Submarine Power Cables Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Submarine power cables: what the patent record shows about routes, repair and who is filing now
Filings nearly quadrupled between 2021 and 2024, climbing from 4 to 15 records a year (+275%), with 2023 the peak year so far at 15. Annual filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 15 in 2024, a +275% increase over that span, with 2023 the highest complete year on record at 15. The 2017 baseline was just 3 filings a year. Because publication trails filing by about 18 months, the 2025-2026 counts are partial and will revise upward.
- 1SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES LTD19
- 2LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LLC10
- 3NKT HV CABLES AB8
- 4NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CORP8
- 5NEXANS SA8
See the full submarine power cables analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on submarine power cable patents
Who holds the most patents in submarine power cables?
The dataset’s top-ranked assignee holds 19 of the 149 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 8 and the tenth-ranked holder at 5. That said, the top 10 assignees together account for only 55.7% of all records, so a large share of the field is held by companies with just one or two filings each. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at both the leader’s count and the size of that long tail, since a steep drop after the leader does not mean the rest of the field is empty.
How fast is patent filing growing in submarine power cables?
Filings rose from 4 records in 2021 to 15 in 2024, a +275% increase over that three-year span, with 2023 the strongest complete year on record at 15. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the raw data are understated and will rise as more records publish. Treat any year within the last 18 months as provisional rather than a sign of slowing activity.
What technology areas do submarine power cable patents cover?
Installation method (IPC class H02G) is the single densest area, appearing on 52.3% of the 149 records in scope, followed by cable construction itself (H01B) at 32.9%. Optical elements (G02B, 16.1%) reflect fibre-integrated monitoring, F16L (12.8%) covers pipe and conduit hardware used in protection and repair, and digital data processing (G06F, 6.0%) marks a much thinner but growing layer of software and monitoring claims. Because a single record can carry several classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a strict pie chart.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Submarine Power Cables covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.