Video Coding Standards Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated at the top. the five leading assignees hold 69.9% of all 73 records in scope, and the ranked ten hold 93.2%.
- Filing has flattened since its 2020 peak. activity hit 17 records that year and sat at 15 by the 2022 midpoint, with no clear resurgence through the most recent partial year.
- Nearly every record sits in one IPC subclass. H04N (pictorial communication) covers all 73 records, leaving almost no claim activity in adjacent classes like A63F.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks patent filings at the intersection of video coding standards — AV1, Versatile Video Coding (VVC) and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) — where claims are drawn on rate-distortion performance, encoding complexity, hardware decoder support, screen content coding or royalty structure. The scope is set by IPC classes H04N19, H03M7 and G06T9, and the corpus spans 73 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent filing year in any trend understates real activity. Family-level counts, not raw document counts, are used throughout this review to avoid overweighting jurisdictions with heavy continuation filing.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 73-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim activity.
A peak in 2020, then a plateau
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 17 records in 2020, then eased to 15 by the 2022 midpoint. The trend since is flat to declining rather than resurgent, though the final year or two is necessarily undercounted given publication lag.
Claim activity is almost entirely in H04N
H04N (pictorial communication, i.e. video/TV transmission) appears on all 73 records in scope — 100.0% — confirming this is the load-bearing classification for the field. A63F (games and amusements) appears on a single record, a marginal crossover into interactive or gaming use cases rather than a distinct branch.
Shares are the percentage of the 73 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Video Coding Standards (AV1, VVC and HEVC) with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about video coding standards (av1, vvc and hevc) and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey patents and the most-cited records
Method for all zero block detection in versatile video coding
An all-zero-block (AZB) detection method for video coding that checks, in sequence, for a spatial-domain GAZB, then a frequency-domain GAZB, then a PAZB in the residual signal, classifying the signal as non-AZB only if none is found. The filing reports meaningful encoding time savings across test sequences of varying resolution, with negligible rate-distortion performance loss.Filed by City University of Hong Kong, published 2025-05-01 as US20250142090A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2022063729A1 | Template matching prediction for versatile video coding | 25 |
| 2 | CN104539949A | HEVC屏幕编码中基于边缘方向的快速分块 | 18 |
| 3 | US20220377344A1 | Systems and methods for versatile video coding | 15 |
| 4 | WO2021055699A1 | Systems and methods for versatile video coding | 14 |
| 5 | US20230396805A1 | Template matching prediction for versatile video coding | 11 |
| 6 | WO2020254335A1 | Lossless mode for versatile video coding | 10 |
| 7 | US12010309B2 | Lossless mode for versatile video coding | 10 |
| 8 | CN110677654A | 高效视频编码标准低时延编码结构的量化参数级联方法 | 8 |
| 9 | CN112218084A | 面向监控视频的高效视频编码标准帧级码率控制方法 | 6 |
| 10 | CN108141613A | 利用后处理指示的视频译码的方法和系统 | 6 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate references; treat them as a signal of influence within this searched corpus, not a ranking of current technical importance.
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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Reading the concentration, the trend and the classification data together points to a field where claim space around core VVC/HEVC coding tools is largely staked out, while adjacent applications remain lightly filed.
A small group holds most of the corpus
The top five assignees combined account for 51 of the 73 records in scope (69.9%), and the top ten reach 68 records (93.2%). A ranking this concentrated means new entrants are filing into space already dense with prior art from a handful of established players, particularly around core encoding and prediction claims.
Growth has stalled since the peak
Filings climbed from zero in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2020, then held at 15 by 2022 — flat rather than growing. Combined with publication lag, this suggests the intense claim-staking phase for VVC/HEVC core tools may already be behind the field, though later years remain undercounted.
One subclass carries the whole field
Every record in scope classifies under H04N, the pictorial communication subclass covering video and TV transmission. The near-total absence of activity outside it, save a single record touching A63F, indicates that video coding claims here are not yet spilling meaningfully into gaming or other adjacent domains.
