6G Patent Competition Intensifies: Can Japan Regain Ground with an All-Photonic Network?

Competition for 6G patents is becoming increasingly intense, with China and the United States and Europe leading the way. China is also said to have a system that provides access to certain tax incentives. In the United States, large companies are moving to incorporate startups' intellectual property and build ecosystems. Japan is considered to have fallen behind and is at a point where it should seek to regain ground by leveraging its strength in all-photonic networks. With commercial deployment expected in 2030, it has not yet been determined which patents will become standard-essential patents, and this is expected to affect the earnings structures of individual companies and industrial competitiveness.

China accounts for approximately 43% of global patent filings by country, followed by the United States at approximately 20%, Europe at approximately 14%, South Korea at approximately 10% and Japan at approximately 8%. Among the major players, Huawei has a 7.9% share of applications, followed by Qualcomm at 6.8%, Ericsson at 6.2%, Nokia at 5.9% and Samsung at 4.8%. Among Japanese companies, NTT DOCOMO ranks 10th with a 2.5% share. The structure in which the top 8 companies account for slightly more than half of the total is said to remain unchanged in 6G.

Key patent focus areas include non-terrestrial networks (NTN) for European companies such as Nokia, AI/ML for Huawei and Samsung, and IoT-related technologies for Qualcomm. Japanese companies are said to have a high proportion of applications focused on power-saving technologies. NTT DOCOMO concentrated its applications for power-saving technologies in 2022, and is also viewed as having a relatively strong presence among Japanese companies.

With commercial deployment assumed for 2030, 6G standardization is entering a full-scale phase, but it has not yet been determined which patents will become standard-essential patents. As standardization progresses, the outlook for licensing revenue, as well as technological superiority, is becoming an important factor affecting corporate strategies.