NTN Beamforming Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled from its 2024 peak. 288 families published in 2024, the high point of the series, against 162 back in 2017 — growth is flat rather than accelerating into 2026.
- H04B dwarfs every other IPC class. 1,761 of 2,578 records sit in H04B (general transmission), more than triple the next largest class, H04W wireless networks at 833.
- Momentum is thinning even among the most active filers. The leading assignee logged just 6 families in the latest year, down 67% year-on-year — a sign the busiest period of claim-staking has already passed.
Filing growth compares 2021 (190 records) with 2024 (288) — 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 2,578 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about NTN beamforming
Non-terrestrial network beamforming sits at the intersection of satellite communications and cellular wireless standards work, covering how a satellite, high-altitude platform or airborne base station steers and hops beams to serve ground terminals. The dataset spans 2,578 patent families filed between 2017 and mid-2026, drawn from search terms combining NTN, satellite beamforming, beam hopping and multi-beam antenna language across titles, abstracts and claims. Filing activity is concentrated in H04B, the general transmission class, with meaningful secondary depth in wireless network architecture (H04W) and antenna hardware (H01Q).
Publication for the most recent year is understated because patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing, so 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as later filings clear examination queues. Even allowing for that lag, the trend from the 2024 peak downward suggests the field is past its most intense filing period rather than still accelerating.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,578-family dataset: publication activity by year, and where those filings land across the IPC classification.
Publication trend
Filings rose from 162 in 2017 toward a peak of 288 in 2024, with the 2022 midpoint at 128 — a pattern of build-up followed by a plateau rather than sustained exponential growth. The partial 2026 count of 31 should be read against the publication lag, not as a cliff.
IPC subclass composition
H04B (transmission, general) accounts for 1,761 of the 2,578 records, well ahead of H04W (wireless networks, 833) and H01Q (antennas, 545). Smaller clusters in H04J (multiplex, 108), H01P (waveguides, 76), H02J (power, 52) and G01S (positioning, 51) mark narrower, more specialised filing pockets rather than core battlegrounds.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,578 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Non-Terrestrial Network Beamforming with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about non-terrestrial network beamforming and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a recent representative filing
WO2026031068A1 — Beam hopping pattern indication of non-terrestrial network (NTN)
A user equipment (UE), a base station, a baseband processor or other network device can operate to receive from a satellite base station an indication of a beam hopping pattern and enable a beam-specific discontinuous transmission/reception based on that indication. The UE can receive activation or deactivation of the beam hopping pattern via bits in a group common downlink control information, and can restrict downlink data reception and uplink data transmission to the activate duration of the beam hopping pattern.Filed by Apple Inc., published 2026-02-12 — squarely in beam-hopping signalling and DTX/DRX control, a claim area distinct from the older antenna-hardware citations above.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US9860075B1 | Method and communication node for broadband distribution | 639 |
| 2 | US9893795B1 | Method and repeater for broadband distribution | 597 |
| 3 | US20160359541A1 | Client node device and methods for use therewith | 507 |
| 4 | US5555257A | Cellular/satellite communications system with improved frequency re-use | 495 |
| 5 | US9866309B2 | Host node device and methods for use therewith | 484 |
| 6 | US9705571B2 | Method and apparatus for use with a radio distributed antenna system | 481 |
| 7 | US9749053B2 | Node device, repeater and methods for use therewith | 465 |
| 8 | US20180077709A1 | Method and apparatus for use with a radio distributed antenna system having a control channel reference signal | 463 |
| 9 | US10027397B2 | Distributed antenna system and methods for use therewith | 459 |
| 10 | US20170079037A1 | Method and apparatus for use with a radio distributed antenna system having an in-band reference signal | 459 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus reward age: the most-cited records here date from the mid-1990s through the mid-2010s and mark foundational broadband distribution and cellular/satellite architecture, not the current claim frontier.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three figures from the dataset that change how a freedom-to-operate or whitespace search should be scoped.
The busiest filing window has already passed
Publications climbed from 162 in 2017 to a peak of 288 in 2024, then eased to 31 in the partial 2026 count. Even with an 18-month publication lag pulling the most recent years down, the shape is a plateau, not a ramp — this is a field where claim space has already been actively staked rather than one still opening up.
General transmission claims dominate over antenna hardware
H04B carries more than two-thirds of all records, well ahead of H04W (833) and H01Q antenna hardware (545). That skew means most of the contested claim language concerns signalling, beam control and transmission methods rather than physical antenna design — a useful filter when scoping a search or drafting around prior art.
