Optical Networking Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 46.1% concentration. The top 5 assignees combined hold 11,771 of 25,509 records in scope — under half the field, with a long tail behind them.
- Filings grew 34% from 2021 to 2024. 1,104 records in 2021 rose to 1,481 in 2024, before the leaders' most recent-year filings pulled back sharply.
- Digital transmission dominates the class mix. H04L appears on 37.5% of all records, more than double the share of the next-largest class, H04W at 24.1%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,104 records) with 2024 (1,481) — 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 25,509 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the optical networking patent record actually covers
The search spans 25,509 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, combining optical transport network and wavelength routing claims with packet routing, network topology, timing and signal transmission art. This is a hybrid field: optical transmission hardware and control-plane software claims sit in the same corpus, which is why H04L (digital information transmission) and H04W (wireless communication networks) both carry large shares of the record base rather than one class dominating outright.
Filing activity peaked in 2023 at 1,942 records and has since declined in the published data, but publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent stretch that can be treated as complete, shows genuine growth rather than contraction.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 25,509-record corpus: the year-by-year filing count, and the IPC subclasses those records carry. Because a single record can sit in several classes, the class shares sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings rose from 949 in 2017 to a peak of 1,942 in 2023, then began falling in the published counts — a pattern consistent with an 18-month publication lag rather than an actual drop in filing activity. The 2021-to-2024 span, unaffected by that lag, shows a 34% increase in annual volume.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04L (digital information transmission) leads at 37.5% of the 25,509 records, followed by H04W (wireless communication networks) at 24.1%, G06F (electric digital data processing) at 14.3%, and H04B (transmission, general) at 13.1%. Smaller but notable shares sit in H04J (multiplex communication, 9.3%), H04Q (switching and selecting, 5.7%), and the AI-adjacent G06N and G06Q classes at 3.3% and 3.2% respectively — evidence that optical networking claims are increasingly being written alongside AI-model and business-process language.
Shares are the percentage of the 25,509 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Optical Networking Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about optical networking patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited prior art
EP2947818B1 — method and apparatus for operating an optical transport network
Filed by Alcatel Lucent and granted in 2017, this record addresses core operation of an optical transport network — the kind of foundational transport-layer claim that later filings in packet routing, timing and signal transmission tend to build around or design around.Original title filed in German: "Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Betrieb eines optischen Transportnetzwerks."
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130278631A1 | 3D positioning of augmented reality information | 2,103 |
| 2 | US20130127980A1 | Video display modification based on sensor input for a see-through near-to-eye display | 1,897 |
| 3 | US20130201316A1 | System and method for server based control | 1,724 |
| 4 | US20150025917A1 | System and method for determining an underwriting risk, risk score, or price of insurance using cognitive inf… | 845 |
| 5 | US20150067819A1 | System and Method for Improving Internet Communication by Using Intermediate Nodes | 759 |
| 6 | US20120028659A1 | Covert message redaction and recovery in a wireless communication device | 711 |
| 7 | WO2013049248A2 | Video display modification based on sensor input for a see-through near-to-eye display | 681 |
| 8 | US20050058149A1 | Time-scheduled and time-reservation packet switching | 669 |
| 9 | US20120166582A1 | System and method for routing-based internet security | 664 |
| 10 | US20160337426A1 | System and Method for Streaming Content from Multiple Servers | 663 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read this table as a signal of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings shape where a new filing is likely to land, and where it is likely to collide with existing claims.
The field is concentrated but not closed
Just over 46% of all records in scope sit with five assignees, and the top 10 combined reach 55.4%. That leaves a substantial share of the corpus — nearly half — spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where new claim space is more likely to be open.
Growth is real, but recent-year momentum has cooled among leaders
Annual filing volume rose from 1,104 records in 2021 to 1,481 in 2024. At the same time, several of the largest assignees show sharp year-over-year declines in their most recent filing year — a pattern to watch rather than a settled trend, given the publication lag.
Transmission and wireless claims overlap heavily
H04L and H04W together cover the majority of records, and their frequent co-occurrence within single filings suggests optical transport claims are routinely being paired with wireless network topology and communication-link language rather than filed in isolation.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to optical networking patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The leader holds 4,874 records, more than seven times the tenth-place assignee's 367 — a steep drop-off that flattens into a long tail across the rest of the ranked 100 companies.
A single leader well ahead of the pack
The leading assignee's record count is more than double that of the fifth-placed company (640), which itself sits well above the field's midpoint. This gap suggests a company with a long-running, systematic filing programme rather than a recent surge.
The drop from 5th to 10th is steep
Fifth place holds 640 records and tenth place 367 — a fall of roughly half across five ranking positions. Below that, filing counts continue to thin out across the remaining ranked companies.
Several leaders pulled back sharply in the latest year
Every major assignee tracked shows a double-digit percentage decline in latest-year filings compared with the prior year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this looks more like incomplete recent data than a genuine retreat from the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 83 | -76% |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 9 | -65% |
| ServiceNow, Inc. | 4 | -87% |
| BRIGHT DATA LTD | 4 | -90% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 2 | -86% |
| Ciena Corporation | 1 | -80% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 0 | -100% |
| KNOWBE4 INC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures here describe the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means drilling into specific claims and specific assignees.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top assignees
With 46.1% of records held by five companies, a new filing in transport or switching claims is likely to sit close to existing art from at least one of them.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaMap the under-claimed branches in detail
AI-assisted wavelength allocation and timing-source synchronization show thinner claim density than the core transmission classes — worth a targeted search before committing to a claim strategy.
Search white space in EurekaCommon questions about the optical networking patent landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 4,874 records, well ahead of the fifth-place company at 640 and the tenth-place company at 367. The top 5 assignees combined account for 46.1% of all 25,509 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 55.4%. Below that concentration, the remaining ranked companies form a long tail, each holding a much smaller share, which is where new entrants tend to have more room to file without immediate overlap.
Filings grew from 1,104 records in 2021 to 1,481 in 2024, a 34% increase over that three-year span, and the peak year so far is 2023 at 1,942 records. Counts appear to fall after 2023 in the published data, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years are still incomplete rather than genuinely declining. Any read of a slowdown should wait until those later years have had time to fill in.
H04L, digital information transmission, appears on 37.5% of all 25,509 records, the largest single share, followed by H04W (wireless communication networks) at 24.1%. Electric digital data processing (G06F) and general transmission (H04B) follow at 14.3% and 13.1%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, reflecting how often optical transport claims are combined with data-processing or wireless-network language rather than filed as pure hardware claims.
EP2947818B1 is a filing from Alcatel Lucent, granted in 2017, covering a method and apparatus for operating an optical transport network. It sits in the corpus as a representative transport-layer claim, the kind of foundational filing that later work in packet routing, timing and signal transmission often needs to design around. Reviewing its granted claims directly is a reasonable first step before filing new transport-layer art in this space.
The technology composition data points to comparatively thinner claim density in branches like AI-assisted wavelength allocation, timing-source synchronization for optical links, and network-function virtualization applied at the optical layer, since these overlap only partially with the dominant H04L and H04W classes. The presence of G06N (AI models, 3.3% of records) and G06Q (business/commerce processing, 3.2%) alongside the larger transport classes suggests these adjacent areas are being explored but not yet heavily claimed. A targeted search within these specific sub-areas is the practical next step before committing to a claim strategy.
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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.