Global tech giant Huawei has topped the position back to back three years among the Patent Cooperation Treaty applicants worldwide, says a report, recently published by European Patent Office.
According to the report, Huawei has been securing the crown position successfully since 2017. And this is a total of seven times, the company has topped the position in ‘Patent Cooperation Treaty Index’, published by European Patent Office (EPO).
Huawei secured its name in the top list countries of the ‘Patent co-operation treaty Index’ for the first time in 2006. That year, the number of applications for the organization was around 617. Within next two years, Huawei goes to the top. Despite some changes in the long journey, Huawei has retained the crown since 2017.
In 2019, the European Patent Office (EPO) has received over 181 000 applications, 4% more than in 2018 and a new all-time high. Huawei has alone applied for patented for 3,524 inventories, followed by other applicants Samsung and LG with 2858 and 2 817respectively. Growth was mainly fueled by the strong increase in filing volumes from China, the US and South Korea, with patent applications from the EPO countries also growing.
Global market leader, Huawei’s investment in R&D (Research and Development) has been ranked in leading position. In 2018, Huawei invested USD 15.3 billion on its research and development. After statistics, New York based Business daily, Bloomberg found that Huawei’s R&D investment has increased by 149% from 2014 to 2018.
Patent Index 2019 provides a comprehensive overview of the figures representing recent activity in the global patent system. It also offers insights into emerging technology trends.
Aiden Kendrick, Chief Business Analyst of EPO said, “Demand for European Patent has steadily risen since 2012. Last year (2019) we received a record of 181,406 patent applications 4.0% more than 2018. In total nearly half of all patent applications came from companies based in Europe. With Germany alone accounting for 15%, from the other regions US firms dominated with a quarter of all applications followed by companies from Japan 12%, China 7% And South Korea 5%. In terms of growth patent applications filed by European companies increased modestly. The steepest growth were recorded by the Asian companies, in particular Chinese and South Korean firms.”
Yann Meniere, Chief Economist of EPO said, “Digital communication was the new top technology field at the EPO, reflecting the rapid development of 5G technologies. China, the US, the Europe who have to most active regions of origin. They each account for a quarter of the patent applications in this field.”
Adding to it, Meniere also said, “The second fastest field was the computer technology it was felt by the growing importance of Artificial Intelligence. Patent applications concerned especially machine learning, data retrievable, image data processing and pattern recognition. The dominant field of Digital Technologies was clearly reflected in the list of leading applicants, where Huawei topped the table, followed by Samsung, LG, United Technologies and Siemens.”
The European Patent Office examines European patent applications, enabling inventors, researchers and companies from around the world to obtain protection for their inventions in up to 44 countries through a centralized and uniform procedure. EPO was set up in 1973. From 16 signatory states of the European Patent Convention in 1973, the Organization has now grown to 38 member states, including all 28 EU member states plus countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.