Critical Technology

Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks

The capacity to keep and distribute time at precision, atomic clocks, timing networks and the national time base on which navigation, communications, finance and power all silently depend. One of the capabilities of Sensing, Timing & Navigation.

International families: 2,8772015 to 2024
Leading country: China1.4× the next
All families: 10khome filings included
Over five years: Steady2020 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

Germany

South Korea

Sweden

France

Taiwan

Finland

United Kingdom

821

600

514

206

113


1	China	821	28.5%	1.3×	7,210
2	United States	600	20.9%	1.0×	1,087
3	Japan	514	17.9%	0.7×	718
4	Germany	206	7.2%	1.0×	256
5	South Korea	113	3.9%	0.7×	297
6	Sweden	97	3.4%	1.2×	97
7	France	79	2.7%	0.7×	89
8	Taiwan	79	2.7%	1.0×	85
9	Finland	53	1.8%	1.4×	58
10	United Kingdom	43	1.5%	0.9×	56
11	Israel	38	1.3%	3.2×	79
12	Switzerland	37	1.3%	1.1×	44
13	Netherlands	28	1.0%	0.4×	33
14	Austria	25	0.9%	1.8×	25
15	Singapore	25	0.9%	4.0×	41
16	Canada	24	0.8%	1.2×	42
17	India	14	0.5%	13×	17
18	Italy	12	0.4%	0.7×	13
19	Australia	11	0.4%	0.8×	14
20	Belgium	6	0.2%	2.0×	6
21	Norway	6	0.2%	0.5×	7
22	Ireland	6	0.2%	2.0×	7
23	Spain	5	0.2%	–	6
24	Cayman Islands	4	0.1%	0.3×	6
25	Denmark	3	0.1%	–	3
26	Türkiye	3	0.1%	0.5×	4
27	Hong Kong	3	0.1%	2.0×	5
28	Luxembourg	2	0.1%	0.0×	2
29	Malaysia	2	0.1%	–	2
30	Poland	1	0.0%	0.0×	2
31	New Zealand	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
32	Liechtenstein	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
33	Russia	0	0.0%	–	22
34	Saudi Arabia	0	0.0%	–	1
35	Czechia	0	0.0%	–	1

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 Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

2,877 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD · China

ZTE CORP · China

SEIKO EPSON CORP · Japan

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M · Sweden

QUALCOMM INC · United States

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP · Japan

296

114

China

821 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

ZTE CORP

SANECHIPS TECH CO LTD

CHINA MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP CO LTD

RES INST CHINA MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS CORP

CHINA MOBILE COMM CO LTD RES INST

294

114

United States

600 international families

QUALCOMM INC

INTEL CORP

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC

HONEYWELL INT INC

MICROCHIP TECH INC

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS JAPAN LTD

Japan

514 international families

SEIKO EPSON CORP

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP

NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE

CANON KK

NEC CORP

TOSHIBA KK

Germany

206 international families

BOSCH GMBH ROBERT

SIEMENS AG

CONTINENTAL AUTOMOTIVE TECH GMBH

BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE AG

ADVA OPTICAL NETWORKING SE

CONTINENTAL AUTOMOTIVE GMBH

South Korea

113 international families

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST

SOLID INC

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

KIA MOTORS CORP

KOREA ADVANCED INST SCI & TECH

Similar capabilities

The nine capabilities that share the most international patent families with Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks, 2015 to 2024: the families counted in both as a share of those counted in either. Each card shows its five largest countries.

0.4% shared · 21 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

416

252

215

195

177

Crosswalk

How Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 35 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
G04F5/14	Apparatus for producing preselected time intervals for use as timing standards using atomic clocks	Atomic clocks	2	1	4,667
H03L7/26	Automatic control of frequency or phase; Synchronisation using energy levels of molecules, atoms, or subatomic particles as a frequency reference	Atomic frequency standards	1	1	4,361
H01S1/00	Masers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range	Masers	5	4	5,933
H04J3/0635	Clock or time synchronisation in a network	Clock and time synchronisation across networks	22	1	77,562
G04G7/00	Synchronisation	Synchronisation of electronic timepieces	5	2	4,798

