Look out, world, Huawei’s on the patent warpath.
Huawei is now leading the pack in Asia for global intellectual property patent applications, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) last Tuesday.
Francis Gurry, director general of WIPO, said in a news conference, “It’s an all-time record by anyone,” referring to the 5,405 patent applications that Huawei submitted to the U.N. body in 2018. This is a fairly large increase compared to the 4,024 patent applications filed by Huawei in 2017.
“Historically, this is really quite extraordinary,” Gurry said. “Historically, this is a momentous occasion, this is something that is really a very, very significant result.”
WIPO is in charge of all trademarks, patents, and industrial designs all over the world. As described by Reuters, its annual report “gives an early snapshot of the trends” for the year. And in 2018, Asia-based applications made up more than 50% of the total received applications. In fact, another Asia-based company, Mitsubishi Electric, filed the second highest number of patent applications at 2,812.
Some of the other Asia-based companies to file the highest number of patents in 2018 include China-based ZTE Corp and BOE Technology Group and South Korea-based Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
