.
Set up a filing-trend alert in EurekaFrequently asked questions
One assignee leads the ranked field with 324 of the 3,595 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 68. The top five assignees combined account for 790 records, or 22.0% of all filings in scope, and the top ten reach 30.7%. That leaves the majority of records spread across a long tail of smaller filers, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed to new entrants.
Filing volume grew steadily from 192 records in 2017 to a peak of 369 in 2021, then declined to 228 by 2024 — a 38% drop over that three-year span, which is the most recent period that can be treated as complete. Records published in 2025 and 2026 will keep rising as they catch up, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. On current complete-year data, the trend through 2024 is a pullback from the 2021 peak rather than continued growth.
The two largest IPC classes are H04L (digital information transmission) at 46.8% of the 3,595 records in scope and H04J (multiplex communication) at 44.9%, meaning most PTP claims are framed around network transmission or multiplexing mechanisms. Wireless communication networks (H04W) follow at 21.8%, with general computing (G06F), video communication (H04N), general transmission (H04B), positioning (G01S) and dedicated clock hardware (G04G) all trailing well behind. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares overlap rather than summing to 100%.
The United States receives the largest volume of filings in this dataset at 1,310 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 629 and the WIPO PCT route at 360. China (320), Germany (188) and India (159) round out the next tier of receiving offices tracked. This spread reflects PTP's role in globally deployed telecom and industrial-automation equipment rather than a single dominant jurisdiction.
US20130235888A1, assigned to RPX Corporation and published in 2013, describes an interworking agent installed in a network node that runs a PTP module, with a synchronization-side interface that measures PTP metrics to detect signal failure and can read or modify PTP parameters, plus a separate network-side interface. It sits within the interworking and fault-detection corner of PTP claim space rather than covering timestamping or clock-hardware mechanisms broadly. Anyone filing interworking-agent or PTP-fault-detection claims should review its specific interface architecture directly rather than assume it blocks the whole synchronization space.
Co-assignee filing is uncommon in this field: the dataset tracks only 10 co-assignee pairs in total. The strongest pairing links a national telecom operator with a research university partner, appearing well above the next-strongest pairs tracked, which involve the same operator and a second research institution. Most assignees in the ranking file independently, so joint filings are the exception rather than the norm.
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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.