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 Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks: 35 codes on 92,338 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
H04J3/0667	Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	11,907
H04J3/0682	Clock or time synchronisation in a network by delay compensation, e.g. by compensation of propagation delay or variations thereof, by ranging	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	9,354
H04J3/0638	Clock or time synchronisation among nodes; Internode synchronisation	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	9,018
H04J3/0685	Clock or time synchronisation in a node; Intranode synchronisation	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	5,471
H04J3/0658	Clock or time synchronisation among packet nodes	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	5,261
H04J3/0641	Change of the master or reference, e.g. take-over or failure of the master	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	4,428
H04J3/0661	Clock or time synchronisation among packet nodes using timestamps	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	4,169
H04J3/0644	External master-clock	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	3,543
H04J3/0697	Synchronisation in a packet node	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	3,478
H03L7/26	Automatic control of frequency or phase; Synchronisation using energy levels of molecules, atoms, or subatomic particles as a frequency reference	H03L7/26	In the scheme	3,376
G04F5/14	Apparatus for producing preselected time intervals for use as timing standards using atomic clocks	G04F5/14	In the scheme	3,318
H04J3/0664	Clock or time synchronisation among packet nodes using timestamps unidirectional timestamps	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	3,309
H04J3/0688	Change of the master or reference, e.g. take-over or failure of the master	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	2,827
G04G7/00	Synchronisation	G04G7/00	In the scheme	2,346
H04J3/0635	Clock or time synchronisation in a network	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	2,180
H04J3/0673	Clock or time synchronisation among packet nodes using intermediate nodes, e.g. modification of a received timestamp before further transmission to the next packet node, e.g. including internal delay time or residence time into the packet	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	2,075
H04J3/0652	Synchronisation among time division multiple access [TDMA] nodes, e.g. time triggered protocol [TTP]	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,937
H01S1/02	Masers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range solid	H01S1/00	In the scheme	1,866
H04J3/0655	Synchronisation among time division multiple access [TDMA] nodes, e.g. time triggered protocol [TTP] using timestamps	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,572
H04J3/0647	Synchronisation among TDM nodes	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,494
G04F5/145	Apparatus for producing preselected time intervals for use as timing standards using atomic clocks using Coherent Population Trapping	G04F5/14	In the scheme	1,349
H04J3/065	Synchronisation among TDM nodes using timestamps	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,202
H04J3/0676	Mutual	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,178
H04J3/0679	Clock or time synchronisation in a network by determining clock distribution path in a network	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	1,122
H04J3/0691	Synchronisation in a TDM node	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	970
G04G7/02	Synchronisation by radio	G04G7/00	In the scheme	905
H01S1/06	Gaseous, i.e. beam masers	H01S1/00	In the scheme	733
H04J3/067	Details of the timestamp structure	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	622
H01S1/00	Masers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range	H01S1/00	In the scheme	448
H04J3/0694	Synchronisation in a TDMA node, e.g. TTP	H04J3/0635	In the scheme	445
H01S1/005	Masers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range using a relativistic beam of charged particles, e.g. electron cyclotron maser, gyrotron	H01S1/00	In the scheme	157
G04G7/005	Synchronisation provided with arrangements to prevent synchronisation by interfering signals	G04G7/00	In the scheme	97
G04G7/026	Synchronisation by radio the time-piece preparing itself on set times on the reception of the synchronising signal	G04G7/00	In the scheme	77
H01S1/04	Masers, i.e. devices using stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range liquid	H01S1/00	In the scheme	63
G04G7/023	Synchronisation by radio provided with arrangements to prevent synchronisation by interfering signals	G04G7/00	In the scheme	41

Match: Direct

The capability is itself a technology or a kind of physical system, and the classification names it. Network time synchronisation is CPC only; in IPC it sits inside H04J3/06 with frame synchronisation. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks

Year by year

Volume

Share by country

Country leaderboard

Ten largest

Applicants

Global

China

United States

Japan

Germany

South Korea

Similar capabilities

Crosswalk

Other capabilities in Sensing, Timing & Navigation