Surpassed Apple Huawei's annual patent application fifth in the world

A new research report released by patent database provider IFI Claims Patent Services shows that Huawei continues to rise in the ranking of U.S. patents to fifth. At the same time, Chinese companies account for an increasing share of global innovation.

According to the report, in 2021, Huawei won 2770 U.S. patents, ranking fifth, basically the same as 2761 in 2020. "Blue Giant" IBM received 8682 U.S. patents last year, ranking first in the U.S. patent list for 29 consecutive years, but down 5 percent from 9,130 in 2020.

Although Huawei's network equipment has been shut out of the US market and the access to mobile phone parts has been cut off by the US government, Huawei has been successful in obtaining US patents. Huawei's patent ranking last year was able to rise from ninth to fifth in 2020, in part due to the decrease in the number of patents obtained by other companies. Last year, the number of patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office fell 7% year-on-year. Samsung, Canon, and TSMC ranked second to fourth, but the number of U.S. patents they obtained last year fell by 1%, 6%, and 1%, respectively, year-on-year.

Globally, Chinese companies dominate. In 2021, Samsung still ranked first with 90,416 patents, but six Chinese entities, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Huawei, have more invention patents than IBM. IBM only ranked eighth. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Midea Group, Huawei, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, China State Construction Group, and Gree Electric Appliances ranked second to seventh respectively.

Of the 327,329 U.S. patents issued last year, U.S. companies accounted for less than half. Chinese companies rank fourth in terms of the number of patents they have obtained, but are expected to overtake South Korea as the third largest recipient of patents. IFI Claims CEO Mike Baycroft said the total number of U.S. patent applications fell last year, but only Chinese and Swiss companies did not hold back.

"It's something that makes us all feel puzzling," he said, "is it related to COVID-19?" We don't know, but it's a possible explanation. ”

Artificial intelligence and machine learning remain the fastest growing areas for innovation. In this field, IBM, Samsung, Google, Intel and Microsoft are leading the way.

(7849859)