Time of Flight Lidar Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Time of Flight Lidar Ranging Patents: Filing Trends and Leading Assignees
Concentration is modest. the leader holds 198 records but the top 5 assignees combined account for only 19.2% of all 3,235 records in scope, leaving a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings ran from 190 in 2017 to a peak of 276 in 2018, then eased through the early 2020s. The last complete-year comparison available shows 2021's 219 filings down to 117 by 2024, a 47% contraction — a real signal of reduced filing appetite in the core space, not an artefact of the data cut-off.
- 1INNOVIZ TECH LTD6.1%
- 2KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV4.9%
- 3SENSE PHOTONICS INC4.1%
- 4QUALCOMM INC2.3%
- 5RAYTHEON CO1.8%
See the full time of flight lidar ranging 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 about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in time-of-flight lidar ranging?
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 198 of the 3,235 records in scope, with the fifth-ranked assignee at 58 and the tenth at 45. The top 5 combined reach only 19.2% of all records, and the top 10 reach 26.9%, so no single company controls the field. The remainder of the 100-company ranking is a long tail of assignees filing in the single digits, which matters more for freedom-to-operate work than the identity of the leader does.
Is patent filing in lidar ranging still growing?
No, not in the most recent complete-year comparison: filings fell from 219 in 2021 to 117 in 2024, a 47% drop. The field peaked in 2018 at 276 filings and has generally eased since. The 2025-2026 figures in the raw trend look even lower, but that reflects an 18-month publication lag rather than a further collapse, so those two years should not be read as confirming the decline.
What patent classes cover time-of-flight lidar ranging technology?
G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) is the dominant class, covering 45.9% of the 3,235 records. G01T (nuclear and X-ray measurement) follows at 13.4%, then G01N (material analysis), A61B (diagnosis and surgery) and several communications classes each in the 5-8% range. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and the spread shows that timing-resolution and echo-processing methods are claimed well outside automotive lidar.
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 Time of Flight Lidar Ranging 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.