The global ranking of 5G standard essential patents is released! Huawei ranks first, ZTE ranks third

Recently, German patent information analysis agency IPLytics released a report titled "Who is leading the 5G patent race?" The report shows that as of February 2021, the top five companies in the world in terms of 5G standard essential patent declarations are Huawei, Qualcomm, ZTE, Samsung Electronics and Nokia.

The report points out that as communication technologies are increasingly integrated into traditional industry products, the next industrial revolution will witness more and more technological integration. In the future, the importance of 5G technology in smart factories, smart homes, smart meters, smart medical care and other fields will become increasingly prominent.

Image source: IPLytics

In terms of patent application share, Huawei ranked first with a share of 15.39%, followed by Qualcomm (11.24%), ZTE (9.81%), Samsung (9.67%), and Nokia (9.01%).

In addition, China's OPPO (3.47%), Datang Telecom (3.44%), Xiaomi (2.77%), vivo (2.23%), MediaTek (0.70%) and Shanghai Langbo (0.65%) are also on the list.

In the list of companies that have submitted technical contributions to the 5G standard, Huawei still ranks first, followed by Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm, ZTE, Intel, Datang, LG, NTT, MediaTek, vivo, etc.

The report pointed out that the reason why Huawei has achieved such outstanding results is that, on the one hand, Huawei has continued to acquire patents on a large scale in recent years. Among China's heavyweight companies, Huawei is the most active patent buyer; on the other hand, it is because Huawei has been looking for talents in the US technology industry, and the American engineers and technical experts it employs are now the core of its R&D team. Ren Zhengfei previously revealed that Huawei's annual investment in scientific research funds is about 15-20 billion US dollars, and the number of R&D personnel is nearly 80,000 to 90,000.

ZTE is not inferior either. According to public information, since 5G emerged in the industry in 2015, ZTE's annual R&D investment has exceeded 10 billion yuan.