Radio Access Network Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 52.2% concentration. The five leading assignees account for 190,344 of the 364,514 records in scope — over half the field sits with a handful of filers.
- Filing cooled after 2022. The peak year was 2022 at 2,151 filings; from 2021 to 2024, the last complete year, filings fell 31%, from 2,011 to 1,391.
- Momentum is broadly negative at the top. Every leading assignee tracked shows a double-digit percentage decline in the latest year versus the prior one, some down more than 85%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2,011 records) with 2024 (1,391) — 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 364,514 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the Radio Access Networks patent record shows
Radio Access Networks (RAN) patenting spans the physical and control-plane work that lets a mobile device connect to a network: radio channel management, beamforming control, wireless signal processing, frequency band allocation, packet routing at the edge, and the network functions that coordinate all of it. The dataset behind this page covers 364,514 published records filed or published between 2015 and the August 2026 cut-off, drawn from a search string that pairs RAN terminology with the specific technical mechanisms — radio channel, beamforming control, wireless signal, frequency band, packet routing, network function — that separate a RAN filing from adjacent wireless work.
Filing activity in this dataset is heavily weighted toward a small number of large telecom equipment and handset vendors, with a long tail of smaller and single-filing entrants behind them. The trend line rose through the early 2020s, peaked in 2022, and has since declined through the last complete filing year; because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the very newest years in the chart will fill in further and should not yet be read as a falling trend.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 364,514-record dataset: filing volume by year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, the class shares below sum to more than the record total and should be read against the full 364,514 record base, not against each other.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 1,176 in 2017 to a peak of 2,151 in 2022, then declined to 1,391 by 2024, a 31% drop across that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures (132 in the partial final year) are still incomplete due to publication lag and will rise as later filings publish.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04W (wireless communication networks) dominates at 4.5% of the 364,514 records, more than double the next subclass, H04L (digital information transmission) at 2.1%. Everything below H04B (0.8%) — multiplex communication, switching, telephonic communication, and AI-based computing — sits at 0.1-0.2% of records, indicating those mechanisms are usually claimed as secondary elements inside a RAN filing rather than as its primary subject.
Shares are the percentage of the 364,514 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Radio Access Networks Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about radio access networks patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Method and system for enabling connection of a mobile communication terminal to a radio communication network
The claim covers a mobile terminal receiving information about available radio access networks in a geographic area, determining its current location within that area, and using both inputs to select and connect to one of the available radio access networks covering that location.Filed by Telecom Italia S.p.A., published 2010-04-15 as US20100093340A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20130132854A1 | Service Plan Design, User Interfaces, Application Programming Interfaces, and Device Management | 1,214 |
| 2 | US20190364492A1 | Methods and devices for radio communications | 876 |
| 3 | US6374112B1 | Flexible radio access and resource allocation in a universal mobile telephone system | 759 |
| 4 | US20200259896A1 | Industrial Automation with 5G and Beyond | 746 |
| 5 | US5933421A | Method for frequency division duplex communications | 746 |
| 6 | US20070206531A1 | Random access procedure with enhanced coverage | 623 |
| 7 | US20070097939A1 | Automatic configuration of PICO radio base station | 584 |
| 8 | US20170303259A1 | Communication method and apparatus using network slicing | 571 |
| 9 | US20140086177A1 | End-to-end architecture, API framework, discovery, and access in a virtualized network | 552 |
| 10 | US20070049314A1 | Push-to-talk group call system using CDMA 1x-EVDO cellular network | 486 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings, which have simply had more time to accumulate citations — treat this as a signal of prior influence, not of current filing priority.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and trend numbers mean for filing strategy
The data points to a field where claim space at the core is already dense, momentum has cooled from a 2022 high, and citation influence still sits with older filings.
The core is occupied by a handful of filers
Five assignees hold 190,344 of the 364,514 records in scope, and the top ten extend that to 64.4%. New entrants filing on core RAN mechanisms — beamforming control, channel allocation — are filing into dense prior art held by a small group.
Filing volume has pulled back from its 2022 peak
Filings peaked at 2,151 in 2022 and fell to 1,391 by 2024, the last complete year. That is a real pullback rather than an artefact of publication lag, since 2024 is fully counted; 2025-26 figures will still rise but sit chronologically after this decline.
