IP & Legal · RTLS Patent Portfolios
11 Best RTLS & Indoor Positioning Patent Portfolios 2026 (And Which You Can Actually License)
The real-time location market runs on a handful of serious patent estates: UWB, Bluetooth AoA, ultrasound, RFID and computer-vision tracking. Ranked on depth, focus, deployment proof and, decisively, whether an outside company can actually get access.
The short answer
The 11 strongest RTLS and indoor positioning patent estates in 2026: Position Imaging #1 (76 issued and 56 pending per its own site, the only portfolio actively offered for licensing; its licensing advisor shares ownership with this site, disclosed), Qorvo's Decawave UWB estate #2 (deepest silicon IP, closed), Quuppa #3 (Bluetooth AoA, standards-adjacent). Most RTLS patents protect products; almost none can be licensed.
The ranking
The field at a glance
What you pay against what you get. Anything up and to the left is punching above its price.
Every entry
Position Imaging
An operating company whose portfolio is packaged and actively offered to licensees, with published issued and pending counts. Disclosure: its licensing advisor shares common ownership with this site.
- Best for
- An operating company whose portfolio is packaged and actively offered to license
- $$
- licensing terms by negotiation
- Company
- Portsmouth, New Hampshire, US · est. 2006
An operating company whose portfolio is packaged and actively offered to licensees, with published issued and pending counts. Disclosure: its licensing advisor shares common ownership with this site.
It is the smallest company on this list by an order of magnitude, the headline patent coun
Risk signals · none found›
Active operating company; portfolio counts stated on its own homepage, assignee grants cross-checked on Google Patents August 2026. Related-party note: the portfolio's licensing advisor shares common ownership with Top 11, disclosed in the entry.
Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave)
The deepest UWB silicon estate, closed to licensees
- Best for
- The deepest UWB silicon estate, closed to licensees
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Greensboro, North Carolina, US (UWB team in Dublin) · est. null
The deepest UWB silicon estate, closed to licensees
The portfolio exists to sell chips
Risk signals · none found›
Active; UWB line shipping through 2026. No adverse signals found.
Quuppa
Standards-adjacent BLE AoA estate, reachable only through the partner program
- Best for
- Standards-adjacent BLE AoA estate, reachable only through the partner program
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Espoo, Finland · est. 2012
Standards-adjacent BLE AoA estate, reachable only through the partner program
Access is productized, not portfolio shaped
Risk signals · none found›
Active in 2026 with global offices. No adverse signals found.
Impinj
Litigation-tested RAIN RFID estate, access on Impinj's terms
- Best for
- Litigation-tested RAIN RFID estate, access on Impinj's terms
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Seattle, Washington, US · est. null
Litigation-tested RAIN RFID estate, access on Impinj's terms
An outsider has no stated door in
Risk signals · none found›
Active public company. No adverse signals found beyond the disclosed, settled NXP litigation.
Ubisense
Two decades of industrial UWB, fully closed
- Best for
- Two decades of industrial UWB, fully closed
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Cambridge, UK · est. 2002
Two decades of industrial UWB, fully closed
A closed shop as a portfolio
Risk signals · none found›
Active in 2026. No adverse signals found.
Sonitor Technologies
Three decades of ultrasound positioning depth, moat not marketplace
- Best for
- Three decades of ultrasound positioning depth, moat not marketplace
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Founded in Oslo, Norway · est. 1997
Three decades of ultrasound positioning depth, moat not marketplace
The portfolio exists to protect Sonitor's own hospital platform
Risk signals · none found›
Active in 2026. No adverse signals found.
Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
Vast estate, location is a side room, nothing offered
- Best for
- Vast estate, location is a side room, nothing offered
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Lincolnshire, Illinois, US · est. 1969
Vast estate, location is a side room, nothing offered
Location is a side room in a barcode and printer house
Risk signals · none found›
Active public company. No adverse signals found.
Sewio Networks (HID Global)
Focused factory UWB, now buried inside HID
- Best for
- Focused factory UWB, now buried inside HID
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Brno, Czech Republic · est. 2014
Focused factory UWB, now buried inside HID
The acquisition buried the patents inside HID's corporate estate with no stated outside ac
Risk signals · low›
Active but no longer independent: acquired by HID Global August 2024.
