Huawei leads Asian domination of UN patent applications in 2018
- The world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier made a record 5,405 applications, up from 4,024 in 2017
Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, led the pack with Asia accounting for more than half of the international patent applications at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) last year, the UN body said on Tuesday.
Shenzhen-based Huawei, which has been under pressure since the United States demanded its allies bar Chinese vendors from taking part in building 5G mobile networks because of national security concerns, made 5,405 patent applications to WIPO, up from 4,024 in 2017.
“It’s an all-time record by anyone,” WIPO director general Francis Gurry told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
WIPO oversees international treaties governing patents, trademarks and industrial designs. Its annual report on the applications it receives – a subset of all intellectual property filings globally – gives an early snapshot of the trends.
Asia-based filings accounted for 50.5 per cent of the total applications received, Gurry said.