National Security

Imagery & Geospatial Intelligence

The capacity to collect and exploit imagery and geospatial information about security-related activity on and above the surface of the earth. One of the capabilities of Intelligence & Assessment.

International families: 4,9152015 to 2024
Leading country: United States1.1× the next
All families: 30khome filings included
Over five years: Falling2020 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

Japan

Germany

South Korea

France

Taiwan

Canada

United Kingdom

Switzerland

963

914

891

665

209

182

149

105


1	United States	963	19.6%	0.7×	1,875
2	China	914	18.6%	1.1×	22,295
3	Japan	891	18.1%	0.8×	1,277
4	Germany	665	13.5%	0.7×	1,154
5	South Korea	209	4.3%	1.0×	1,280
6	France	182	3.7%	0.8×	234
7	Taiwan	149	3.0%	0.4×	307
8	Canada	105	2.1%	1.5×	132
9	United Kingdom	91	1.9%	0.6×	123
10	Switzerland	84	1.7%	1.0×	95
11	Finland	71	1.4%	2.4×	83
12	Israel	70	1.4%	0.8×	86
13	Sweden	57	1.2%	1.0×	62
14	Australia	56	1.1%	0.8×	68
15	India	48	1.0%	2.7×	58
16	Italy	45	0.9%	1.0×	62
17	Netherlands	41	0.8%	1.2×	64
18	Austria	40	0.8%	0.8×	48
19	Spain	24	0.5%	0.8×	30
20	Russia	21	0.4%	1.3×	172
21	Ireland	21	0.4%	0.6×	32
22	Singapore	17	0.3%	0.9×	20
23	Saudi Arabia	17	0.3%	1.1×	21
24	Türkiye	14	0.3%	1.8×	27
25	Norway	14	0.3%	1.3×	16
26	Denmark	12	0.2%	3.0×	13
27	Belgium	11	0.2%	1.2×	13
28	Brazil	9	0.2%	0.5×	20
29	New Zealand	7	0.1%	2.5×	8
30	Hong Kong	6	0.1%	0.5×	7
31	Luxembourg	6	0.1%	0.5×	7
32	South Africa	5	0.1%	4.0×	7
33	Liechtenstein	5	0.1%	4.0×	5
34	Poland	3	0.1%	0.5×	31
35	Portugal	3	0.1%	–	4
36	Malaysia	2	0.0%	1.0×	4
37	Hungary	2	0.0%	–	2
38	Mexico	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
39	Cayman Islands	0	0.0%	–	1
40	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 Imagery & Geospatial Intelligence. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

4,915 international families

SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO LTD · China

NEC CORP · Japan

BOSCH GMBH ROBERT · Germany

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP · Japan

TOPCON CORP · Japan

THALES SA · France

135

130

126

116

United States

963 international families

FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC

GM GLOBAL TECH OPERATIONS LLC

BOEING CO

MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

RAYTHEON CO

DEERE & CO

China

914 international families

SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO LTD

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

AUTEL ROBOTICS CO LTD

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCI & TECH CO LTD

INST ELECTRONICS CAS

SHENZHEN AUTEL INTELLIGENT AVIATION TECH CO LTD

133

Japan

891 international families

NEC CORP

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP

TOPCON CORP

TOYOTA MOTOR CO LTD

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP

SONY CORP

126

107

Germany

665 international families

BOSCH GMBH ROBERT

DEUTSCH ZENTR LUFT & RAUMFAHRT

ROBERT BOSCH CO LTD

VOLKSWAGEN AG

SIEMENS AG

FRAUNHOFER GES FORSCHUNG

125

South Korea

United States

Japan

South Korea

Germany

2,007

1,837

1,145

638

314

Crosswalk

How Imagery & Geospatial Intelligence is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 50 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
G06V20/13	Satellite images	Computer analysis of satellite images	1	1	25,697
G01S13/90	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for mapping or imaging using synthetic aperture techniques, e.g. synthetic aperture radar [SAR] techniques	Synthetic aperture radar imaging	25	1	33,452
G01C11/00	Photogrammetry or videogrammetry, e.g. stereogrammetry; Photographic surveying	Photogrammetry and aerial photographic survey	20	19	44,221
B64G1/1021	Earth observation satellites	Earth observation satellites	4	none	3,746

