This year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted several important patents claiming important innovations in 6G networks, generating reliable map data for autonomous vehicles and pest-resistant genetically modified crops. With a new year just days away, we hope the following list of the top 10 patents of 2025 sparks interest in the state of global innovation as we reach the final stages of the year.
#1: U.S. Patent No. 12389294, Framework for a 6G Ubiquitous Access Network
In 2024, about five years following the advent of 5G networks, at least 2,549 5G device types across 29 form factors were commercially available with global 5G connections reaching nearly 2 billion in 2024’s first quarter. 6G networks, which are expected to become commercially available in the 2030s, will support connection densities of 10 to 100 times more devices per square mile and increase device diversity by enabling low-power wide-area and zero-energy devices to connect to the Internet of Things.
This year’s top patent was issued in August to AT&T and claims a method of identifying applications on user equipment that are alternatively executable via either terrestrial radio network or satellite network, and reassigning execution of that application when that reassignment facilitates increased network coverage and increased bandwidth. The claimed invention aims to enable ubiquitous connectivity by integrating Wi-Fi, 5G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks with satellite networks.
#2: U.S. Patent No. 12223593, Detection of Misalignment Hotspots for High Definition Maps for Navigating Autonomous Vehicles
In the ten years since Tesla first released its Autopilot autonomous driving mode, there are still no vehicles being sold in the United States that meet Level 5 Full Automation standards, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Still, a patchwork regulatory scheme addressing insurance and road testing for self-driving cars is coming together quickly with 67 related bills being introduced into legislatures in 25 states this year alone.
Our second-place patent this year, issued to Nvidia in February, addresses a major obstacle for self-driving cars by providing an efficient method for maintaining up-to-date information on road conditions. The method of the ‘593 patent generates map data by performing cross-track pairwise alignments with data collected from multiple vehicles, determining relative pairwise transformations and then aligning track data. The claimed system can also receive further modifications through a user interface displaying the likelihood of misalignment between stored map data and current road conditions.
#3: U.S. Patent No. 12428650, Corn Event 5307
Corn is perhaps the most important crop grown in the United States, where corn accounted for $63.4 billion of the total $242.7 billion in cash receipts for U.S. crop sales in 2024. Insects continue to be a major issue hampering American corn production, with invertebrate pests reducing 2024’s corn yield by 4% across 29 states according to the Crop Protection Network.
This year’s third-place patent, issued in September to Switzerland-based Syngenta Crop Protection, claims a transgenic corn plant that has an insecticidal toxin gene incorporated into its genome. As the ‘650 patent notes, impact from pesticides on beneficial organisms and the appearance of pesticide-resistant insects have required alternative pest control strategies. The claimed invention also involves a gene encoding a phosphomannose isomerase enzyme along wit
h other isolated nucleic acid sequences useful to detect the transgenic event producing the insecticidal gene.
#4: U.S. Patent No. 12296173, Circuit for an Implantable Device
In 2023, about one-quarter of American adults suffered from chronic pain lasting three months or longer according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ‘173 patent, issued to Florida-based medical equipment developer Curonix in May, claims an implantable device having electrodes delivering electrical impulses to neural tissue and a dipole antenna that wirelessly receives power through electrical radiative coupling, allowing the device to stimulate nerve bundles. The stimulation of those nerve bundles has therapeutic effects on patients suffering from chronic pain and other disorders including inflammation, arthritis and sleep apnea.
#5: U.S. Patent No. 12443942, Systems and Methods of Blockchain Transaction Recordation
The gap between decentralized blockchain and traditional financial institutions has been bridged in fits and starts with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announcing a pilot program to tokenize certain securities beginning next year. The ‘942 patent, issued to NASDAQ in October, addresses current problems in implementing anonymous transaction ledgers with environments that require transparency or auditability. The claimed system electronically stores digital wallets having blockchain addresses generated based on private cryptographic keys, and processes transactions swapping resources like stocks and generating hash identifiers based on digital wallet data that are included within the blockchain of the distributed ledger system.
#6: U.S. Patent No. 12374843, Pogo Pin Connector
California-based health technology developer Masimo has successfully demonstrated the value of its light-based sensor portfolio in recent weeks, winning a $634 million jury verdict in Central California against consumer electronics giant Apple over wearable pulse oximetry tech. The ‘843 patent, issued to Masimo this July, claims a connector and sensor assembly that provides non-invasive physiological monitoring of a patient using transmitted light or sound, the connector having a plurality of pogo pins that accommodate sensors that can measure a wider variety of bodily functions.
#7: U.S. Patent No. 12215365, Cas Variants for Gene Editing
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) systems utilizing CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins enable highly precise genomic editing and a major patent battle in this sector was revived this May when the Federal Circuit reversed a patent interference finding for Broad University and Harvard University over rival CRISPR-Cas9 developer UC Berkeley. The ‘365 patent, issued to Harvard in February, claims a multi-molecular complex containing a cytidine deaminase, a Cas9 variant protein and a single guide RNA that corrects a point mutation and introduces a stop codon into a DNA sequence associated with a genetic disorder.
#8: U.S. Patent No. 12407712, Artificial Intelligence Cyber Security Analyst
The U.S. federal government is currently investigating its applications in healthcare, the military and more. The ‘712 patent, issued in September to UK-based Darktrace Holdings, claims a method for tackling investigations into specified real and synthesized cyber threats with the use of an AI-based cyber-security analyst having an analyzer module that forms hypotheses on possible threats. The AI analyst ranks those threats according to a confidence schema and then presented to human users in a readable format.
#9: U.S. Patent No. 12258397, Production of Engineered T-Cells by Sleeping Beauty Transposon Coupled with Methotrexate Selection
A pair of cancer immunotherapy studies published in the later stages of 2025 reflected important advances in engineered T-cell therapies, a much faster treatment than conventional T-cell harvesting methods. The ‘397 patent, issued in March to the University of Washington, claims a method of generating engineered multiplexed T-cells using minicircles, plasmid derivatives useful in transgene delivery that contain no bacterial DNA sequences, which can be perceived by the body as foreign.
#10: U.S. Patent No. 12288671, Film Deposition Apparatus for Fine Pattern Forming
Global semiconductor sales are on track to grow 22.5% through 2025 with 2026’s revenues expected to increase even further toward nearly $1 trillion according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. The ‘671 patent, issued to Tokyo Electron in April, claims a film deposition apparatus having a process chamber supplied with both oxygen and source gasses used in a slimming process during mask pattern forming. The configuration reduces the slimming process such that the costs of forming fine patterns during semiconductor manufacturing are also reduced.
