Huawei Ranked Second Among Patent Applications Filed with the EPO

In 2018, businesses and inventors continued to file large numbers of patent applications to the European Patent Office (EPO). Huawei had the second most patent applications in 2018 with 2,485 applications.

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Apart from Huawei, applications from China rose by 8.8 percent. And China ranked fourth among the top five filing regions. Others include Europe, the U.S., Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

The EPO spokesman said that Chinese companies have been “very active” in patent applications, which indicates that China is transforming from the world’s low-cost factory to a global innovative lab.

China came in fifth with 5 percent in terms of origin of patent applications, following the U.S., Germany, Japan and France.

Although China has been increasing its numbers of applications over the years, the rate has still been low in the past five years. According to the EPO, this was mainly attributed to slower growth in some of the country’s most patent-intensive fields, such as those in computer technology, electrical machinery and energy, and audio-visual technology,

China is expanding “their technology road” by exploring fields other than digital communication, as a spokesperson said.

The top technological fields where most patent applications were filed at the EPO were in medical technology, digital communication and computer technology. The figures show that China and Korea do particularly well in Information and Communication Technology, an area where their industries are highly specialized in.

The number of patent applications filed with EPO grew by 4.6 percent last year, and reached a record high of 174,000.

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