Chinese telecoms giant Huawei filed the most number of patent applications among corporate applicants with the World Intellectual Property (WIPO) worldwide in 2018, and analysts said that continuous investment in research and development and focus on new technologies help China to forge ahead in global patent applications.
Shenzhen-based Huawei filed a record number of 5,405 patents in 2018, the highest among corporate filers, the WIPO said in a report released on Tuesday. It was followed by Japanese firm Mitsubishi Electric Corp and U.S. tech giants Intel as well as Qualcomm.
The U.S. remained the largest applicant globally in 2018, with in total 56,142 patents filed, followed by China and Japan, with 53,345 and 49,702 respectively.
China is now the second-largest patent applicant with 53,345 filed in 2018, up 9.1 percent year-on-year. The U.S. remained the largest applicant with 56,142 patents filed, down 0.9 percent compared to 2017, the report showed.
"Huawei's R&D investment is at the global forefront, which is also the top priority of the company's founder Ren [Zhengfei]," a Huawei spokesperson told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The company invests about $15-20 billion in R&D annually, ranking in the top five among global companies, Ren said at a group interview in January.
"We have obtained 87,805 licensed patents, of which 11,152 are core technology patents in the U.S., and we have participated in more than 360 standards organizations and contributed over 54,000 proposals," the founder said, explaining why it is competitive in the telecom industry.
Huawei's focus on innovation is also reflected in greater R&D investment.
In its corporate history, the average percentage of research- and innovation-related investment was around 10 percent of the company total R&D spending, Eric Xu, current rotating chairman of Huawei, told a group of reporters in February.
"But we have increased this percentage over recent years to around 20 percent. And we hope we can get to 30 percent in the future," he said.
China now accounts for 10 percent of the world's 5G-related patents, in line with the country's ambition to take the lead in the 5G era, according to industry analysts.
"Our absolute competitive advantage in 5G is also another reason [for the lead in global patent applications]," the Huawei spokesperson said.
2017 was a key year for 5G development, and Huawei has been concentrating its research efforts on the next generation of wireless technologies since 2009.
The number of patents Huawei filed related to 5G also accounted for a large part of total patents the firm filed, the spokesperson noted.
