Strategic Infrastructure

Mobile & Wireless Networks

Mobile and wireless networks covers cellular and wireless access infrastructure, including towers and masts, base stations, small cells, rooftop sites and public wireless access. One of the capabilities of Communications & Digital Infrastructure.

International families: 261k2015 to 2024
Leading country: China1.4× the next
All families: 556khome filings included
Over five years: Rising2020 to 2024 against the five before

Year by year

Patent families by country of origin and the year of the earliest filing, 2000 to 2025; 2025 is a part year, still filling in. International families are those for which protection was sought beyond one country.

Volume

International patent families in the capability, by the year of the earliest filing.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Share by country

Each country's share of the year's international families, in per cent: the capability's five largest countries of origin, 2015 to 2024, and the rest of the world.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Country leaderboard

International patent families, 2015 to 2024, by country of origin. Growth compares the latest five full years with the five before.

Ten largest

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

Sweden

Finland

Germany

Taiwan

France

Singapore

83,485

59,761

31,601

30,496

14,008

10,309

6,603

4,821

3,739

2,829


1	China	83,485	32.0%	1.6×	280,693
2	United States	59,761	22.9%	1.2×	103,341
3	Japan	31,601	12.1%	1.2×	42,324
4	South Korea	30,496	11.7%	1.2×	60,536
5	Sweden	14,008	5.4%	1.0×	14,240
6	Finland	10,309	3.9%	2.4×	10,799
7	Germany	6,603	2.5%	0.9×	8,730
8	Taiwan	4,821	1.8%	0.8×	6,658
9	France	3,739	1.4%	0.7×	4,811
10	Singapore	2,829	1.1%	2.3×	3,399
11	Canada	1,898	0.7%	0.5×	2,678
12	United Kingdom	1,739	0.7%	0.7×	2,342
13	India	1,584	0.6%	3.0×	2,374
14	Netherlands	1,543	0.6%	1.0×	1,778
15	Switzerland	917	0.4%	1.0×	1,078
16	Israel	739	0.3%	0.6×	1,209
17	Türkiye	579	0.2%	2.2×	1,554
18	Australia	505	0.2%	0.7×	788
19	Italy	458	0.2%	0.7×	722
20	Hong Kong	436	0.2%	0.6×	693
21	Cayman Islands	349	0.1%	0.1×	390
22	Spain	255	0.1%	0.7×	366
23	Ireland	232	0.1%	0.5×	338
24	Austria	230	0.1%	0.7×	251
25	Norway	213	0.1%	1.0×	249
26	Belgium	200	0.1%	0.6×	231
27	Denmark	192	0.1%	0.8×	212
28	Russia	184	0.1%	0.5×	753
29	Brazil	113	0.0%	0.4×	368
30	Saudi Arabia	83	0.0%	0.8×	205
31	Luxembourg	79	0.0%	0.8×	94
32	Poland	77	0.0%	0.5×	179
33	South Africa	66	0.0%	0.3×	69
34	Portugal	50	0.0%	1.3×	72
35	New Zealand	44	0.0%	0.7×	65
36	Malaysia	43	0.0%	0.3×	96
37	Czechia	40	0.0%	0.5×	71
38	Mexico	39	0.0%	0.2×	122
39	Liechtenstein	24	0.0%	2.4×	27
40	Hungary	21	0.0%	1.3×	37

Applicants

The largest applicants by international patent families, 2015 to 2024: across the world, then within each of the five countries with the most families in Mobile & Wireless Networks. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

261,161 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD · China

QUALCOMM INC · United States

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD · South Korea

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M · Sweden

LG ELECTRONICS INC · South Korea

ZTE CORP · China

28,374

21,383

13,427

13,052

10,142

9,323

China

83,485 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

ZTE CORP

BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO LTD

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP LTD

VIVO MOBILE COMMUNICATION CO LTD

OPPO GUANGDONG MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO LTD

27,894

9,315

8,070

7,658

5,342

5,100

United States

59,761 international families

QUALCOMM INC

APPLE INC

INTEL CORP

INTERDIGITAL PATENT HOLDINGS INC

GOOGLE LLC

INTEL IP CORP

20,280

5,085

2,524

2,142

1,527

1,514

Japan

31,601 international families

NTT DOCOMO INC

NEC CORP

SHARP KK

SONY GROUP CORP

SONY CORP

TOYOTA MOTOR CO LTD

7,113

2,804

2,564

2,385

1,492

South Korea

30,496 international families

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

LG ELECTRONICS INC

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

KIA CORP

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST

BEIJING SAMSUNG TELECOM R&D CT

13,403

10,138

1,167

846

772

764

Sweden

14,008 international families

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

2.1% shared · 5,509 families in both

United States

China

Japan

France

South Korea

2,984

2,248

933

651

508

Crosswalk

How Mobile & Wireless Networks is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 922 Cooperative entries in all. A patent family counts when any of its codes, in either scheme and at any office, falls under one of them. Codes since retired are placed under the entries that replaced them.

