In a growing 5G patent pool, know who owns how much
The number of granted 5G patent declarations has more than doubled in the past three years, increasing from approximately 25,000 in 2021 to over 57,000 in 2024. With patent pools expanding and thousands of SEPs being declared, the licensing landscape is more crowded than ever. Yet despite the volume of declarations, ownership clarity remains elusive.
Known for bringing structure and insight to complex IP spaces, GreyB applies that same rigor in this latest edition of the 5G SEP Ownership Report. Built on a larger dataset and grounded in expert-reviewed analysis, it answers the questions that drive real licensing strategy.
2025 5G SEP Report Cuts the Noise in SEP Ownership
| Key Question | What the Report Provides |
| How many declared SEPs are really part of the core? | A statistically grounded view of core vs non-core SEP distribution, drawn from a significantly larger pool of 5G declarations. |
| Where is hidden bargaining power concentrated? | Company-by-company core ratios that surface non-traditional or smaller players holding outsized leverage. |
| How should licensing be prioritized? | Benchmarking data that shows how each company’s share of core SEPs compares to peers supporting inbound and outbound licensing strategy. |
Report Highlights
- Ownership breakdown across ~88,000 declared families
- Focused analysis of ~55,000 granted and alive patent families (as of Dec 2024)
- A stratified sample of 574 families reviewed manually by SEP experts
- Estimated share of ~7,950 core SEPs distributed across major and emerging players
- Visual charts showing share percentage, core ratios, and leadership shifts
Methodology: Designed for accuracy, not just scale
This report applies a stratified sampling method to extract meaningful patterns from a vast SEP dataset. It is a well-established approach used in population-level studies to generate reliable insights at scale.
Rather than reviewing all 88 K+ families, a statistically valid subset was manually reviewed by domain experts, enabling:
- 95 %+ accuracy in ownership share estimation
- Clarity without sacrificing credibility
- A balance between subject-matter depth and scalable insight
This approach avoids overreliance on AI-based automation and delivers data that supports real-world licensing decisions.
Media Coverage on GreyB’s 5G Insights:
