NTN Waveform & Modulation Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2023 at 3,316 records and has declined every year since, including a steep drop-off across every major assignee in the latest reported year.
- One assignee dominates recent activity Qualcomm filed 205 records in the latest year alone, more than six times the next closest competitor, even after an 82% year-on-year decline.
- Claim density concentrates in two IPC classes H04W and H04L together account for roughly 95% of the combined subclass count, leaving positioning-adjacent classes comparatively thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,596 records) with 2024 (3,205) — 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 20,675 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families whose claims combine non-terrestrial network (NTN) connectivity — satellite or high-altitude platform links — with waveform design, modulation scheme or Doppler-robust signalling techniques. The search spans records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, capturing the period in which 3GPP standardisation work on NTN moved from study item to release, and in which handset and infrastructure vendors began filing defensively around satellite-to-device connectivity.
Filing activity is concentrated at receiving offices that matter for commercial deployment: the United States and the PCT route together account for well over half of all filings, with Europe close behind and India a distant but notable fourth. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the most recent year in any trend line understates real filing activity.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 20,675-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the underlying technology splits across IPC subclasses.
A filing curve that has already turned down
Annual filings rose from 495 in 2017 to a peak of 3,316 in 2023, roughly a six-fold increase over six years. Growth had already flattened by the 2022 midpoint of 2,645, and every year since the 2023 peak has posted a lower total, including a partial-year 2026 figure of 339. Read alongside the sharp year-on-year drops posted by every major assignee, this points to a maturing filing cycle rather than a market still opening up.
Wireless networking and digital transmission dominate the class mix
H04W (wireless communication networks) and H04L (digital information transmission) lead with 11,386 and 8,286 records respectively, followed by H04B (transmission, general) at 6,002. Positioning-adjacent G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) trails at 1,782, and antenna, coding and waveguide classes each sit under 900 records — evidence that most claim activity sits at the protocol and link layer rather than in RF hardware or coding-specific implementations.
Shares are the percentage of the 20,675 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 Waveform and Modulation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about non-terrestrial network waveform and modulation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
Non-terrestrial network (NTN) search space optimization
The filing describes a wireless device that detects a trigger to use NTN connectivity, determines whether obstructions are likely blocking a subset of the NTN space vehicles expected to be in view at its current location, and, if so, transmits a message toward one of the remaining unobstructed space vehicles instead.Filed by Qualcomm, published 2024-05-16 — illustrates the obstruction-aware satellite selection logic that sits alongside waveform and modulation claims in current NTN filing activity.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050046584A1 | Asset system control arrangement and method | 1,779 |
| 2 | US20130201316A1 | System and method for server based control | 1,721 |
| 3 | US20040095907A1 | Method and apparatus for optimization of wireless multipoint electromagnetic communication networks | 1,101 |
| 4 | US20030093187A1 | PFN/TRAC systemTM FAA upgrades for accountable remote and robotics control to stop the unauthorized use of ai… | 977 |
| 5 | US20060208169A1 | Vehicular restraint system control system and method using multiple optical imagers | 935 |
| 6 | US20190364492A1 | Methods and devices for radio communications | 871 |
| 7 | US20090140887A1 | Mapping Techniques Using Probe Vehicles | 865 |
| 8 | US20190363843A1 | Next generation radio technologies | 731 |
| 9 | US20160219024A1 | Secure Dynamic Communication Network And Protocol | 700 |
| 10 | US20080272934A1 | Systems and Methods for Modifying Power Usage | 681 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three signals worth weighing before deciding where to file or where to challenge.
The growth phase has passed
Filing volume rose sharply through 2022 before peaking in 2023 and declining every year since. Combined with steep year-on-year drops at every leading assignee, this is consistent with a technology area where core waveform and modulation approaches have already been staked out.
One filer sets the pace, and it is slowing too
Qualcomm's recent-year filing count dwarfs every other named assignee, but its own year-on-year decline of 82% is in line with the broader pullback seen across Huawei, Samsung and ZTE. No assignee in this dataset is currently increasing filings.