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 Imagery & Geospatial Intelligence: 50 codes on 101,922 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
G06V20/13	Satellite images	G06V20/13	In the scheme	25,697
G01C11/00	Photogrammetry or videogrammetry, e.g. stereogrammetry; Photographic surveying	G01C11/00	In the scheme	10,236
G01C11/02	Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures	G01C11/00	In the scheme	10,151
G01S13/90	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for mapping or imaging using synthetic aperture techniques, e.g. synthetic aperture radar [SAR] techniques	G01S13/90	In the scheme	7,816
G01C11/04	Interpretation of pictures	G01C11/00	In the scheme	5,517
G01C11/06	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area	G01C11/00	In the scheme	4,961
G01S13/9023	SAR image post-processing techniques combined with interferometric techniques	G01S13/90	In the scheme	3,663
G01C11/025	Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures by scanning the object	G01C11/00	In the scheme	3,162
G01S13/9021	SAR image post-processing techniques	G01S13/90	In the scheme	2,849
G01S13/904	SAR modes	G01S13/90	In the scheme	2,596
B64G1/1021	Earth observation satellites	B64G1/1021	In the scheme	2,205
G01S13/9027	Pattern recognition for feature extraction	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,828
G01S13/9029	SAR image post-processing techniques specially adapted for moving target detection within a single SAR image or within multiple SAR images taken at the same time	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,536
G01S13/9064	Inverse SAR [ISAR]	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,468
G01S13/9004	SAR image acquisition techniques	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,444
G01S13/9011	SAR image acquisition techniques with frequency domain processing of the SAR signals in azimuth	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,364
G01C11/36	Videogrammetry, i.e. electronic processing of video signals from a single source or from different sources to give parallax or range information	G01C11/00	In the scheme	1,355
G01S13/9058	Bistatic or multistatic SAR	G01S13/90	In the scheme	1,134
B64G1/1028	Earth observation satellites using optical means for mapping, surveying or detection, e.g. of intelligence	B64G1/1021	In the scheme	969
G01S13/9094	Theoretical aspects	G01S13/90	In the scheme	955
G01C11/30	Interpretation of pictures by triangulation	G01C11/00	In the scheme	927
G01S13/9019	Auto-focussing of the SAR signals	G01S13/90	In the scheme	918
G01C11/08	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures not being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken	G01C11/00	In the scheme	850
G01S13/9017	SAR image acquisition techniques with time domain processing of the SAR signals in azimuth	G01S13/90	In the scheme	811
G01S13/9076	Polarimetric features in SAR	G01S13/90	In the scheme	672
G01S13/9052	Spotlight mode	G01S13/90	In the scheme	602
G01C11/34	Aerial triangulation	G01C11/00	In the scheme	538
G01S13/9041	Squint mode	G01S13/90	In the scheme	529
G01S13/9054	Stripmap mode	G01S13/90	In the scheme	506
G01S13/9005	SAR image acquisition techniques with optical processing of the SAR signals	G01S13/90	In the scheme	493
G01S13/9056	Scan SAR mode	G01S13/90	In the scheme	406
G01S13/9082	Rotating SAR [ROSAR]	G01S13/90	In the scheme	403
G01C11/12	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken	G01C11/00	In the scheme	399
B64G1/1035	Earth observation satellites using radar for mapping, surveying or detection, e.g. of intelligence	B64G1/1021	In the scheme	387
G01S13/9092	SAR modes combined with monopulse techniques	G01S13/90	In the scheme	335
G01S13/9047	Doppler beam sharpening mode	G01S13/90	In the scheme	331
G01S13/9043	Forward-looking SAR	G01S13/90	In the scheme	328
G01S13/9088	Circular SAR [CSAR, C-SAR]	G01S13/90	In the scheme	325
G01C11/28	Special adaptation for recording picture point data, e.g. for profiles	G01C11/00	In the scheme	275
B64G1/1042	Earth observation satellites specifically adapted for meteorology	B64G1/1021	In the scheme	185
G01C11/14	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with optical projection	G01C11/00	In the scheme	183
G01C11/10	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures not being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken using computers to control the position of the pictures	G01C11/00	In the scheme	172
G01S13/9089	SAR having an irregular aperture	G01S13/90	In the scheme	140
G01C11/26	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken using computers to control the position of the pictures	G01C11/00	In the scheme	116
G01C11/16	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with optical projection in a common plane	G01C11/00	In the scheme	58
G01C11/18	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with optical projection in a common plane involving scanning means	G01C11/00	In the scheme	51
G01C11/32	Radial triangulation	G01C11/00	In the scheme	30
G01C11/24	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with optical-mechanical projection	G01C11/00	In the scheme	20
G01C11/22	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with mechanical projection	G01C11/00	In the scheme	17
G01C11/20	Interpretation of pictures by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area the pictures being supported in the same relative position as when they were taken with optical projection in separate planes	G01C11/00	In the scheme	9

Match: Through its tools

The classification names the equipment or technology the capability draws on, not the capability. The count says how much is being invented for it, not how well it is done. Mostly civilian remote sensing, mapping and surveying; the technology is the same whoever exploits the imagery, and the satellite entry is Cooperative-scheme only and also sits under Space Support to Operations. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Other capabilities in Intelligence & Assessment

Signals & Cyber Intelligence
Technical & Measurement Intelligence
Open-Source & Financial Intelligence
Human Intelligence & Counterintelligence
All-Source Analysis & Warning