- International families
- 1,2582015 to 2024
- Leading country
- United States1.8× the next
- All families
- 4,001home 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
United States
China
United Kingdom
France
Japan
South Korea
Germany
Sweden
Norway
Netherlands
335
189
129
117
83
74
59
52
41
31
| 2000 to 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 335 | 26.6% | 1.5× | 454 | |
| 2 | China | 189 | 15.0% | 2.4× | 2,506 | |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 129 | 10.3% | 1.1× | 152 | |
| 4 | France | 117 | 9.3% | 1.3× | 120 | |
| 5 | Japan | 83 | 6.6% | 1.4× | 146 | |
| 6 | South Korea | 74 | 5.9% | 1.6× | 237 | |
| 7 | Germany | 59 | 4.7% | 0.6× | 63 | |
| 8 | Sweden | 52 | 4.1% | 4.2× | 59 | |
| 9 | Norway | 41 | 3.3% | 1.9× | 50 | |
| 10 | Netherlands | 31 | 2.5% | 0.4× | 36 | |
| 11 | Italy | 27 | 2.1% | 1.5× | 29 | |
| 12 | Denmark | 25 | 2.0% | 1.1× | 27 | |
| 13 | Belgium | 15 | 1.2% | 1.1× | 16 | |
| 14 | Taiwan | 12 | 1.0% | 3.0× | 17 | |
| 15 | Switzerland | 12 | 1.0% | 0.5× | 15 | |
| 16 | Finland | 10 | 0.8% | 2.3× | 10 | |
| 17 | Spain | 10 | 0.8% | 1.0× | 10 | |
| 18 | Israel | 7 | 0.6% | 0.8× | 10 | |
| 19 | Australia | 6 | 0.5% | 0.2× | 6 | |
| 20 | Brazil | 6 | 0.5% | 5.0× | 7 | |
| 21 | Canada | 5 | 0.4% | 0.0× | 6 | |
| 22 | Austria | 4 | 0.3% | 1.0× | 4 | |
| 23 | Ireland | 2 | 0.2% | 1.0× | 3 | |
| 24 | India | 1 | 0.1% | 0.0× | 2 | |
| 25 | Singapore | 1 | 0.1% | – | 1 | |
| 26 | Türkiye | 1 | 0.1% | – | 1 | |
| 27 | South Africa | 1 | 0.1% | – | 1 | |
| 28 | Russia | 0 | 0.0% | – | 4 | |
| 29 | Poland | 0 | 0.0% | – | 1 | |
| 30 | Hong Kong | 0 | 0.0% | – | 2 | |
| 31 | New Zealand | 0 | 0.0% | – | 1 | |
| 32 | Mexico | 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 Subsea Cables & International Gateways. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.
Global
1,258 international families
HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS LLC · United States
NEXANS · France
NKT HV CABLES AB · Sweden
ZHONGTIAN TECH SUBMARINE CABLE CO LTD · China
ZHONGTIAN TECHNOLOGY SUBMARINE CABLES CO LTD · China
LS CABLE & SYSTEM LTD · South Korea
82
60
47
47
46
30
United States
335 international families
HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS LLC
VIASAT INC
QUALCOMM INC
KRATOS INTEGRAL HOLDINGS LLC
KYMETA CORP
SUBCOM LLC
82
30
26
11
11
8
China
189 international families
ZHONGTIAN TECH SUBMARINE CABLE CO LTD
ZHONGTIAN TECHNOLOGY SUBMARINE CABLES CO LTD
JIANGSU ZHONGTIAN TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
SOUTH SEA SUBMARINE CABLE CO LTD
ZHONGTIAN DAFENG SUBMARINE CABLES CO LTD
47
46
28
25
19
18
United Kingdom
129 international families
TECHNIP UK LTD
ADVANCED INNERGY LTD
ADVANCED INSULATION LTD
MAATS TECH LTD
SOIL MACHINE DYNAMICS LTD
BALMORAL COMTEC LTD
15
9
8
7
7
5
France
117 international families
NEXANS
THALES SA
TECHNIPFMC SUBSEA FRANCE
EUTELSAT SA
Technip N Power SAS
ESA
60
20
5
4
4
3
Japan
83 international families
NEC CORP
SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES
NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP
NEC PLATFORMS LTD
SHARP KK
21
11
10
7
5
4
Similar capabilities
The nine capabilities that share the most international patent families with Subsea Cables & International Gateways, 2015 to 2024: the families counted in both as a share of those counted in either. Each card shows its five largest countries.