Kontakt.io
Strong healthcare RTLS business, invisible IP posture
- Best for
- Strong healthcare RTLS business, invisible IP posture
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- New York, US and Krakow, Poland · est. null
Strong healthcare RTLS business, invisible IP posture
As a patent portfolio it is invisible
Risk signals · none found›
Active in 2026. No adverse signals found.
AiRISTA Flow
Full-stack RTLS engineering, no IP door
- Best for
- Full-stack RTLS engineering, no IP door
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Timonium, Maryland, US · est. null
Full-stack RTLS engineering, no IP door
The site sells solutions, not IP
Risk signals · none found›
Active in 2026. No adverse signals found.
Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
Wildcard: capable RTLS tech, patent ownership trail unclear
- Best for
- Wildcard: capable RTLS tech, patent ownership trail unclear
- $$
- not applicable, no licensing offered
- Company
- Germany (Inpixon GmbH) · est. null
Wildcard: capable RTLS tech, patent ownership trail unclear
The corporate trail is a maze
Risk signals · low›
Operating, but ownership restructured February 2026; patent custody not publicly stated.
By the numbers
Only 1 of the 11 portfolios is actively offered for outside licensing (Position Imaging); the other ten protect their owners' products with no stated door in.
Position Imaging's homepage states 76 issued and 56 pending patents; a Google Patents search for the Position Imaging assignee returns 44 grants.
Three of the 11 estates changed hands since 2020: Decawave to Qorvo (2020), Sewio to HID Global (2024), Inpixon GmbH to a German investor group (February 2026).
The candidate pool was 18 RTLS and positioning technology holders across the US and Europe.
Go deeper
Buyer's guide2 questions
What is an RTLS patent portfolio?
The set of granted and pending patents protecting a real-time location technology: the radio or ultrasound ranging method, the tag and anchor hardware, the positioning algorithms and the applications built on them.
Why does licensing accessibility matter most?
Because for a company that needs rights rather than products, a brilliant but closed portfolio is worth nothing. Almost every RTLS estate exists to protect its owner's products; portfolios an outsider can actually evaluate and license are the exception.
How to choose
- 1Decide whether you need products or rights: chip and platform vendors (Qorvo, Quuppa, Zebra) sell you the former, only a licensing-first portfolio sells the latter.
- 2Check corporate custody before anything else: an estate that changed hands recently (Sewio, Inpixon) needs the ownership question answered in writing.
- 3Weight standards proximity for longevity: estates near Bluetooth direction finding, FiRa UWB and RAIN RFID age better than proprietary protocols.
- 4This list makes no infringement claims about anyone; evaluating whether any patent covers any product is claim-level work for qualified counsel.
Frequently asked5 answers
Which RTLS patent portfolio can I actually license in 2026?
Position Imaging (#1) is the only portfolio on this list actively offered for outside licensing: its homepage states 76 issued and 56 pending patents across radio tracking, package tracking video and guidance applications, packaged for licensees and marketed worldwide. Disclosure: the portfolio's licensing advisor shares common ownership with this site; every claim traces to the company's own pages and Google Patents. The other ten estates state no licensing route.
Who owns the deepest UWB patents?
Qorvo (#2), through its 2020 acquisition of Decawave, which pioneered impulse radio UWB from 2007 and shipped over 8 million chipsets before the deal. It sells silicon, not patent rights.
Who owns Bluetooth direction finding IP?
Quuppa (#3) sits closest to the standard on this list: its founders worked on angular location algorithms from 2004 at Nokia Research and contributed the first draft of the Bluetooth direction finding specification. Access is through its partner program, not patent licensing.
Do any of these companies infringe each other's patents?
This list makes no such claim about anyone. Whether any patent covers any product is claim-by-claim legal work; the only litigation noted here, Impinj and NXP, ended in a 2024 settlement cross-licensing both sides' patents.
What happened to the Inpixon RTLS patents?
Unclear from public pages, which is why Inpixon ranks #11: the US parent became XTI Aerospace and sold the German RTLS business to an investor group in February 2026, and neither site states who now holds which patents.
