This information was revealed at the 6th Annual Innovation and Intellectual Property (IP) Forum, taking place in Beijing (China).
Alan Fan, head of Huawei's Intellectual Property Department, has announced that the company will have 37,000 patents in 2024, "setting a new record for the company". As of the end of last year, Huawei has held more than 150,000 patents in operation globally.
Legal director Liuping Song said that Huawei has paid for patents nearly three times more than it has paid for in recent years. According to him, Huawei has invested more than 24 billion USD in R&D activities (r&D), accounting for about 20.8% of total revenue.
In a media seminar, Mr. Song explained that 4G and 5G devices will generate the majority of licensed revenue in 2024, followed by cars and consumer electronics. Patent revenue is divided equally between Asia - Pacific, the US and Europe, each accounting for about a third of total revenue from intellectual property.
Mr. Fan also emphasized that Huawei has made more than 10,000 technical proposals to standards organizations inside and outside China, as well as published more than 1,000 academic papers in 2024.
Although he has not sold hardware in the US since being blacklisted for international trade in 2019 due to national security concerns, Song stressed that the US remains the key to Huawei's intellectual property.
"Although we don't sell the product in the US, we still apply for a US patent," he said. Patent applications in the US are still taking place quite normally. It is not affected by geopolitical reasons."
About a third of Huawei's patenting revenue is now coming from the US, largely from phone makers, as well as Wi-Fi and auto suppliers.
According to Alan Fan, Huawei expects patent revenue to increase by 2025, with the reason being that there is increasing recognition in the technology industry for Huawei's inventions from Wi-Fi, 5G, audio and video.
