China Academy of Information and Communications Technology: Global ranking of 5G standard essential patents in 2022: Huawei's effective global patent families account for 14.59%

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the "Global 5G Standard Essential Patents and Standard Proposal Research Report (2023)". The report shows that this year, a total of 5 Chinese brands were selected into the TOP10 list, one more than last year, and now occupy half of the list. Among them, Huawei ranks first in the world in 5G standard essential patents, and Xiaomi enters the top ten for the first time with a high growth rate.

It is reported that the report conducted a statistical analysis based on all 5G declared patents and their family extension patents in the ETSI patent database as of December 31, 2022. Among the industry entities that have made 5G standard essential patent declarations in ETSI, the number of valid global patent families of the top ten companies accounted for more than 75% of the total number of patent families, which basically reflects the main trends in global 5G standard essential patent activities.

In terms of the proportion of valid global patent families, Huawei ranks first with a proportion of 14.59%; Qualcomm ranks second with a proportion of 10.04%; Samsung ranks third with a proportion of 8.80%. The companies ranked fourth to tenth are ZTE, LG, Nokia, Ericsson, Datang, OPPO and Xiaomi.

Among them, domestic brands performed outstandingly. As of June 2022, there were more than 210,000 5G standard essential patents declared worldwide, involving 47,000 patent families. There were 18,000 patent families declared from China, accounting for 40% of the world, ranking first.

This is the first time that Xiaomi has ranked among the top ten in the world in terms of 5G standard essential patents. By the end of 2020, the number of Xiaomi's 5G standard patent declarations ranked among the top 15 in the world, and by the end of 2021 it ranked among the top 13, and by the end of 2022 it ranked among the top 10.

Public reports show that Xiaomi established a 5G pre-research team as early as 2015, while Qualcomm started 5G research and development in 2006, a gap of about 10 years between the two brands. However, the current share of the number of valid global patent families of the two brands is 10% and 4% respectively, and the gap is getting smaller and smaller.

It is not difficult to see from the data share that Xiaomi has grown at an astonishing rate in recent years. As of September 2022, Xiaomi has joined more than 30 international/national/industry standardization organizations and held key positions in some of them.

Xiaomi has submitted more than 3,200 5G/B5G-related technical documents to 3GPP, more than 80 audio and video-related technical documents to MPEG and 3GPP SA4, and has taken the lead and participated in the formulation of more than 260 national, industry and group standards.

Among them, 3GPP is a standardization organization that formulates global mobile communication technical specifications. Xiaomi has achieved full coverage of the three working groups of RAN, SA and CT of 3GPP and has taken the lead in related topics. At present, 3GPP is in the transition stage from 5G-A (ie 5.5G) to 6G. The next few years will be a critical period for the formulation of 6G international standards.

According to the first intellectual property white paper released by Xiaomi at the end of last year, Xiaomi's technology research and development has entered 12 technical fields, including 5G mobile communication technology, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. At the same time, based on intelligent manufacturing, it has entered robots, unmanned factories, smart electric vehicles, etc., with a total of 98 sub-sectors. By the end of 2022, Xiaomi will own more than 30,000 patents worldwide.

Zikuai Technology