UWB Ranging and Anchor Placement Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 20 records, then eased to 11 by 2024 — a -31% shift over that three-year span, not a collapse in interest.
- The top 5 assignees already hold 59.2% of all 98 records, and the top 10 climb to 83.7% — this is a field with a short list of gatekeepers, not a fragmented one.
- H04W and G01S together anchor over half of all records, while A61G patient-transport filings and G06K recognition filings sit under 6% each — a sign of where ranging tech is only starting to cross into adjacent applications.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (11) — 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 98 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review covers patent families and published applications matching ultra-wideband positioning, UWB ranging and anchor placement claim language, cross-referenced against technical terms like geometric dilution, clock drift, two way ranging and non line of sight conditions. The scope runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, with 98 records in total.
UWB ranging sits at the intersection of physical-layer radio design and positioning algorithms: precise time-of-flight measurement between a mobile device and one or more fixed anchors, corrected for clock drift and geometric dilution of precision. The patent activity below reflects both the radio protocol layer (H04W, H04B) and the positioning/measurement layer (G01S, G01R), plus a smaller but growing set of application-specific filings in access control, healthcare and asset tracking.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 98-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses carry the claims.
Filing activity peaked in 2022
Annual filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2022, then declined to 11 by 2024, a -31% move over that span. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in the chart are still incomplete and should not be read as a continued decline.
Wireless protocol and positioning classes dominate
H04W (wireless communication networks) and G01S (radar, sonar and positioning) each cover more than half of the 98 records, confirming that most claims sit at the radio-protocol and ranging-measurement layers rather than in downstream applications. Smaller classes like A61G (patient transport) and G06K (data recognition) each account for roughly 5% of records, marking early-stage application niches rather than crowded ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 98 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on UWB Ranging and Anchor Placement with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about uwb ranging and anchor placement and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in the corpus
Infrastructure triggering techniques to facilitate secure ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging
Presented herein are infrastructure triggering techniques for secure Ultra-Wideband (UWB) ranging. In one example, a method may include providing UWB ranging parameters to a mobile device via a first radio communication, wherein the first radio communication is a non-UWB radio communication; and triggering the mobile device to perform UWB ranging with a UWB anchor, wherein the triggering is performed using a second radio communication.Filed by Cisco Technology, published 2022-03-03 as US20220066010A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070081505A1 | Hybrid RF network with high precision ranging | 66 |
| 2 | US20080259896A1 | Device, Method And Protocol For Private Uwb Ranging | 64 |
| 3 | US7995644B2 | Device, method and protocol for private UWB ranging | 53 |
| 4 | US20220066010A1 | Infrastructure triggering techniques to facilitate secure ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging | 48 |
| 5 | US20100066603A1 | System and Methods for Real Time Kinematic Surveying Using GNSS and Ultra Wideband Ranging | 46 |
| 6 | WO2007021292A2 | Device, method and protocol for private UWB ranging | 40 |
| 7 | US20210065885A1 | Ultra-wideband locating systems and methods | 33 |
| 8 | CN111896008A | 一种改进的鲁棒无迹卡尔曼滤波组合导航方法 | 26 |
| 9 | US11828832B2 | Infrastructure triggering techniques to facilitate secure ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging | 18 |
| 10 | US10495737B1 | Methods, systems, and computer readable media for time-slotted ultra-wide-band object tracking | 17 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat this as a signal of influence on the field's early framing, not of current commercial weight.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three findings that shape where a new filer should and should not spend claim-drafting effort.
A short list of gatekeepers
With the top 5 assignees already holding 59.2% of the 98 records in scope and the top 10 reaching 83.7%, most of the core ranging and anchor-placement claim space is already staked out by a handful of firms. New entrants working in the core protocol layer should expect dense prior art rather than open ground.
Filing eased, did not stop
The -31% move from 2021 to 2024 reflects a cooling after the 2022 peak, not an exit from the field — most named leaders show reduced but non-zero recent activity, and 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publications lag filing.
Protocol layer crowded, applications thin
Wireless-protocol (H04W) and positioning-measurement (G01S) classes each cover more than half of all records, while application-specific classes like patient transport (A61G) and data recognition (G06K) sit near 5%. That gap is where UWB ranging is being adapted into new verticals rather than re-litigated at the radio layer.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to uwb ranging and anchor placement, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span device makers, chipset vendors and access-control specialists; below them a long tail of single or double-digit filers works narrower niches.
One firm well ahead of the pack
The leading assignee holds 19 of the 98 records in scope, roughly three times the fifth-place count of 6 — a gap wide enough that direct head-to-head filing in its core claims is likely to run into prior art rather than open space.
A shallow drop into the mid-tier
The step from fifth place (6 records) to tenth place (4 records) is gradual rather than a cliff, suggesting several firms hold comparable but modest positions rather than one clear second-tier leader.
Recent activity is thin across the board
Among the named leaders, recent-year filing counts are low or zero, and the one assignee still filing shows a year-on-year decline. This is consistent with the broader post-2022 easing rather than any single company pulling back.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Qualcomm Inc. | 0 | — |
| ASSA ABLOY AB | 0 | — |
| NXP B.V. | 0 | — |
| CLAIRVOYANT NETWORKS LLC | 0 | — |
| Techdia Technologies Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hill-Rom Services, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a field with dense claims at the protocol layer and thinner coverage in application niches.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top 10
With 83.7% of records held by ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start there before drafting core ranging or anchor-placement claims.
Explore assignee claims in Eureka →Test application-layer claim ideas
Classes like A61G and G06K sit near 5% of records each, suggesting room to draft claims that combine UWB ranging with a specific downstream application rather than re-claiming the radio layer.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Common questions about UWB ranging patents
One assignee leads with 19 of the 98 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked firm at 6 records. The top 5 assignees together hold 59.2% of all records, and the top 10 hold 83.7%, so the field is concentrated among a short list of companies rather than spread evenly. A new entrant should check that leader's granted claims first when assessing freedom to operate.
Filing peaked at 20 records in 2022 and eased to 11 by 2024, a -31% change over that window. That is a cooling from the peak rather than an exit from the field, and because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as continued decline. Recent-year momentum among named leaders is generally flat to modestly down rather than sharply falling.
Most records fall under H04W (wireless communication networks, 58.2% of the 98 records) and G01S (radar, sonar and positioning, 54.1%), reflecting the two core layers of the technology: the radio protocol and the ranging measurement itself. Smaller shares appear in H04B transmission, H04L digital transmission, and application-specific classes like G06Q business data processing and A61G patient transport. Because a record can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
Application-specific classes sit well below the core protocol classes: A61G patient-transport filings and G06K data-recognition filings each cover only about 5.1% of the 98 records, compared with over half for the core wireless and positioning classes. That gap suggests claim opportunities in applying UWB ranging to specific verticals — asset tracking, healthcare monitoring, access control — rather than in re-claiming the underlying radio protocol, where prior art is dense.
US20220066010A1, filed by Cisco Technology and published in 2022, covers infrastructure triggering techniques for secure UWB ranging — specifically, using a non-UWB radio communication to provide ranging parameters and trigger a mobile device to perform UWB ranging with a target anchor. It is among the most-cited records in this dataset, indicating it shaped how later filers approached the handoff between conventional radio signalling and UWB ranging initiation. Anyone building a multi-radio triggering scheme for UWB should review its claims closely.
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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.