PlainPatent

CPC technology class · H04

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks

Wireless communication networks. 236,882 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.

236,882
US patents granted
H04
Parent CPC class
20
Active assignees
+29%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

Wireless Communication Networks ranks #3 of 670 CPC technology areas - 236,882 US patents granted since 2015, with filing up 29% over five years.

#3
of 670 CPC technology areas
236,882
US patents granted, 2015–2025
Qualcomm Incorporated
leading assignee (17,987)
+29%
filing velocity, last 5 yrs
Top assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated (17,987 patents)

CPC subclass H04W - WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS - covers 236,882 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records, within the broader CPC class H04 (ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE). See our CPC classification guide for how the system works.

The competitive landscape in H04W is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. Qualcomm Incorporated leads with 17,987 patents, followed by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. at 11,683 grants and LG Electronics Inc. at 11,202.

Filing activity in H04W is up 29% over the past five years versus 2015-2019, a sharp acceleration suggesting an emerging or fast-moving technology area. All counts come directly from USPTO PatentsView and reflect US granted utility patents only.

Is H04W innovation accelerating?

US utility-patent grants per year in H04W, 2015–2025 - recent five years are up 29% versus 2015–2019.

16,00018,00020,00022,00024,00026,000 20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 16,962

Who leads H04W?

The 12 most active assignees in WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS - wider bars mean more grants

patents

What this shows Qualcomm Incorporated is the most active filer in H04W, holding 17,987 of the 236,882 patents in this class. Concentration at the top signals how contestable this technology area is for new entrants.

Source USPTO PatentsView, granted utility patents As of 2015–2025 grant years
View data table
Top patent holders in CPC subclass H04W
Rank Company Patents in H04W
#1 Qualcomm Incorporated 17,987
#2 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 11,683
#3 LG Electronics Inc. 11,202
#4 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 10,885
#5 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) 10,282
#6 Apple Inc. 6,306
#7 AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.p. 3,725
#8 Intel Corporation 3,691
#9 SONY Group Corporation 3,622
#10 International Business Machines Corporation 3,257
#11 Nokia Technologies OY 2,593
#12 ZTE Corporation 2,546
#13 Cisco Technology, Inc. 2,433
#14 NEC Corporation 2,314
#15 Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. 2,279
#16 Google Llc 2,256
#17 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. 2,164
#18 Blackberry Limited 1,909
#19 T-mobile USA, Inc. 1,852
#20 NTT Docomo, Inc. 1,797

About This Class

CPC subclass H04W belongs to class H04.

236,882 patents were granted in this class between 2015 and 2025.

20 companies actively patent in this space.

Classification System

Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system used by the USPTO and EPO.

← All Technology Classes Technology Rankings →

Footprint here vs. claim strategy

Each dot is a leading H04W assignee, placed by how many patents it holds in this class (horizontal) against its company-wide average claims per patent (vertical) - a read on whether the class is led by broad-but-shallow filers or focused deep-claim players.

Top 14 H04W assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in H04W. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Top 14 H04W assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in H04W. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes). Scatter plot of 14 data points (bubble-sized by third dimension). 1015202530 05000100001500020000 Patents in H04W Avg claims / patent (company-wide) Qualcomm IncorporatedSamsungLgHuaweiTelefonaktiebolaget L…AppleAt&T Intellectual Pro…IntelSony GroupInternational Busines…Nokia OyZteCisco TechnologyNec
Top 14 H04W assignees by class footprint. Bubble size = patents in H04W. Source: USPTO PatentsView (claim depth is company-wide across all classes).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPC class H04W?
CPC subclass H04W covers WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. It belongs to CPC class H04 (ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE), with 236,882 US utility patents granted since 2015.
How many patents have been filed in H04W?
236,882 US utility patents were granted in CPC subclass H04W between 2015 and 2025, based on USPTO PatentsView data.
Which company holds the most patents in H04W?
Qualcomm Incorporated leads H04W with 17,987 patents, making it the most active assignee in this technology area.
How is patent data for H04W collected?
Patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It covers all US granted utility patents and assigns CPC codes based on the technology described in each patent.
What is the difference between CPC class and subclass?
A CPC class (e.g., H04) is a broad technology category. Subclasses like H04W provide finer granularity within that category. PlainPatent organizes data at the subclass level (4-character codes) for the most useful view of technology domains.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView - official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent Editorial

Every figure on PlainPatent is rendered directly from USPTO source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on USPTO source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.