Template matching prediction draws the most citations
The most-cited record in the corpus, on template matching prediction for versatile video coding, has drawn 25 citations — well ahead of the next tier. Because citation counts favour older filings, this points to an influential early VVC prediction technique rather than necessarily the field's current focus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to video coding standards (av1, vvc and hevc), with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked assignees span standards-heavy IP licensors, device makers and university labs, with a long tail of single- or low-filing entrants behind the leaders.
One assignee well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 24 of the 73 records in scope, more than double the fifth-place count of 5. That gap indicates a single organisation has built a substantial claim position across core coding tools rather than the field being evenly split among comparable-sized filers.
A tight mid-tier before the long tail
Filing counts drop from 5 at fifth place to 2 at tenth, after which the ranking runs out to 18 companies total. This is a compact mid-tier rather than a smooth gradient, meaning a handful of firms hold meaningful but modest positions before volume falls away sharply.
Momentum has shifted away from some early filers
In the most recent year, VID Scale recorded 2 filings and Intel 1, while several previously active assignees — including one showing a -100% year-on-year change — recorded none. Recent-year counts are thin across the board, consistent with the broader plateau in filing volume and with publication lag understating the true picture.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| VID Scale Inc. | 2 | — |
| Intel Corp. | 1 | — |
| InterDigital VC Holdings France SAS | 0 | — |
| InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings | 0 | -100% |
| Xi'an University of Posts & Telecommunications | 0 | — |
| INTERDIGITAL VC HLDG FRANCE | 0 | — |
| Apple Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Shaanxi Normal University | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The data points to a concentrated core and a flattening trend, but a landscape review is a starting point, not a filing decision.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 24 of 73 records, any new filing on core VVC or HEVC coding tools should be checked against that portfolio specifically, not just the field average.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches
Screen content coding for interactive use and cross-standard decoder licensing show little claim density here — worth a deeper prior-art pull before assuming the space is open.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack the next 12-18 months of filings
Because publication lag understates the most recent year, the apparent plateau since 2020 should be re-checked as later filings publish.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCommon questions about video coding standards patents
In this 73-record corpus, one assignee leads clearly with 24 records, more than double the fifth-place count of 5. The top five assignees combined hold 69.9% of all records, and the top ten hold 93.2%, so the field is concentrated among a small group rather than spread evenly. Anyone assessing freedom to operate on core coding tools should check that leader's portfolio specifically rather than relying on field-wide averages.
Not based on this dataset: filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2020, then eased to 15 by 2022, and the trend since reads flat to declining. Publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the most recent year or two will always look thinner than it eventually turns out to be. Even accounting for that lag, there is no visible resurgence back toward the 2020 peak in the years reported so far.
This corpus was scoped to H04N19, H03M7 and G06T9, and within it every one of the 73 records classifies under H04N, the pictorial communication subclass covering video and TV transmission. Only a single record also touches A63F, games and amusements, so cross-domain filing into gaming-specific coding applications is minimal here. A search strategy built primarily around H04N19 with H03M7 and G06T9 as secondary classes should capture the bulk of relevant prior art in this space.
The clearest gaps in this dataset sit outside the dominant H04N classification: screen content coding applied to interactive or gaming overlays, zero-block detection variants beyond the spatial/frequency/PAZB sequence already claimed, and royalty or licensing-structure claims tied specifically to VVC adoption. These branches show light claim density relative to the core encoding and prediction space, though light density in a 73-record corpus should be confirmed with a dedicated prior-art search before relying on it as genuinely open.
US20250142090A1, filed by City University of Hong Kong and published 2025-05-01, claims a specific sequential method for detecting all-zero blocks in video coding: checking for a spatial-domain GAZB, then a frequency-domain GAZB, then a PAZB, before classifying a residual signal as non-AZB. It blocks that particular detection sequence and its reported time-saving mechanism, not all zero-block or fast-mode-decision techniques generally. Teams working on encoding complexity reduction should review its exact claim scope closely, since alternative detection orderings or thresholds may sit outside it.
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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.