Entry	Title in the scheme	Why it is chosen	CPC codes	IPC codes	Documents
H04W	Wireless communication networks	Wireless communication networks	800	388	12,019,505
H04B7/00	Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field	Radio transmission systems, including multi-antenna and relays	203	40	1,211,324
H04L5/00	Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path	Sharing of the transmission path, as used in cellular radio	88	15	1,863,984
H01Q1/246	Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM specially adapted for base stations	Base-station antennas for mobile communications	1	none	27,006
H04B7/185	Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systems	Left out

CPC and IPC codes are the codes in use on patent documents, at any office, that fall under the entry. Documents is the larger of the two schemes' counts of documents carrying one of them. An entry with no IPC codes can be told apart only in the Cooperative scheme.

The Cooperative codes in use that count towards Mobile & Wireless Networks: 1,092 codes on 15,121,819 documents. The 150 most used are listed; the full list is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
H04W72/23	Control channels or signalling for resource management in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal	H04W	In the scheme	276,030
H04L5/0053	Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals	H04L5/00	In the scheme	224,748
H04L5/0048	Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver	H04L5/00	In the scheme	193,385
H04W72/0446	Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames	H04W	In the scheme	190,617
H04W4/80	Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication	H04W	In the scheme	178,557
H04W84/12	WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]	H04W	In the scheme	172,919
H04W72/0453	Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA	H04W	In the scheme	169,130
H04W24/10	Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports	H04W	In the scheme	162,817
H04W24/08	Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic	H04W	In the scheme	152,069
H04W24/02	Arrangements for optimising operational condition	H04W	In the scheme	150,980
H04W12/06	Authentication	H04W	In the scheme	148,029
H04W72/21	Control channels or signalling for resource management in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network	H04W	In the scheme	137,210
H04W88/02	Terminal devices	H04W	In the scheme	135,722
H04W88/06	Terminal devices adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals	H04W	In the scheme	130,314
H04W4/029	Location-based management or tracking services	H04W	In the scheme	126,087
H04L5/0007	Time-frequency the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT	H04L5/00	In the scheme	121,611
H04W88/08	Access point devices	H04W	In the scheme	121,510
H04W48/16	Discovering, processing access restriction or access information	H04W	In the scheme	120,957
H04W4/02	Services making use of location information	H04W	In the scheme	119,573
H04L5/0094	Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated	H04L5/00	In the scheme	119,367
H04W84/18	Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks	H04W	In the scheme	113,884
H04L5/001	Time-frequency the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT the frequencies being arranged in component carriers	H04L5/00	In the scheme	108,891
H04W64/00	Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management	H04W	In the scheme	108,777
H04W76/10	Connection setup	H04W	In the scheme	107,955
H04W72/04	Wireless resource allocation	H04W	In the scheme	95,690
H04W74/0833	Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access	H04W	In the scheme	95,569
H04W4/70	Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]	H04W	In the scheme	95,356
H04W76/14	Direct-mode setup	H04W	In the scheme	94,769
H04W72/20	Control channels or signalling for resource management	H04W	In the scheme	91,252
H04L5/0055	Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK	H04L5/00	In the scheme	90,921
H04L5/0051	Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal	H04L5/00	In the scheme	88,969
H04W76/27	Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states	H04W	In the scheme	87,405
H04L5/0044	Allocation of payload; Allocation of data channels, e.g. PDSCH or PUSCH	H04L5/00	In the scheme	86,517
H04W4/40	Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]	H04W	In the scheme	86,299
H04L5/0023	Time-frequency-space	H04L5/00	In the scheme	82,843
H04W4/06	Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services	H04W	In the scheme	79,364
H04B7/0617	Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal for beam forming	H04B7/00	In the scheme	78,492
H04W48/18	Selecting a network or a communication service	H04W	In the scheme	77,686
H04W12/08	Access security	H04W	In the scheme	75,693
H04W76/15	Setup of multiple wireless link connections	H04W	In the scheme	73,060
H04W16/14	Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks	H04W	In the scheme	70,944
H04W4/021	Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences	H04W	In the scheme	67,810
H04W72/542	Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using measured or perceived quality	H04W	In the scheme	67,019
H04W4/023	Services making use of location information using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds	H04W	In the scheme	66,453
