US records show 43 Sony XR patent items assigned to Meta between June and September. The companies’ December 2025 agreement covers 419 items worldwide, including 180 in the United States.
The figures are based on USPTO records and the companies’ agreement, as reported by ZDNet Korea. Road to VR and ZDNet France say the US transfers appeared in five filings and cover Sony applications filed from 2010 to 2022. The number of listed items does not necessarily equal the number of distinct inventions.
The deal may point to a smaller role for Sony in developing XR hardware, though the transfer alone does not establish that the company is leaving the market. Sony still sells the consumer PlayStation VR2, introduced in 2023. It has two OLED displays with 2,000 by 2,040 pixels per eye, a refresh rate of up to 120 hertz and a 110-degree field of view.
For business customers, Sony developed its SRH-S1 mixed-reality headset with Siemens on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 platform. Sony also supplied OLED microdisplays for Apple’s Vision Pro, unveiled in 2023 and released in 2024, as well as OLED displays for Samsung’s Galaxy XR. 3DNews reports that Sony declined Apple’s request to expand OLEDoS panel production.
The patent transfer comes as the AI-glasses market expands. Omdia data cited by 3DNews put global shipments at 4.2 million units in the first half of 2026, up 127% year on year, with Meta holding an 81% share. Omdia separately reported that shipments in mainland China rose 306%.