Key insights:
- Wi-Fi 7 commercialization is accelerating faster than public disclosures suggest, with certifications extending beyond routers into smartphones, tablets, and consumer electronics.
- Early patent transfers and pre-litigation activity closely resemble patterns seen just before Wi-Fi 6 licensing intensified.
- A large portion of Wi-Fi 7-relevant patents remains undeclared, creating a widening gap between public disclosures and real portfolio strength.
- Historical parallels indicate that pool formation, licensing negotiations, and litigation activity are likely to scale within the next 12–24 months.
Apple’s iPhone 17 launch quietly confirmed a turning point for Wi-Fi 7. By explicitly calling out Multi-Link Operation (MLO), a core feature of the standard, the launch signaled that Wi-Fi 7 has moved beyond lab validation into real-world implementation. Similar product disclosures, combined with a rising number of certified devices, suggest that Wi-Fi 7 is entering the same commercialization phase that historically precedes SEP monetization cycles.
Rohit Sood, Industry Expert at GreyB, and Aman Kumar, who specializes in standard-related patent analysis, discuss how these early signals, when viewed together, paint a clear picture of where Wi-Fi 7 is headed.
“What we are seeing today in Wi-Fi 7 mirrors the early Wi-Fi 6 ecosystem, right before licensing discussions and litigation activity accelerated.”
– Aman Kumar
Rohit and Aman explore these developments in a recent webinar. Access the Webinar Recording for FREE.
Below are the key takeaways from their conversation, condensed for quick reference.
Access the complete Wi-Fi 7 Patent Landscape Analysis Report for detailed portfolio insights, patent transfer activity, and early litigation signals shaping the next licensing cycle.
Commercialization Signals & Product Adoption
Rohit Sood: Last month, the major smartphone manufacturer Apple launched its iPhone 17 series. And guess what? One of the key feature upgrades includes Wi-Fi 7, with explicit support for MLO (Multi-Link Operation), the defining feature introduced in the Wi-Fi 7 generation of wireless communication.
At GreyB, we conducted a Wi-Fi SEP landscape study to understand the ecosystem that is likely to drive licensing and litigation activity in this space in the future.
I’m Rohit, with over 13 years of experience in patent monetization, helping companies generate revenue from their patent portfolios. I’ve collaborated with Aman, who has over 12 years of experience consulting on standard-related patents, to analyze the future of Wi-Fi 7 and what we can expect as this ecosystem evolves.
Aman Kumar: To begin with, it’s important to understand the early signals we’re seeing in the Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem. One major signal comes from the product and commercialization side. As early as 2025, many access point and router manufacturers will have already obtained Wi-Fi 7 certifications.
More recently, end-product manufacturers such as smartphone and tablet makers have also started securing Wi-Fi 7 certifications. This clearly indicates that commercialization of the Wi-Fi 7 standard is picking up pace and is expected to accelerate further.
Rohit Sood: One recurring question we often get is whether products are actually using Wi-Fi 7. The iPhone launch, along with the 260-plus products that received Wi-Fi 7 certification in 2025 alone, strongly suggests they are.
If we compare this with Wi-Fi 6, around 5,500 products were eventually certified. Currently, Wi-Fi 7 has roughly 500 certified products overall, including devices like the iPhone 17. This indicates that Wi-Fi 7 adoption is likely to grow and potentially reach the same scale as Wi-Fi 6.
Early IP Signals: Patent Transfers and Pre-Litigation Activity
Aman: From an IP perspective, we’re already seeing pre-litigation activity, with companies asserting Wi-Fi 7-related patents against products from different manufacturers. We’re also seeing early signals through patent transfers.
Companies such as Avalon have acquired Wi-Fi-related patent portfolios from Neuracom, including Wi-Fi 7 assets. Similarly, Exys 11 has recently acquired patents from Exymii, a Chinese company holding Wi-Fi 7-related patents. When we correlate these developments, they strongly suggest that the Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem is gearing up for active commercialization, licensing, and litigation in the coming months and years.
Rohit: When I looked into Avalon’s background, I found links to Acacia, which was also behind Atlas Global and its Wi-Fi 6 litigation campaign. This acquisition of Wi-Fi 7 patents suggests a similar strategy may be in the works.
There also appears to be a correlation between Exys 11 and the Sisvel patent pool, raising the possibility of a Wi-Fi 7 patent pool forming in the near future, much as happened with Wi-Fi 6 around 2022.
The Undeclared SEP Gap: Where Real Leverage Lies
Aman: From our Wi-Fi 7 study, we identified around 4,000 patent families related to the standard. Nearly 90% of these are not declared to IEEE. Out of these, around 1,700 families are currently active. When we conducted manual SEP checks on a sample of these active families, only about 47% were found to be truly essential.
This highlights the importance of careful portfolio evaluation and structured portfolio mining.
Rohit: This aligns closely with what we saw in Wi-Fi 6. IEEE declarations often show only part of a company’s actual portfolio. Once negotiations begin, significantly larger portfolios are often introduced.
Many of these patents also have pending family members, which could be granted in the future and further expand the active Wi-Fi 7 SEP landscape.
Geography as Strategy: Benchmarking Across Jurisdictions
Aman: Another key action point is geographic coverage. While the top filing jurisdictions remain consistent, we’re seeing increasing activity in emerging markets such as Brazil and Taiwan. SEP holders are strengthening protection in these regions, and this trend can be used as a benchmark for portfolio strategy.
Rohit: Brazil, in particular, is becoming an important SEP jurisdiction. We’ve already seen disputes there, and with significant market revenue tied to Wi-Fi-enabled products, geographic portfolio strength is becoming a central point in licensing negotiations, especially when discussions around geographic discounts arise.
Portfolio Mining, Evidence, and Product Teardowns
Aman: Beyond portfolio size, SEP holders should focus on patents relevant to key Wi-Fi 7 features such as MLO. These patents should be mined separately. In potential litigation scenarios, product teardowns and testing may be required to demonstrate actual feature usage. Similar approaches were used in Wi-Fi 6, where earlier-generation patents were later found to be essential.
Rohit: Even if a patent maps to the standard, it’s critical to prove that the product actually uses that feature. Product testing and teardowns provide that additional layer of evidence. In many SEP cases, standard mapping combined with product-level evidence has significantly strengthened assertions.
Wi-Fi 7’s Pre-Licensing Phase Is Now Visible
As Wi-Fi 7 moves through early commercialization, the signals discussed above, product certifications, quiet patent transfers, large undeclared portfolios, and shifting geographic strategies are aligning in a familiar pattern. This is the same pre-licensing phase seen in earlier standards, where most strategic positioning happens well before pools form or litigation becomes visible.
At this stage, the challenge is not a lack of data, but fragmentation. Product adoption, patent declarations, transfers, essentiality insights, and jurisdictional coverage are scattered across sources, making it difficult to understand where real exposure and leverage lie.
To bring these signals together, GreyB has built the Wi-Fi 7 SEP Dashboard. It gives a unified view of the evolving ecosystem. The dashboard enables teams to track declared and undeclared Wi-Fi 7 patent families, monitor patent transfers and early assertion risks, benchmark portfolios across companies and jurisdictions, and identify high-confidence SEPs using AI-assisted screening.
By bringing these dimensions together in one place, the dashboard turns early indicators into actionable intelligence at a time when quiet preparation often determines future outcomes.
Get Wi-Fi 7 Dashboard Access
Fill the form