Strategic Infrastructure
Ground Segment & Tracking
17.0% shared · 519 families in both
United States
China
Japan
South Korea
France
738
578
300
153
115
National Security
Space Support to Operations
6.1% shared · 519 families in both
United States
China
Japan
South Korea
France
2,402
2,136
706
480
437
Critical Technology
Satellite & Constellation Technologies
5.1% shared · 519 families in both
United States
China
Japan
France
South Korea
2,984
2,248
933
651
508
Strategic Infrastructure
Satellites & Orbital Systems
4.9% shared · 511 families in both
United States
China
Japan
France
South Korea
3,071
2,252
925
693
509
Strategic Infrastructure
Transmission & Distribution
1.7% shared · 534 families in both
Japan
United States
Germany
China
Switzerland
6,370
4,752
4,565
3,876
2,155
Strategic Infrastructure
Storage, Transport & Export
1.4% shared · 114 families in both
United States
France
Japan
China
South Korea
1,149
1,029
876
701
523
National Security
Space Domain Awareness & Control
0.9% shared · 16 families in both
Japan
United States
France
Germany
China
145
123
41
26
21
Strategic Infrastructure
Oil & Gas Extraction
0.5% shared · 183 families in both
United States
China
Saudi Arabia
France
Norway
17,083
4,363
2,572
1,718
1,707
Strategic Infrastructure
Seaports & Terminals
0.4% shared · 22 families in both
China
Japan
United States
France
South Korea
482
422
420
416
286
Crosswalk
How Subsea Cables & International Gateways is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H01B7/14 | Submarine cables | Submarine cables | 2 | 1 | 5,892 |
| H02G1/10 | Methods or apparatus specially adapted for installing, maintaining, repairing or dismantling electric cables or lines for laying cables, e.g. laying apparatus on vehicle in or under water | Laying cables in or under water | 1 | 1 | 6,277 |
| B63B35/04 | Cable-laying vessels | Cable-laying vessels | 2 | 2 | 1,882 |
| G02B6/4427 | Pressure resistant cables, e.g. undersea cables | Pressure-resistant and undersea optical cables | 2 | none | 6,014 |
| G02B6/506 | Underwater installation | Underwater installation of optical cables | 1 | none | 737 |
| H04B7/18517 | Transmission equipment in earth stations | Transmission equipment in satellite earth stations | 1 | none | 7,449 |
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 Subsea Cables & International Gateways: 9 codes on 24,676 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.
| Code | Title | Under entry | How placed | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H04B7/18517 | Transmission equipment in earth stations | H04B7/18517 | In the scheme | 7,449 |
| H02G1/10 | Methods or apparatus specially adapted for installing, maintaining, repairing or dismantling electric cables or lines for laying cables, e.g. laying apparatus on vehicle in or under water | H02G1/10 | In the scheme | 4,998 |
| H01B7/14 | Submarine cables | H01B7/14 | In the scheme | 3,899 |
| G02B6/4427 | Pressure resistant cables, e.g. undersea cables | G02B6/4427 | In the scheme | 3,871 |
| G02B6/4428 | Penetrator systems in pressure-resistant devices | G02B6/4427 | In the scheme | 2,143 |
| B63B35/04 | Cable-laying vessels | B63B35/04 | In the scheme | 1,369 |
| G02B6/506 | Underwater installation | G02B6/506 | In the scheme | 737 |
| H01B7/145 | Submarine cables associated with hydrodynamic bodies | H01B7/14 | In the scheme | 128 |
| B63B35/06 | Cable-laying vessels for moving cable-ends from ship to shore | B63B35/04 | In the scheme | 82 |