H04W92/18	Interfaces between hierarchically similar devices between terminal devices	H04W	In the scheme	66,107
H04W4/12	Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements	H04W	In the scheme	65,387
H04W72/1268	Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows of uplink data flows	H04W	In the scheme	63,829
H04W8/005	Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals	H04W	In the scheme	62,661
H04B7/0413	MIMO systems	H04B7/00	In the scheme	61,949
H04B7/0626	Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]	H04B7/00	In the scheme	60,411
H04W76/11	Allocation or use of connection identifiers	H04W	In the scheme	60,170
H04W52/0216	Power saving arrangements in terminal devices managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is leader and terminal is follower using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame	H04W	In the scheme	60,087
H04W36/08	Reselecting an access point	H04W	In the scheme	58,720
H04W28/06	Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing, discarding information	H04W	In the scheme	58,403
H04W48/08	Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery	H04W	In the scheme	57,958
H04W76/28	Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]	H04W	In the scheme	57,927
H04W48/12	Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery using downlink control channel	H04W	In the scheme	56,800
H04W56/001	Synchronization between nodes	H04W	In the scheme	56,744
H04W72/02	Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal	H04W	In the scheme	55,380
H04W72/12	Wireless traffic scheduling	H04W	In the scheme	55,355
H04L5/0091	Signalling for the administration of the divided path, e.g. signalling of configuration information	H04L5/00	In the scheme	54,996
H04W72/232	Control channels or signalling for resource management in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal the control data signalling from the physical layer, e.g. DCI signalling	H04W	In the scheme	54,693
H04W16/28	Cell structures using beam steering	H04W	In the scheme	54,065
H04W88/04	Terminal devices adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user	H04W	In the scheme	53,583
H04W8/26	Network addressing or numbering for mobility support	H04W	In the scheme	51,517
H04W8/24	Transfer of terminal data	H04W	In the scheme	51,075
H04W48/20	Selecting an access point	H04W	In the scheme	51,035
H04W24/00	Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements	H04W	In the scheme	50,194
H04W4/90	Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]	H04W	In the scheme	48,904
H04W72/541	Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using the level of interference	H04W	In the scheme	47,854
H04W24/04	Arrangements for maintaining operational condition	H04W	In the scheme	47,197
H04W4/38	Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes for collecting sensor information	H04W	In the scheme	46,825
H04W52/146	Uplink power control	H04W	In the scheme	46,729
H04W74/0808	Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]	H04W	In the scheme	46,563
H04W72/30	Resource management for broadcast services	H04W	In the scheme	45,970
H04B7/0456	Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting	H04B7/00	In the scheme	45,774
H04L5/14	Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex	H04L5/00	In the scheme	44,995
H04W52/0229	Power saving arrangements in terminal devices using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal where the received signal is a wanted signal	H04W	In the scheme	44,583
H04W84/042	Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems	H04W	In the scheme	44,130
H04W74/006	Transmission of channel access control information in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal	H04W	In the scheme	43,994
H04W72/51	Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on terminal or device properties	H04W	In the scheme	43,696
H04L5/005	Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals	H04L5/00	In the scheme	43,595
H04W4/14	Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]	H04W	In the scheme	43,457
H04L5/0057	Physical resource allocation for CQI	H04L5/00	In the scheme	43,093
H04W74/002	Transmission of channel access control information	H04W	In the scheme	42,660
H04W12/02	Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]	H04W	In the scheme	42,282
H04W72/046	Wireless resource allocation based on the type of the allocated resource the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams	H04W	In the scheme	42,238
H04W76/19	Connection re-establishment	H04W	In the scheme	40,963
H04W4/44	Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]	H04W	In the scheme	40,940
H04L5/00	Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path	H04L5/00	In the scheme	40,350
H04W8/18	Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data	H04W	In the scheme	40,325
H04W28/18	Negotiating wireless communication parameters	H04W	In the scheme	39,776
H04W12/04	Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]	H04W	In the scheme	39,448
H04W4/24	Accounting or billing	H04W	In the scheme	39,305
H04W80/02	Data link layer protocols	H04W	In the scheme	38,888
H04W56/00	Synchronisation arrangements	H04W	In the scheme	38,388
H04W48/10	Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery using broadcasted information	H04W	In the scheme	37,764
H04W4/50	Service provisioning or reconfiguring	H04W	In the scheme	37,456
H04W72/1263	Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows	H04W	In the scheme	37,368
