National Security

Signals & Cyber Intelligence

The capacity to collect intelligence from communications, electronic emissions and computer networks. One of the capabilities of Intelligence & Assessment.

International families: 2,4242015 to 2024
Leading country: United States2.1× the next
All families: 9,255home 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

Japan

China

South Korea

Sweden

Germany

France

Finland

Israel

Netherlands

635

301

286

241

169

164

127


1	United States	635	26.2%	0.8×	1,305
2	Japan	301	12.4%	0.8×	521
3	China	286	11.8%	1.4×	5,104
4	South Korea	241	9.9%	1.2×	854
5	Sweden	169	7.0%	1.4×	171
6	Germany	164	6.8%	0.8×	220
7	France	127	5.2%	0.7×	153
8	Finland	80	3.3%	1.2×	87
9	Israel	64	2.6%	0.6×	91
10	Netherlands	57	2.4%	2.2×	62
11	United Kingdom	48	2.0%	0.8×	74
12	Taiwan	45	1.9%	0.7×	58
13	Canada	31	1.3%	0.3×	38
14	India	30	1.2%	0.5×	44
15	Switzerland	27	1.1%	0.9×	30
16	Türkiye	12	0.5%	1.4×	16
17	Italy	11	0.5%	1.8×	22
18	Singapore	11	0.5%	1.8×	13
19	Australia	9	0.4%	0.3×	13
20	Russia	8	0.3%	0.0×	273
21	Austria	7	0.3%	0.4×	10
22	Spain	7	0.3%	0.8×	10
23	Norway	5	0.2%	1.5×	5
24	Denmark	4	0.2%	0.0×	4
25	Ireland	4	0.2%	0.0×	8
26	Poland	4	0.2%	3.0×	6
27	Belgium	3	0.1%	0.5×	4
28	Hong Kong	3	0.1%	0.5×	3
29	South Africa	3	0.1%	0.5×	3
30	Cayman Islands	3	0.1%	0.0×	3
31	Portugal	3	0.1%	–	4
32	Brazil	1	0.0%	–	2
33	Luxembourg	1	0.0%	0.0×	2
34	Czechia	1	0.0%	–	2
35	Liechtenstein	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
36	Mexico	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
37	New Zealand	0	0.0%	–	1
38	Saudi Arabia	0	0.0%	–	4

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 Signals & Cyber Intelligence. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

2,424 international families

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M · Sweden

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD · South Korea

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD · China

QUALCOMM INC · United States

THALES SA · France

NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY · Finland

133

United States

635 international families

QUALCOMM INC

RAYTHEON CO

APPLE INC

BOEING CO

CISCO TECH INC

GM GLOBAL TECH OPERATIONS LLC

Japan

301 international families

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP

TOKAI RIKA CO LTD

DENSO CORP

TOSHIBA CORP

TOSHIBA KK

PANASONIC IP MAN CO LTD

China

286 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

ZTE CORP

BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO LTD

UNIV ZHEJIANG

PING AN TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP LTD

South Korea

241 international families

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

LG ELECTRONICS INC

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST

AGENCY DEFENSE DEV

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

KOREA INTERNET & SECURITY AGENCY

Sweden

United States

France

Germany

Japan

China

Critical Technology

Acoustic & Undersea Sensing

0.7% shared · 83 families in both

United States

Japan

Germany

China

South Korea

2,064

1,735

1,370

1,097

687

Strategic Infrastructure

Ground Segment & Tracking

0.7% shared · 31 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

France

738

578

300

153

115

Strategic Infrastructure

Spectrum & Broadcasting

0.6% shared · 86 families in both

United States

Japan

China

South Korea

Sweden

3,343

2,083

1,912

1,251

572

Crosswalk

How Signals & Cyber 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, 55 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
G01S3/02	Direction-finders for determining the direction from which infrasonic, sonic, ultrasonic or electromagnetic waves, or particle emission, not having a directional significance, are being received using radio waves	Radio direction finders for locating emitters	47	37	37,644
G01S7/021	Auxiliary means for detecting or identifying radar signals or the like, e.g. radar jamming signals	Detecting and identifying radar signals, as in radar warning receivers	2	none	6,665
H04L63/30	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information	Network support for lawful interception of communications	5	none	13,624
H04W12/80	Arrangements enabling lawful interception [LI]	Lawful interception in mobile networks	1	1	2,422

