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 grant trajectory.

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

236,882
US patents granted: #2/12
in H04: 23.0%
H04 class share: +12%
5-yr velocity

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Wireless Communication Networks ranks #3 of 670 CPC technology areas - 236,882 US patents granted since 2015, with recorded grant volume up 12% over five years.

#3
of 670 CPC technology areas: 236,882
US patents granted, 2015–2025: Qualcomm Incorporated
leading assignee (17,987): +12%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

How H04W's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, H04W recorded 114,000 grants versus 101,375 in 2015–2019 (+12% equal-window velocity). Across complete years, output peaked in 2020 at 24,058 grants and bottomed in 2015 at 17,009 (+41% peak-over-trough). Lead assignee Qualcomm Incorporated holds 7.6% of the class ; the top three share 17.3%.

Leaderboard read

H04W concentration, lead at 7.6%

Qualcomm Incorporated leads this historical grant record at 7.6% of H04W - us corporation assignees hold 50% of class grants (111,661 of 221,160). Figures describe granted US utility patents in this CPC subclass, not current investment or legal strength.

Leader's share: 7.6%
Top three share: 17.3%
Lead over #2: 6,304

Where H04W sits inside H04

Among 12 subclasses in H04 (Electric Communication Technique), H04W ranks #2 and holds 23.0% of the parent class's 1,028,415 recorded grants. Sibling chips below are the other subclasses in the same parent class, not the nationwide volume/lead-share peers further down.

H04L 373,517 H04N 191,323 H04B 101,407 H04M 49,631 H04R 33,502 H04J 16,888 H04Q 10,225 H04S 7,918

Rising assignees active in H04W

Company-wide grant multiples (2022–2024 vs 2019–2021) among assignees with ≥5 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide; class patent counts are subclass-specific.

#1 Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC 1285x 0 → 1,285 company-wide · 90 in H04W
#2 Kyndryl, Inc. 478x 0 → 478 company-wide · 35 in H04W
#3 Meta Platforms, Inc. 376x 2 → 751 company-wide · 89 in H04W
#4 Block, Inc. 345x 1 → 345 company-wide · 30 in H04W
#5 Salesforce, Inc. 334x 3 → 1,001 company-wide · 46 in H04W

H04W grants by year, peak 2020 (24,058)

US utility-patent grants per year in H04W, 2015–2025 - recent five years are up 12% versus 2015–2019.

Qualcomm Incorporated

17,987
Samsung

11,683
Lg

11,202
Huawei

10,885
Telefonaktiebolaget…

10,282
Apple

6,306
At&T Intellectual…

3,725
Intel

3,691
Sony Group

3,622
International…

3,257
Nokia Oy

2,593
Zte

2,546

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.

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

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).

Classes near H04W's 236,882-grant footprint

Nationwide nearest neighbors for H04W (#3 of 670 by volume ; lead share 7.6%) - not the H04 parent-class siblings above.

Nearest by grant volume

H04N 191,323 H01L 165,178 A61B 162,009 A61K 151,067

Nearest by lead-assignee share

B60R 7.6% G03H 7.6% B21B 7.7% F01P 7.5%

Questions about H04W

Which company holds the most patents in H04W?

Qualcomm Incorporated leads H04W with 17,987 patents (7.6% of the subclass). By PatentsView assignee type, us corporations account for 50% of class grants.

Which H04W assignees grew fastest recently?

Among assignees with ≥5 grants in H04W, Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC shows the highest company-wide grant multiple (1285x: 0 grants in 2019–2021 → 1,285 in 2022–2024) while holding 90 patents in this subclass. Growth is company-wide, not class-only.

How does H04W compare inside parent class H04?

Inside H04 (Electric Communication Technique), H04W ranks #2 of 12 subclasses by grant volume and holds 23.0% of the parent class total. The largest sibling is H04L (373,517 grants).

What to do with this data

H04W in context - here's where to go next.

Qualcomm Incorporated leads H04W with 17,987 grants in this class. See full portfolio
H04W ranks #3 of 670 by grant volume among all tracked CPC technology areas. See the ranking
Inside parent class H04, the largest sibling subclass is H04L with 373,517 grants. Explore H04L

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through 2026-05-15; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Methodology - H04W figures are USPTO PatentsView granted-utility totals for this subclass (236,882 grants in the tracked window).

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.