H04W76/12	Setup of transport tunnels	H04W	In the scheme	37,195
H04W88/16	Gateway arrangements	H04W	In the scheme	37,175
H04W60/00	Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration	H04W	In the scheme	37,059
H04W8/22	Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities	H04W	In the scheme	36,927
H04W72/231	Control channels or signalling for resource management in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal the control data signalling from the layers above the physical layer, e.g. RRC or MAC-CE signalling	H04W	In the scheme	36,812
H04W72/56	Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on priority criteria	H04W	In the scheme	36,197
H04W72/1273	Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows of downlink data flows	H04W	In the scheme	35,640
H04W8/04	Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]	H04W	In the scheme	35,526
H04W68/02	Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel	H04W	In the scheme	35,444
H04L5/0092	Indication of how the channel is divided	H04L5/00	In the scheme	35,417
H04W72/044	Wireless resource allocation based on the type of the allocated resource	H04W	In the scheme	35,175
H04B7/024	Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems	H04B7/00	In the scheme	34,889
H04W12/069	Authentication using certificates or pre-shared keys	H04W	In the scheme	34,587
H04L5/0035	Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment	H04L5/00	In the scheme	34,344
H04W52/367	Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range	H04W	In the scheme	34,270
H04W76/20	Manipulation of established connections	H04W	In the scheme	33,850
H04B7/0639	Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection	H04B7/00	In the scheme	33,453
H04W74/0816	Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA] with collision avoidance	H04W	In the scheme	33,267
H04W56/0015	Synchronization between nodes one node acting as a reference for the others	H04W	In the scheme	33,208
H04B7/0452	Multi-user MIMO systems	H04B7/00	In the scheme	32,475
H04W84/045	Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B	H04W	In the scheme	32,320
H04W72/54	Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria	H04W	In the scheme	32,277
H04W28/0268	Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR]	H04W	In the scheme	32,275
H04W28/04	Error control	H04W	In the scheme	32,191
H04W74/08	Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA	H04W	In the scheme	31,979
H04B7/088	Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and combining using beam selection	H04B7/00	In the scheme	31,872
H04W4/08	User group management	H04W	In the scheme	31,832
H04W72/042	Retired code	H04W	Retired, by main group	31,658
H04W80/04	Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]	H04W	In the scheme	31,230
H04W84/06	Airborne or Satellite Networks	H04W	In the scheme	31,219
H04W88/085	Access point devices with remote components	H04W	In the scheme	30,667
H04W4/025	Services making use of location information using location based information parameters	H04W	In the scheme	30,486
H04W64/006	Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination	H04W	In the scheme	30,477
H04W76/30	Connection release	H04W	In the scheme	29,737
H04B7/0632	Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]	H04B7/00	In the scheme	29,017
H04W4/00	Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor	H04W	In the scheme	28,932
H04W68/00	User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like	H04W	In the scheme	28,701
H04L5/0064	Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority	H04L5/00	In the scheme	28,578
H04W76/18	Management of setup rejection or failure	H04W	In the scheme	28,369
H04B7/0417	Feedback systems	H04B7/00	In the scheme	28,354
H04L5/1469	Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex using time-sharing	H04L5/00	In the scheme	28,187
H04W4/16	Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold	H04W	In the scheme	28,145
H04W72/25	Control channels or signalling for resource management between terminals via a wireless link, e.g. sidelink	H04W	In the scheme	28,037
H04W92/20	Interfaces between hierarchically similar devices between access points	H04W	In the scheme	27,949
H04L5/0098	Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands	H04L5/00	In the scheme	27,795
H04L5/0037	Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation	H04L5/00	In the scheme	27,601
H04W8/183	Processing at user equipment or user record carrier	H04W	In the scheme	27,417
H04W74/004	Transmission of channel access control information in the uplink, i.e. towards network	H04W	In the scheme	27,340
H04W52/02	Power saving arrangements	H04W	In the scheme	27,294
H04W40/02	Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing	H04W	In the scheme	27,292
H04W16/18	Network planning tools	H04W	In the scheme	27,204

Match: Direct

The capability is itself a technology or a kind of physical system, and the classification names it. Deliberately broad; overlaps the advanced wireless group in Critical Technology. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Mobile & Wireless Networks

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Applicants

Global

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

Sweden

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Crosswalk

Other capabilities in Communications & Digital Infrastructure