Huawei Remains the Leader in Telecommunications Technology Patents

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, for the fifth consecutive year, Huawei has become the technology company that applied for the most patents in 2019.

With a total of 4,411 patents, Huawei became the principal applicant in the business sector within the framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The company has held the position since 2014. In 2018, Huawei became the first company to have more than 5,000 PCT applications filed in a single year.

Huawei presented 4,411 telecommunications patents during 2019. The highest portion of them have been for the development and advancement in digital communication, telecommunications and technologies applied to computing. Thus, the company demonstrated its commitment to continue reducing the digital divide and building a better path towards digital transformation.

According to Huawei representatives, the company allocated more than 15% of its total income to its Research and Development area. This investment reinforces the company’s commitment to innovation and differentiates them by a lot with the industry average.

Huawei has the most patents on 5G

Huawei manages to remain one of the main leaders in the development of 5G technologies. It possesses the entire value chain, from the significant development of the networks to intelligent devices for end-users. The exclusion of Huawei in some countries could cause a fracture in the development of 5G devices and networks.

In 2018 alone, Huawei invested $800 million for 5G research and development.

A recent analysis developed by GreyB revealed that Huawei has the most patents on 5G of any other company participating in the new wireless technology. The number of patents is equal to 13,474.

A recent study by IPlytics, an IP intelligence tool, shows that Huawei declared 21,571 patent families for 5G. Huawei again emerges as the leader with 3,147 patent applications. It is followed by Samsung with 2,795, ZTE with 2,561 and LG Electronics with 2,300.

Huawei has the highest number of patents on 5G. Meanwhile, is also the company with the most considerable contribution of technical standards to 5G within the 3GPP.

Guang Yang, Director at Strategy Analytics, stated that 3GPP plays the principal role in the ecosystem of global 5G standardization. By analyzing the industry players’ contributions to 3GPP 5G standards, we can get an idea of different companies’ positions in 5G innovation. Besides, we can observe their influence in the global mobile industry. 

According to Sue Rudd, Director Networks and Service Platforms service, leading infrastructure vendors, Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia, made more notable contributions to 5G standards than other reviewed companies. Huawei leads in the overall contributions of the end-to-end 5G standards.