# 11 Best RTLS & Indoor Positioning Patent Portfolios 2026 (And Which You Can Actually License) > 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. - URL: https://topelevens.com/rtls-positioning-patent-portfolios - Last verified: 2026-08-25 - Methodology: https://topelevens.com/methodology - JSON: https://topelevens.com/api/lists/rtls-positioning-patent-portfolios · CSV: https://topelevens.com/api/lists/rtls-positioning-patent-portfolios/csv ## Ranking ### #1 Position Imaging · 8.3/9.4 - Best for: Computer vision plus radio frequency tracking, interpreted by machine learning: two decades on precise asset localization, productized today as the Smart Package Room and iPickup logistics platforms - Portsmouth, New Hampshire, US · founded 2006 · licensing terms by negotiation - Computer vision plus radio frequency tracking, interpreted by machine learning: two decades on precise asset localization, productized today as the Smart Package Room and iPickup logistics platforms. Licensing posture: The only portfolio on this list actively offered for licensing: the patents are packaged for outside licensees and taken to market worldwide through an appointed licensing advisor. Disclosure: that advisor shares common ownership with Top 11. - Pro: The company states 76 issued and 56 pending patents on its homepage, spanning radio tracking, package tracking video, personalized navigation and augmented reality guidance (a Google Patents search for the Position Imaging assignee returns 44 grants, August 2026, with the balance in newer entities and pending families). Founded 2006 by Ned Hill, still operating and still filing, with the portfolio deliberately packaged so an outside company can evaluate and license it, which nobody else here offers. - Con: It is the smallest company on this list by an order of magnitude, the headline patent count is the company's own homepage figure, foreign coverage is thin compared with the chip makers, and the licensing-first posture exists because licensing is a revenue line, a buyer should price that motivation in. Disclosure repeated: the portfolio's licensing advisor and Top 11 share common ownership. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): 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. ### #2 Qorvo (Ultra-Wideband, formerly Decawave) · 8/9.4 - Best for: Ultra wideband chips, modules and SoCs for precise ranging and real time location, the DW3xxx line inherited from Decawave (acquired February 2020) plus new SoCs shipping through 2026 - Greensboro, North Carolina, US (UWB team in Dublin) · founded null · not applicable, no licensing offered - Ultra wideband chips, modules and SoCs for precise ranging and real time location, the DW3xxx line inherited from Decawave (acquired February 2020) plus new SoCs shipping through 2026. Licensing posture: No patent licensing program stated on their site: Qorvo sells silicon and development kits, not patent rights. - Pro: Rare single-technology depth: Decawave pioneered impulse radio UWB from 2007 and shipped over 8 million chipsets before the acquisition, and Qorvo has kept extending the same line through 2026, so the estate is focused, battle tested in real products, and still growing. - Con: The portfolio exists to sell chips: an outsider wanting rights rather than silicon has no stated door to knock on, and UWB is one business unit inside a large RF conglomerate competing for attention. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active; UWB line shipping through 2026. No adverse signals found. ### #3 Quuppa · 7.7/9.4 - Best for: The Quuppa Intelligent Locating System: Bluetooth Angle of Arrival locators, tags and positioning software tracking assets and people indoors with sub meter accuracy - Espoo, Finland · founded 2012 · not applicable, no licensing offered - The Quuppa Intelligent Locating System: Bluetooth Angle of Arrival locators, tags and positioning software tracking assets and people indoors with sub meter accuracy. Licensing posture: No patent licensing program stated on their site. A commercial partner ecosystem lets other companies build Quuppa compatible tags and applications, which is productized access, not patent access. - Pro: Rare provenance: the founding team invented high accuracy indoor positioning at Nokia Research, worked on angular location algorithms since 2004 and contributed the first draft of the Bluetooth direction finding specification, so the portfolio sits unusually close to a live global standard. - Con: Access is productized, not portfolio shaped: an outsider can join the partner program and build on the system, but the site states no way to license the underlying patents, so as pure IP the estate is locked inside one vendor's ecosystem. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active in 2026 with global offices. No adverse signals found. ### #4 Impinj · 7.5/9.4 - Best for: RAIN RFID tag chips, reader chips, readers and software that wirelessly connect everyday items so businesses can identify, locate and protect them - Seattle, Washington, US · founded null · not applicable, no licensing offered - RAIN RFID tag chips, reader chips, readers and software that wirelessly connect everyday items so businesses can identify, locate and protect them. Licensing posture: No open licensing program on their site, but IP is visibly part of the business: a 2024 settlement with NXP cross-licenses each company's patents and terminated all pending litigation. - Pro: A genuinely focused portfolio built around one protocol family and its silicon, and it survived the hardest test there is: multi year litigation against NXP that ended in a settlement cross-licensing both companies' patents. - Con: An outsider has no stated door in: no published program, rates or contact for taking a license, and the litigation history suggests access happens on Impinj's terms, through standards participation or a courtroom. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active public company. No adverse signals found beyond the disclosed, settled NXP litigation. ### #5 Ubisense · 7.3/9.4 - Best for: Dimension4 ultra wideband sensor hardware and the SmartSpace software platform, tracking precise 3D position and movement in industrial spaces like automotive and aerospace factories - Cambridge, UK · founded 2002 · not applicable, no licensing offered - Dimension4 ultra wideband sensor hardware and the SmartSpace software platform, tracking precise 3D position and movement in industrial spaces like automotive and aerospace factories. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated on their site: the about page says the technology is supported by numerous patents but offers no route to license them. - Pro: The portfolio sits on more than two decades of continuous UWB engineering by the same founding team, proven in production at most of the world's top automotive and aerospace manufacturers. - Con: A closed shop as a portfolio: patents get one passing mention on the whole site and exist purely to protect Ubisense's own products, so an outside company has no stated door to knock on. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active in 2026. No adverse signals found. ### #6 Sonitor Technologies · 7.1/9.4 - Best for: Ultrasound based RTLS for hospitals: the SonitorONE platform combines ultrasound, Bluetooth LE, RFID and phone locating for asset tracking, patient flow and staff duress - Founded in Oslo, Norway · founded 1997 · not applicable, no licensing offered - Ultrasound based RTLS for hospitals: the SonitorONE platform combines ultrasound, Bluetooth LE, RFID and phone locating for asset tracking, patient flow and staff duress. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated on their site: the about page frames the patent portfolio as a competitive moat for its own product. - Pro: Nearly three decades of R&D aimed at one narrow problem, ultrasound indoor positioning for healthcare, exactly the long focused filing history that gives a portfolio real depth. - Con: The portfolio exists to protect Sonitor's own hospital platform: no stated route for an outsider to license the ultrasound patents, so access in practice means a partnership on Sonitor's terms or nothing. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active in 2026. No adverse signals found. ### #7 Zebra Technologies (Location Technologies) · 6.9/9.4 - Best for: Location hardware and software including the WhereNet active RTLS line, BLE badge tags and MotionWorks Sport player tracking, alongside a large RAIN RFID business - Lincolnshire, Illinois, US · founded 1969 · not applicable, no licensing offered - Location hardware and software including the WhereNet active RTLS line, BLE badge tags and MotionWorks Sport player tracking, alongside a large RAIN RFID business. Licensing posture: No patent licensing program stated on their site; PartnerConnect is product distribution, not patent access. - Pro: Genuine multi modality spread backed by staying power: active RFID, BLE and RAIN RFID location products, a history running since 1969 including the Motorola Solutions enterprise acquisition, roughly 9,900 employees in 54 countries. - Con: Location is a side room in a barcode and printer house: the WhereNet line rests on a proprietary standard that reads as legacy, and a portfolio scattered across printing, scanning, RFID and RTLS is the opposite of a focused estate a licensee could evaluate. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active public company. No adverse signals found. ### #8 Sewio Networks (HID Global) · 6.8/9.4 - Best for: Ultra wideband RTLS for factories and warehouses: UWB tags, anchors and the RTLS Studio platform, with customers including Volkswagen, Toyota and Skoda - Brno, Czech Republic · founded 2014 · not applicable, no licensing offered - Ultra wideband RTLS for factories and warehouses: UWB tags, anchors and the RTLS Studio platform, with customers including Volkswagen, Toyota and Skoda. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated. Acquired by HID Global on August 6, 2024; now inside HID's IoT Services business unit. - Pro: A tightly focused UWB portfolio proven in live automotive deployments, now backed by one of the world's biggest identity and access groups. - Con: The acquisition buried the patents inside HID's corporate estate with no stated outside access, and the standalone portfolio identity is already fading into HID Industrial RTLS branding. - Risk signals (low, checked 2026-08-25): Active but no longer independent: acquired by HID Global August 2024. ### #9 Kontakt.io · 6.6/9.4 - Best for: An AI and RTLS platform for hospital operations using Bluetooth tags and sensors to track equipment, protect staff and manage patient flow, sold to hundreds of hospitals - New York, US and Krakow, Poland · founded null · not applicable, no licensing offered - An AI and RTLS platform for hospital operations using Bluetooth tags and sensors to track equipment, protect staff and manage patient flow, sold to hundreds of hospitals. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated on their site. - Pro: Rare focus: the whole company is aimed at one buyer, hospital operations, so the IP behind it was built against years of real clinical deployments rather than lab demos. - Con: As a patent portfolio it is invisible: the site says nothing about patents or IP anywhere, so an outsider has no way to see what is protected, let alone a stated route to license it. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active in 2026. No adverse signals found. ### #10 AiRISTA Flow · 6.5/9.4 - Best for: Wi-Fi and BLE real time location systems combining the sofia software platform with tags and sensors for healthcare, industrial, government and education settings - Timonium, Maryland, US · founded null · not applicable, no licensing offered - Wi-Fi and BLE real time location systems combining the sofia software platform with tags and sensors for healthcare, industrial, government and education settings. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated on their site. - Pro: Genuine full stack depth: the company states it controls the architecture from tag firmware to cloud and ships its own tags and sensors, the kind of vertically built engineering that tends to produce defensible technology. - Con: The site sells solutions, not IP: no patent or licensing page, no stated way for an outsider to access the underlying technology, and effort spread across Wi-Fi and BLE reads as breadth over depth. - Risk signals (none, checked 2026-08-25): Active in 2026. No adverse signals found. ### #11 Inpixon (industrial RTLS) · 6.3/9.4 - Best for: Industrial RTLS: sensor and radio hardware plus software tracking assets, forklifts, materials and people inside factories and warehouses - Germany (Inpixon GmbH) · founded null · not applicable, no licensing offered - Industrial RTLS: sensor and radio hardware plus software tracking assets, forklifts, materials and people inside factories and warehouses. Licensing posture: No licensing program stated. The wildcard corporate story: the US parent became XTI Aerospace, pivoted to drones, then sold Inpixon GmbH to a German investor group for about EUR 4.64 million in February 2026. - Pro: The technology kept operating through repeated ownership changes, and the February 2026 sale put the business with an owner whose sole stated focus is RTLS rather than a distracted conglomerate. - Con: The corporate trail is a maze: neither site says who now holds which patents or how an outsider would license anything, which for a would-be licensee is disqualifying until the ownership question is answered in writing. - Risk signals (low, checked 2026-08-25): Operating, but ownership restructured February 2026; patent custody not publicly stated. ## FAQ **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.