Telecom equipment and software provider ZTE Corporation today said it was ranked # 1 in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s latest annual list for patent applications – ahead of Huawei and Qualcomm.
ZTE filed 4,123 applications for patents under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2016, more than any other company, according to data published by WIPO.
ZTE moved into the top position after ranking # 3 a year earlier, and the company had been placed inside the Top-3 in WIPO’s annual list each year since 2010.
Huawei Technologies, with 3,692 patent applications in 2016, was ranked # 2 by WIPO, followed by Qualcomm with 2,466, Mitsubishi Electric with 2,053 and LG Electronics with 1,888.
“ZTE’s top position in the new WIPO annual patent rankings reflects our ongoing drive to lead the ICT industry in the development of next-generation technologies,” said Shen Nan, chief intellectual property officer of ZTE.
ZTE has 20 R&D centers in Asia, North America and Europe. ZTE invests more than 10 percent of annual revenue on R&D, employing over 30,000 research professionals in the development of next-generation technologies including 5G, IoT, NFV, SDN, Cloud Computing, Big Data and Smart City.
ZTE has filed more than 1,500 5G-related patent applications. In fact, ZTE was the first technology vendor to verify key technologies in the 5G millimetre wave and sub-6GHz frequencies in 2016. ZTE has completed 5G single-point technology and prototype verification.
ZTE said its Pre5G solutions enable telecom carriers to fast-track the application of 5G technologies on existing 4G LTE infrastructure, and are deployed in more than 40 networks in 30 countries by carriers including SoftBank, China Mobile and Telefonica.