Protocol-layer claims outweigh positioning and RF
The bulk of claim activity sits in wireless network architecture (H04W) and digital transmission (H04L), not in the positioning (G01S) or antenna (H01Q) classes that sit closer to the physical satellite link. That split suggests the busiest prior art is procedural and signalling-focused rather than hardware-focused.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to non-terrestrial network waveform and modulation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is thinning out
Recent-year momentum tells a different story from cumulative filing totals: every major assignee has pulled back sharply, and the gap between the leader and the rest is widening even as absolute volumes fall.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm's latest-year filing count remains well above every other assignee tracked here, and its co-filing pairs with individually named inventors are the strongest in the dataset, indicating concentrated internal teams working the space.
Huawei
Huawei's filing volume trails Qualcomm by an order of magnitude in the latest year, with a comparable rate of decline, suggesting the pullback is industry-wide rather than specific to one filer's strategy.
Samsung
Samsung's recent-year activity sits below Huawei's, continuing a pattern where handset and chipset vendors file at a materially lower rate than the infrastructure-and-chipset leader in this specific search scope.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 205 | -82% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 34 | -79% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 24 | -83% |
| Wilus Institute of Standards and Technology Inc. | 5 | -90% |
| ZTE Corporation | 5 | -82% |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 1 | -67% |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | 0 | — |
| HUGHES NETWORK SYST | 0 | -100% |
Where to go from here
Use the trend and assignee data as a starting point, not an endpoint. The following steps go deeper into the same dataset.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading filer
Qualcomm's filing concentration and its co-assignee pairs suggest a specific set of inventor teams to check claims against before committing to a waveform or modulation approach in this space.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches directly
G01S, H01Q and H03M volumes are thin relative to H04W and H04L. A targeted search inside those subclasses can confirm whether the white space holds up under closer reading.
Explore IPC subclasses in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this landscape
Qualcomm is the clear leader by recent-year filing volume, posting 205 filings in the latest reported year against a much smaller count for the next closest named assignees, Huawei and Samsung. That said, every major assignee in this dataset has posted a sharp year-on-year decline, so leadership by volume does not currently equal rising investment. Anyone assessing competitive position should weigh cumulative filing counts alongside the direction of recent-year momentum, not cumulative counts alone.
No. Filings rose from 495 in 2017 to a peak of 3,316 in 2023, but every year since has shown a decline, and the partial 2026 figure of 339 continues that trend. Because publication lags filing by around eighteen months, the most recent year understates true activity somewhat, but the multi-year downward pattern across every leading assignee suggests the field has passed its filing peak rather than simply paused.
The dataset concentrates in H04W (wireless communication networks) and H04L (digital information transmission), which together account for the large majority of subclass counts, followed by H04B (general transmission). Positioning-related G01S, antenna class H01Q, and coding class H03M carry meaningfully fewer records, indicating that most claim activity addresses network procedures and signalling rather than RF hardware or forward-error-correction specifics.
Subclasses tied to positioning, antenna hardware and coding — G01S, H01Q and H03M — carry far fewer filings than the dominant H04W and H04L classes, which points to comparatively open claim space around Doppler pre-compensation for low-earth-orbit handover, adaptive coding for intermittent links, and antenna-array calibration specific to NTN uplink. A first claim in one of these areas would need to tie the underclaimed hardware or coding mechanism explicitly to NTN operating conditions to distinguish it from the dense protocol-layer prior art.
US20240163833A1, assigned to Qualcomm and published in May 2024, claims a method for detecting obstructions to specific NTN space vehicles and redirecting a device's transmission toward an unobstructed satellite in the same expected set. It sits in the obstruction-aware satellite selection space rather than in waveform generation itself, so it is most relevant to anyone building satellite-selection or link-continuity logic for NTN devices. Designing around it would likely require a materially different trigger condition or selection mechanism rather than a minor variation on the same obstruction-detection approach.
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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.