Huawei is a company on the move and that’s evidenced further by the fact that the company filed more patents in Europe in 2017 than any other. According to the most recent report from the European Patent Office (EPO), that marks the first time a Chinese company has topped the list. However, it’s 2,398 patents filings – an increase of 0.3 percent year-over-year – shows just how determined the company is to maintain and improve that position on a global scale. In fact, that’s 198 more patent filings than its next biggest rival in that category – electrification, automation, and digitalization conglomerate Siemens – which managed a massive 18.7-percent climb in the same period. LG, Samsung, and Qualcomm round out the top 5 applicants, with LG and Samsung both falling in the ranking and Qualcomm gaining ground at 8.8-percent.
That’s hardly surprising since the company is among the top smartphone makers and, perhaps more importantly, among the top networking equipment providers in the world. Huawei has consistently stepped up its game over the past several months in those areas and has become a force to be reckoned with in the mobile world in several key emerging markets. It’s also made substantial gains as a chipset manufacturer, particularly with its Kirin 970 A.I.-enabled SoC. Meanwhile, it has taken numerous steps forward in fields of A.I., medicine, the IoT, and more. Meanwhile, the company’s country is one of five most active in European patents which posted year-over-year increases in activity of 16.6-percent or more. Other countries in that group included the U.S., Germany, Japan, and France.
Of course, those numbers don’t tell the whole story, either. In terms of which branch of technology saw the most patents filed, the medical technologies category topped the list at 13,090 patents. That was followed by digital communications with 11,694 applications and computer technologies with 11,174 filings. “Electr. machinery, apparatus, energy” patents managed to rise by 4-percent year-over-year, landing at around 10,402 patent filings. That helped knock transportation-based patents down the scale into fifth place. Transport patent applications fell by around 4-percent year-over-year to land at 8,217 patents. Overall, patent applications were up by 3.9-percent from 2016 through 2017. 165,950 patents were applied for through the EPO over the course of last year.