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 Signals & Cyber Intelligence: 55 codes on 60,355 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
G01S7/021	Auxiliary means for detecting or identifying radar signals or the like, e.g. radar jamming signals	G01S7/021	In the scheme	5,844
G01S3/14	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction	G01S3/02	In the scheme	5,397
H04L63/30	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information	H04L63/30	In the scheme	5,373
H04L63/306	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications	H04L63/30	In the scheme	4,409
G01S3/48	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems the waves arriving at the antennas being continuous or intermittent and the phase difference of signals derived therefrom being measured	G01S3/02	In the scheme	4,116
G01S3/46	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems	G01S3/02	In the scheme	3,452
G01S3/043	Receivers	G01S3/02	In the scheme	3,197
G01S3/74	Multi-channel systems specially adapted for direction-finding, i.e. having a single antenna system capable of giving simultaneous indications of the directions of different signals	G01S3/02	In the scheme	2,957
H04W12/80	Arrangements enabling lawful interception [LI]	H04W12/80	In the scheme	2,422
H04L63/302	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information gathering intelligence information for situation awareness or reconnaissance	H04L63/30	In the scheme	1,637
G01S3/023	Monitoring or calibrating	G01S3/02	In the scheme	1,630
H04L63/308	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information retaining data, e.g. retaining successful, unsuccessful communication attempts, internet access, or e-mail, internet telephony, intercept related information or call content	H04L63/30	In the scheme	1,529
G01S3/143	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction by vectorial combination of signals derived from differently oriented antennae	G01S3/02	In the scheme	1,446
G01S3/02	Direction-finders for determining the direction from which infrasonic, sonic, ultrasonic or electromagnetic waves, or particle emission, not having a directional significance, are being received using radio waves	G01S3/02	In the scheme	1,253
G01S3/42	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using adjustment of real or effective orientation of directivity characteristic of an antenna or an antenna system to give a desired condition of signal derived from that antenna or antenna system, e.g. to give a maximum or minimum signal the desired condition being maintained automatically	G01S3/02	In the scheme	1,140
G01S3/12	Means for determining sense of direction, e.g. by combining signals from directional antenna or goniometer search coil with those from non-directional antenna	G01S3/02	In the scheme	870
G01S3/28	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics	G01S3/02	In the scheme	862
G01S3/38	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using adjustment of real or effective orientation of directivity characteristic of an antenna or an antenna system to give a desired condition of signal derived from that antenna or antenna system, e.g. to give a maximum or minimum signal	G01S3/02	In the scheme	843
G01S7/022	Road traffic radar detectors	G01S7/021	In the scheme	821
G01S3/04	Details	G01S3/02	In the scheme	816
G01S3/16	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic	G01S3/02	In the scheme	789
G01S3/50	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems the waves arriving at the antennas being pulse modulated and the time difference of their arrival being measured	G01S3/02	In the scheme	701
H04L63/304	Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information intercepting circuit switched data communications	H04L63/30	In the scheme	676
G01S3/046	Displays or indicators	G01S3/02	In the scheme	645
G01S3/10	Means for reducing or compensating for quadrantal, site, or like errors	G01S3/02	In the scheme	621
G01S3/06	Means for increasing effective directivity, e.g. by combining signals having differently oriented directivity characteristics or by sharpening the envelope waveform of the signal derived from a rotating or oscillating beam antenna	G01S3/02	In the scheme	615
G01S3/30	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics derived directly from separate directional systems	G01S3/02	In the scheme	581
G01S3/72	Diversity systems specially adapted for direction-finding	G01S3/02	In the scheme	523
G01S3/32	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference	G01S3/02	In the scheme	495
G01S3/40	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using adjustment of real or effective orientation of directivity characteristic of an antenna or an antenna system to give a desired condition of signal derived from that antenna or antenna system, e.g. to give a maximum or minimum signal adjusting orientation of a single directivity characteristic to produce maximum or minimum signal, e.g. rotatable loop antenna or equivalent goniometer system	G01S3/02	In the scheme	483
G01S3/08	Means for reducing polarisation errors, e.g. by use of Adcock or spaced loop antenna systems	G01S3/02	In the scheme	422
G01S3/20	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic derived by sampling signal received by an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic	G01S3/02	In the scheme	353
G01S3/146	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction by comparing linear polarisation components	G01S3/02	In the scheme	326
G01S3/325	Automatic tracking systems	G01S3/02	In the scheme	310
G01S3/18	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic derived directly from separate directional antennas	G01S3/02	In the scheme	289
G01S3/52	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using a receiving antenna moving, or appearing to move, in a cyclic path to produce a Doppler variation of frequency of the received signal	G01S3/02	In the scheme	279
