Ultra Wideband Ranging Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Ultra Wideband Ranging Method Patents: Filing Trends, Leaders and Open Ground
37.1% concentration at the top. the five leading assignees together hold 172 of the 464 records in scope — dense, but not a monopoly. Annual filings rose from 26 in 2017 to a peak of 54 in 2021, then declined to 21 by 2024 — a 61% drop over that three-year window. Read the 2025 and 2026 figures as incomplete rather than as continued decline, since publication lag has not yet caught up with those filing years.
- 1QUALCOMM INC104
- 2DENSO CORP19
- 3NXP BV17
- 4ROSEMOUNT INC16
- 5HUAWEI TECH CO LTD16
See the full ultra wideband ranging methods 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 UWB ranging patents?
One assignee leads clearly with 104 families in this dataset, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 16 and the tenth-ranked at 11. Below that leader, the ranking runs across 100 assignees total, with family counts dropping off quickly, which means the field has one dominant early filer surrounded by a long tail of smaller, more specialised portfolios. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work should start with the leader’s claim set before moving down the ranking.
Is UWB ranging patent activity growing or slowing down?
Filings rose from 26 in 2017 to a peak of 54 in 2021, then fell to 21 by 2024, a 61% decline over that three-year span. That looks like a genuine pullback after a build-up phase, but the 2025 and 2026 figures in the data are still incomplete because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months. Treat 2024 as the most recent reliable year and avoid reading the very latest years as confirmation of continued decline.
Which technology areas dominate UWB ranging patent claims?
Radar and positioning claims under IPC class G01S appear in 56.9% of the 464 records in scope, and wireless networking claims under H04W appear in 44.8%, meaning most filings combine a measurement technique with a communication protocol element. Transmission-related classes H04B and H04L each sit around a fifth of records. Vehicle-specific claims under B60R and navigation-specific claims under G01C each cover under 4%, marking them as much thinner ground relative to the core classes.
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 Ultra Wideband Ranging Methods 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.