Even the largest filers are pulling back in the latest year
Every leading assignee tracked in the latest-year momentum data shows a sharp year-on-year decline, from roughly -65% to -90%. This is consistent with the broader trend pullback rather than a single company retreating from the field.
Influence still sits with older filings
The most-cited record in this dataset is a decade-old filing on service plan design and device management, cited 1,214 times. Citation counts inside any searched corpus favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations, not because newer work is less significant.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to radio access networks patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the core claim space
The ranked leaders in this dataset are large telecom equipment vendors, handset makers and chipset suppliers rather than a diffuse field of small filers. Concentration at the top is real, but recent-year momentum has slowed for all of them.
The top-ranked assignee holds a scale advantage
The leading assignee's record count sits well above fifth place (25,210) and tenth place (6,368), meaning the gap between first and the rest of the field is itself a strategic fact: a challenger competing head-on at the core is competing against a filer with double the volume of the next four combined.
A dense but reachable second tier
Fifth place still holds 25,210 records, and the top five together cover 52.2% of all 364,514 records in scope. This tier represents established handset and infrastructure vendors defending broad claim positions rather than a single dominant filer.
Volume drops sharply outside the top ten
Tenth place holds 6,368 records against a leader with 56,171 — an order-of-magnitude gap. Below the ranked leaders sits a long tail of smaller filers, which is where more narrowly-scoped, defensible filings are more likely to find open space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Sweden) | 11 | -87% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 11 | -65% |
| Nokia Technologies Oy | 11 | -85% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korea) | 10 | -77% |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | 10 | -71% |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 7 | -90% |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 4 | +100% |
| Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. | 3 | -70% |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the concentrated core
With 52.2% of records held by five assignees, any filing touching core beamforming, channel allocation or frequency band claims should be checked against that group's granted claims before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate checkTrack momentum, not just volume
Every leading assignee shows a steep year-on-year pullback in the latest tracked year. Watching whether that reverses as 2025-26 filings publish will tell you whether the 2022 peak was cyclical or structural.
Set up assignee monitoringScope claims in the under-claimed subclasses
H04J, H04Q, H04M and G06N each sit at 0.1-0.2% of records, well below H04W and H04L. Narrower claims in these areas face less prior art density.
Explore white space with EurekaCommon questions on Radio Access Networks patents
The assignee ranking behind this dataset lists 100 companies, and the field is heavily concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together hold 190,344 of the 364,514 records in scope, or 52.2%. The leading assignee alone holds 56,171 records, well ahead of fifth place at 25,210 and tenth place at 6,368. This concentration reflects large telecom equipment vendors, handset makers and chipset suppliers that have filed continuously across multiple jurisdictions rather than a single breakthrough filer.
Filings rose from 1,176 in 2017 to a peak of 2,151 in 2022, then fell to 1,391 by 2024, a 31% decline over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete; 2025 and 2026 figures are still low because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those years will continue to fill in. Taken together, the evidence points to a real pullback from the 2022 peak rather than a market that has stopped filing altogether.
H04W (wireless communication networks) is the dominant IPC subclass, appearing on 4.5% of the 364,514 records, more than double the next most common subclass, H04L (digital information transmission) at 2.1%. H04B (transmission, general) follows at 0.8%. Subclasses like multiplex communication, switching and selecting, telephonic communication and AI-based computing each sit at 0.1-0.2% of records, meaning they typically appear as secondary elements within a broader RAN filing rather than as the primary claimed subject.
Filing density is heavily weighted toward H04W and H04L, so subclasses sitting well below those in the composition data — multiplex communication scheduling, switching and selecting control, AI-based network function optimisation, and telephonic-RAN interoperability — carry comparatively less claim density in this dataset. That does not guarantee an easy grant, but it does mean fewer competing claims to design around. Pairing a search in these areas with a freedom-to-operate check against the top assignees' granted claims is the practical next step before drafting.
US20100093340A1, filed by Telecom Italia S.p.A. and published in 2010, claims a method where a mobile terminal receives information about available radio access networks in a geographic area, determines its own location, and uses both to select and connect to a covering network. Anyone filing on location-aware network selection or handover logic should review this filing's claim scope directly, since it predates much of the current field and establishes an early priority date on that specific mechanism. It is one representative filing among many in this dataset, not necessarily the broadest blocking claim in the space.
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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.