Huawei granted most patents in China in first half of 2019

Huawei has been granted the highest number of patents in China since the beginning of 2019, according to the country’s National Intellectual Property Administration.

The statistics, which were released yesterday, July 9, ranked the companies which have filed the most patents.

The total number of patents granted in the first half of this year, 238,000, is up 9.9% on the previous year. Of those that have been granted, Huawei owns 2,314.

In comparison, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted 308,853 utility patents in the whole of 2018, according to IFI Claims Patent Services.

Huawei was followed by oil and gas company, Sinopec, which has been granted 1,595 patents this year. Ranking third, smartphone maker Oppo has been granted 1,312 patents.

Additionally, NIPA said in total, Chinese courts have heard 6,529 patent infringement cases in the first six months of 2019.

Hu Wenhui, a spokesperson for the NIPA, said that by the end of June, China had 12.5 invention patents per 10,000 people, fulfilling the country’s Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) ahead of schedule, he said.

"We have always upheld equal protection of IP rights of domestic and foreign enterprises," Hu said.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, the number of foreign patent applications in China has now reached 78,000, which is an increase of 8.6% since 2018.

Japan ranked first as having filed the most patents, followed by the US and Germany.

Gen Shu, an official with the NIPA, told Xinhua that the continued growth of foreign IP applications in China shows the “confidence of global players in China’s IP protection”.