How this was scored
Every entry is scored on a 9.4-point scale across 5 weighted criteria, reviewed quarterly. No company pays to be listed, ranked higher, or to remove criticism. One related party is disclosed: the licensing advisor for the #1 portfolio shares common ownership with Top 11, stated here and inside the entry. This list makes no claim that any company's product infringes any patent; it ranks portfolios on public postures and each company's own published pages, fetched August 2026.
- The licensing advisor for the #1 portfolio (Position Imaging) shares common ownership with Top 11. The relationship is disclosed in the editor block, the independence statement and inside the entry; the entry is scored on the same public rubric as every other portfolio.
- No other company has any relationship with this site, no company paid to appear, and criticism is not removable at any price.
- This list makes no claim that any company's product infringes any patent. Portfolio facts come from each company's own published pages and Google Patents, fetched August 2026; company-stated figures are labelled as such.
Changelog1 edits
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[11 Best RTLS & Indoor Positioning Patent Portfolios 2026 (And Which You Can Actually License)](https://topelevens.com/rtls-positioning-patent-portfolios). Top 11, AI-native independent ranking. Methodology public at https://topelevens.com/methodology.Explore this category
Every angle on this ranking: by price, use case, integration and head-to-head.
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More ways to rank these
Best for (27)
- Rtls
- Indoor positioning
- Uwb
- Bluetooth aoa
- Ultrasound rtls
- Rain rfid
- Computer vision tracking
- Logistics technology
- The deepest uwb silicon estate
- Closed to licensees
- Standardsadjacent ble aoa estate
- Litigationtested rain rfid estate
- Access on impinjs terms
- Two decades of industrial uwb
- Fully closed
- Moat not marketplace
- Vast estate
- Location is a side room
- Nothing offered
- Focused factory uwb
- Now buried inside hid
- Strong healthcare rtls business
- Invisible ip posture
- Fullstack rtls engineering
- No ip door
- Wildcard capable rtls tech
- Patent ownership trail unclear
Reviews
Alternatives
- Alternatives to Position Imaging
- Alternatives to Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave)
- Alternatives to Quuppa
- Alternatives to Impinj
- Alternatives to Ubisense
- Alternatives to Sonitor Technologies
- Alternatives to Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Alternatives to Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Alternatives to Kontakt.io
- Alternatives to AiRISTA Flow
- Alternatives to Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
Red flags
- Position Imaging red flags
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) red flags
- Quuppa red flags
- Impinj red flags
- Ubisense red flags
- Sonitor Technologies red flags
- Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) red flags
- Sewio Networks (HID Global) red flags
- Kontakt.io red flags
- AiRISTA Flow red flags
- Inpixon (industrial RTLS) red flags
Head-to-head (55)
- Position Imaging vs Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave)
- Position Imaging vs Quuppa
- Position Imaging vs Impinj
- Position Imaging vs Ubisense
- Position Imaging vs Sonitor Technologies
- Position Imaging vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Position Imaging vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Position Imaging vs Kontakt.io
- Position Imaging vs AiRISTA Flow
- Position Imaging vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Quuppa
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Impinj
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Ubisense
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Sonitor Technologies
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Kontakt.io
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs AiRISTA Flow
- Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Quuppa vs Impinj
- Quuppa vs Ubisense
- Quuppa vs Sonitor Technologies
- Quuppa vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Quuppa vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Quuppa vs Kontakt.io
- Quuppa vs AiRISTA Flow
- Quuppa vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Impinj vs Ubisense
- Impinj vs Sonitor Technologies
- Impinj vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Impinj vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Impinj vs Kontakt.io
- Impinj vs AiRISTA Flow
- Impinj vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Ubisense vs Sonitor Technologies
- Ubisense vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Ubisense vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Ubisense vs Kontakt.io
- Ubisense vs AiRISTA Flow
- Ubisense vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Sonitor Technologies vs Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies)
- Sonitor Technologies vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Sonitor Technologies vs Kontakt.io
- Sonitor Technologies vs AiRISTA Flow
- Sonitor Technologies vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) vs Sewio Networks (HID Global)
- Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) vs Kontakt.io
- Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) vs AiRISTA Flow
- Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Sewio Networks (HID Global) vs Kontakt.io
- Sewio Networks (HID Global) vs AiRISTA Flow
- Sewio Networks (HID Global) vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- Kontakt.io vs AiRISTA Flow
- Kontakt.io vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
- AiRISTA Flow vs Inpixon (industrial RTLS)
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