G01S3/54	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using a receiving antenna moving, or appearing to move, in a cyclic path to produce a Doppler variation of frequency of the received signal the apparent movement of the antenna being produced by coupling the receiver cyclically and sequentially to each of several fixed spaced antennas	G01S3/02	In the scheme	256
G01S3/065	Means for increasing effective directivity, e.g. by combining signals having differently oriented directivity characteristics or by sharpening the envelope waveform of the signal derived from a rotating or oscillating beam antenna by using non-directional aerial	G01S3/02	In the scheme	235
G01S3/44	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using adjustment of real or effective orientation of directivity characteristic of an antenna or an antenna system to give a desired condition of signal derived from that antenna or antenna system, e.g. to give a maximum or minimum signal the adjustment being varied periodically or continuously until it is halted automatically when the desired condition is attained	G01S3/02	In the scheme	223
G01S3/36	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference the separate antennas having differently-oriented directivity characteristics	G01S3/02	In the scheme	189
G01S3/22	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference	G01S3/02	In the scheme	187
G01S3/465	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems the waves arriving at the aerials being frequency modulated and the frequency difference of signals therefrom being measured	G01S3/02	In the scheme	181
G01S3/085	Means for reducing polarisation errors, e.g. by use of Adcock or spaced loop antenna systems by using spaced loop aerial systems	G01S3/02	In the scheme	144
G01S3/56	Conical-scan beam systems using signals indicative of the deviation of the direction of reception from the scan axis	G01S3/02	In the scheme	144
G01S3/58	Rotating or oscillating beam systems using continuous analysis of received signal for determining direction in the plane of rotation or oscillation or for determining deviation from a predetermined direction in such a plane	G01S3/02	In the scheme	138
G01S3/26	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference the separate antennas having differently-oriented directivity characteristics	G01S3/02	In the scheme	134
G01S3/026	Simulating means therefor	G01S3/02	In the scheme	94
G01S3/66	Narrow-beam systems producing in the receiver a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver; Overlapping broad-beam systems defining in the receiver a narrow zone and producing a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver	G01S3/02	In the scheme	85
G01S3/60	Broad-beam systems producing in the receiver a substantially sinusoidal envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the phase angle of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver, e.g. cardioid system	G01S3/02	In the scheme	63
G01S3/64	Broad-beam systems producing in the receiver a substantially sinusoidal envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the phase angle of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver, e.g. cardioid system wherein the phase angle of the signal is determined by phase comparison with a reference alternating signal varying in synchronism with the directivity variation	G01S3/02	In the scheme	43
G01S3/34	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference the separate antennas comprising one directional antenna and one non-directional antenna, e.g. combination of loop and open antennas producing a reversed cardioid directivity characteristic	G01S3/02	In the scheme	38
G01S3/24	Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction using amplitude comparison of signals derived sequentially from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics or from an antenna system having periodically-varied orientation of directivity characteristic derived from different combinations of signals from separate antennas, e.g. comparing sum with difference the separate antennas comprising one directional antenna and one non-directional antenna, e.g. combination of loop and open antennas producing a reversed cardioid directivity characteristic	G01S3/02	In the scheme	36
G01S3/68	Narrow-beam systems producing in the receiver a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver; Overlapping broad-beam systems defining in the receiver a narrow zone and producing a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver wherein the timing of the pulse-type envelope signal is indicated by cathode-ray tube	G01S3/02	In the scheme	28
G01S3/62	Broad-beam systems producing in the receiver a substantially sinusoidal envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the phase angle of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver, e.g. cardioid system wherein the phase angle of the signal is indicated by a cathode-ray tube	G01S3/02	In the scheme	14
G01S3/70	Narrow-beam systems producing in the receiver a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver; Overlapping broad-beam systems defining in the receiver a narrow zone and producing a pulse-type envelope signal of the carrier wave of the beam, the timing of which is dependent upon the angle between the direction of the transmitter from the receiver and a reference direction from the receiver wherein the timing of the pulse-type envelope signal is determined by bringing a locally-generated pulse-type signal into coincidence or other predetermined time-relationship with the envelope signal	G01S3/02	In the scheme	1

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. Thin and dual-use: direction finding also serves navigation and wireless positioning, and the interception entries describe telecom-operator lawful intercept rather than foreign signals intelligence; two of the four entries are Cooperative-scheme only. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Other capabilities in Intelligence & Assessment

Imagery & Geospatial Intelligence
Technical & Measurement Intelligence
Open-Source & Financial Intelligence
Human Intelligence & Counterintelligence
All-Source Analysis & Warning