US and EPO carry the bulk of activity, China and Japan smaller
The United States leads with 892 filings, followed by the EPO at 448 and the PCT route at 374. China (164), Canada (107) and Japan (76) trail well behind, suggesting that contested prosecution and litigation exposure concentrate in US and European offices rather than being evenly spread.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to non-terrestrial network beamforming, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Viasat, Inc. | MILLER MARK J | 5 |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) | 5 |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | AT&T Mobility II LLC | 4 |
| The Boeing Company | SULLIVAN JOHN M | 4 |
| The Boeing Company | GOTTMAN DENNIS | 4 |
| The Boeing Company | BOTZONG BRET M | 4 |
| The Boeing Company | BALTER IRWIN | 4 |
| Viasat, Inc. | SPARKS WILLIAM JOSHUA | 3 |
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings top out at five shared families — co-development here is the exception, not the norm, with most assignees filing independently rather than through joint ventures.
Who is filing, and where activity is thinning
Recent-year momentum matters more than cumulative counts in a field past its filing peak: several of the most active historical filers have pulled back sharply in the latest year.
Huawei still files most, but pace is dropping
Huawei Technologies logged 6 families in the latest year, the highest of any assignee tracked for recent momentum, but that is down 67% year-on-year — a marked slowdown from whatever pace preceded it.
SoftBank is one of the few filers still accelerating
SoftBank's count doubled year-on-year to 2 families, a small absolute number but one of the only positive movements in a field where most tracked assignees are contracting.
Nokia Technologies has cut filing pace sharply
Nokia Technologies fell to 2 families in the latest year, an 86% year-on-year decline, alongside similar pullbacks from Viasat and Hughes Network Systems — a pattern consistent with a field consolidating its claim positions rather than expanding them.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 6 | -67% |
| SoftBank Corp. | 2 | +100% |
| Nokia Technologies Oy | 2 | -86% |
| Viasat, Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| HUGHES NETWORK SYST | 1 | -80% |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | 0 | — |
| STMicroelectronics (Europe) Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing or competitive tracking.
Run a claims-level search on H04B signalling
Since H04B carries the bulk of filings, a general keyword search will surface too much noise; a claims-level search focused on beam-hopping and DTX/DRX signalling language narrows the field to the records that actually matter for a new filing.
Explore in EurekaTrack momentum, not cumulative counts
Cumulative leaderboards overstate assignees who filed heavily years ago but have since slowed; recent-year YoY figures like those in this dataset are a better guide to who is actively contesting the space now.
Explore in EurekaScope drafting around the under-claimed hardware classes
Waveguide-integrated hardware and power/thermal co-design for multi-beam antennas show materially lower filing density than the signalling classes, which is where a first-mover claim is more likely to clear examination cleanly.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on NTN beamforming patents
In this dataset, it is a patent family whose title, abstract or claims combine non-terrestrial network or satellite communication language with satellite beamforming, beam hopping or multi-beam antenna terms. That combination captures signalling methods for steering satellite or high-altitude-platform beams, the antenna hardware that forms them, and the network procedures that schedule beam hopping patterns. It excludes general satellite communication patents that do not touch beamforming or beam-hopping claim language.
Filing activity is led by a mix of telecom equipment makers, satellite operators and standards-active handset manufacturers, but cumulative rank and recent momentum tell different stories. The assignee with the most recent-year filings still only logged a handful of families and its pace fell sharply year-on-year, which suggests no single company is currently pulling ahead; the field is more fragmented in its latest activity than its historical totals imply.
No — the series peaked at 288 families in 2024 after rising from 162 in 2017, and the partial 2026 count sits at 31. Publication lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years will always look lower than they will eventually settle, but the trajectory from 2022's midpoint of 128 through the 2024 peak and back down points to a plateau rather than continued acceleration.
The smaller IPC clusters — multiplex communication (H04J, 108 records), waveguide and microwave elements (H01P, 76), power supply integration (H02J, 52) and radar/positioning overlap (G01S, 51) — carry far less filing density than the dominant H04B and H04W classes. Sub-areas like beam-hopping power management, thermal co-design for multi-beam antennas, and radar co-location signalling for NTN links sit inside these thinner classes and are worth a closer prior-art check before assuming the space is occupied.
WO2026031068A1, filed by Apple and published February 2026, claims a method for a UE or base station to receive a beam hopping pattern indication from an NTN satellite base station and to enable beam-specific discontinuous transmission and reception tied to that pattern, with activation and deactivation signalled through bits in group common downlink control information. That combination of DTX/DRX gating with beam hopping pattern indication is the specific claim scope at issue; implementations that signal beam hopping through different control-channel mechanisms, or that do not tie DTX/DRX state to the hopping pattern, sit outside its literal claim language, though a full clearance opinion would need the granted claim set once examined.
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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.