Secure Remote Access Gateway Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- 60.9% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 650 of 1,068 records in scope — ownership is heavily concentrated even before counting the long tail of single-filer entrants.
- Filing has cooled from its 2022 peak. Volume ran from 36 filings in 2017 to a peak of 45 in 2022, then fell 29% from 2021 (35) to 2024 (25) on the last complete comparison window.
- H04L and G06F dominate the claim space. 56.4% of records carry a digital transmission (H04L) class and 48.8% carry a data-processing (G06F) class, showing the field sits at the intersection of networking and processing architecture.
Filing growth compares 2021 (35 records) with 2024 (25) — 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 1,068 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Secure remote access gateways sit at the point where an outside session meets an internal network: protocol termination, credential injection, session recording, tunnel encryption, access policy evaluation and connection brokering are the mechanisms patent applicants describe when they claim control over that boundary. This dataset draws together 1,068 published patent records filed against remote access gateway, virtual private network and session isolation concepts, combined with at least one of those control mechanisms in the claims or description.
The scope runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, spanning the shift from perimeter VPN architectures toward brokered, policy-evaluated access models. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate the true filing volume.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,068 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims fall under. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the composition shares add up to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017 – 2026
Filings rose from 36 in 2017 to a peak of 45 in 2022, then declined to 25 by 2024 — a 29% drop across that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
IPC subclass composition
H04L (digital information transmission) appears on 56.4% of records and G06F (electric digital data processing) on 48.8%, confirming that most claims blend network transport control with processing logic. H04W (wireless networks) trails at 21.8%, while G06Q, H04M, G06N, H04J and H04Q each sit under 5%, marking the smaller adjacent branches of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,068 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Secure Remote Access Gateways with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about secure remote access gateways and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US8806608B2 — Authentication server and method for controlling mobile communication terminal access to a virtual private network
Assigned to ZTE Corporation and published 2014-08-12, this filing describes an authentication server that stores characteristic information for permitted mobile terminals, receives a VPN access request, judges the terminal type, and gathers a second characteristic profile from the requesting terminal before granting access.Selected as representative of the gateway-side authentication approach common in this dataset, not as the single most-cited record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20210144517A1 | Multi-entity resource, security, and service management in edge computing deployments | 840 |
| 2 | US20020069278A1 | Network-based mobile workgroup system | 717 |
| 3 | US20060136570A1 | Runtime adaptable search processor | 704 |
| 4 | US20090156213A1 | Interworking gateway for mobile nodes | 631 |
| 5 | US6954790B2 | Network-based mobile workgroup system | 533 |
| 6 | US20050108518A1 | Runtime adaptable security processor | 528 |
| 7 | US20180122506A1 | Operating room black-box device, system, method and computer readable medium for event and error prediction | 499 |
| 8 | US7685254B2 | Runtime adaptable search processor | 468 |
| 9 | US8145838B1 | Processing and distributing write logs of nodes of a cluster storage system | 450 |
| 10 | US20060248294A1 | System and method for proxying network management protocol commands to enable cluster wide management of data… | 427 |
Citation counts reflect activity inside this searched corpus and skew toward older records; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, trend and IPC composition are read together: concentration at the top, a cooling filing pace off a 2022 peak, and a technology mix that leans on transmission and processing claims rather than pure wireless or AI framing.
Ownership sits with a small group of established vendors
The top 5 assignees combine for 650 of the 1,068 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 69.9%. A new entrant filing broad protocol-termination or tunnel-encryption claims is filing directly into space already occupied by a small number of large portfolios.
Volume has pulled back from its 2022 peak
Filings peaked at 45 in 2022 after rising steadily from 36 in 2017, then declined to 25 by 2024. That three-year drop suggests the initial land-grab phase around core gateway mechanisms has passed, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in.
Claims blend transport control with data processing
H04L and G06F are the two dominant classes, each attached to roughly half the dataset, while H04W wireless-specific claims trail at 21.8%. Smaller classes such as G06N (AI-based computing, 3.3%) show where policy evaluation logic is only beginning to be claimed on its own terms.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to secure remote access gateways, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where it opens up
The ranking spans 100 companies, but a handful hold the majority of the filings, and recent-year momentum has slowed even among the historical leaders.
One assignee holds a clear lead
The leading assignee's 278 records dwarf the fifth-place total of 39 and the tenth-place total of 17, showing a steep drop-off rather than a gradual one. Any freedom-to-operate review in this space should start with that portfolio before moving to the rest of the ranked list.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet even among leaders
Several of the assignees with the largest historical portfolios show zero filings in the latest tracked year, and one shows a 50% year-on-year drop from a single filing. This is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than any one company exiting the space.
Co-assignee activity is limited and inventor-driven
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pair's 20 shared records trace to named inventors rather than formal joint ventures between companies. Cross-company collaboration on remote access gateway claims is the exception, not the norm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle International Corporation | 1 | -50% |
| NetApp Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Starent Networks, Corp. | 0 | — |
| Citrix Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| RAMANKUTTY RAJESH | 0 | — |
| PUTHIYANDYIL SANIL KUMAR | 0 | — |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The ranking, trend and IPC breakdown point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or monitoring competitor activity.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the top holders
With 60.9% of records held by five assignees, any new filing on protocol termination or credential injection should be checked against those portfolios first, not the full 100-company ranking.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaDraft claims into the under-claimed branches
AI-assisted access policy evaluation and session recording sit well below the 56.4% density seen in core transmission claims, leaving room for narrower, defensible claim language.
Map white space in EurekaTrack momentum, not just historical volume
Several top-ranked assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year; a portfolio review based only on all-time totals would miss that recent pullback.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about secure remote access gateway patents
This dataset contains 1,068 published patent records filed between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off that combine a remote access gateway, VPN or session isolation concept with a control mechanism such as protocol termination, credential injection or tunnel encryption. The true current total is somewhat higher because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 filings are still being published. The figure should be read as a scoped count against this specific search definition, not as every patent ever filed on remote access technology broadly.
Ownership is concentrated: the top 5 assignees account for 650 of the 1,068 records in scope, or 60.9%, and the top 10 extend that to 69.9%. The leading assignee alone holds 278 records, far ahead of the fifth-place holder at 39 and tenth place at 17. That steep drop-off means competitive analysis should focus first on the leader's portfolio rather than treating the ranked list as evenly spread.
Filing volume grew from 36 in 2017 to a peak of 45 in 2022, then fell to 25 by 2024 — a 29% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in any trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continued drop. The safest complete comparison currently available is the 2021-to-2024 window cited above.
Most records fall under H04L (digital information transmission, 56.4% of the 1,068 records) and G06F (electric digital data processing, 48.8%), reflecting that gateway claims typically combine network transport control with processing logic. H04W (wireless communication) covers 21.8%, and smaller branches like G06Q, H04M, G06N, H04J and H04Q each account for under 5%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
The thinnest branches relative to the core H04L/G06F claim density sit around AI-assisted access policy evaluation, session recording built for compliance replay, and connection brokering across multi-cloud tenants. These areas carry far fewer records than protocol termination or tunnel encryption claims, which suggests narrower, well-drafted claims there face less prior art congestion. That said, thin filing density in a branch does not guarantee a clean path — each candidate area still needs a dedicated prior-art search before drafting.
Research Secure Remote Access Gateways in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole secure remote access gateways corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.