--Company discloses progress in IP, innovation at themed event

Huawei announced a batch of key inventions as part of its biennial "Top Ten 
Inventions" Awards at the "Broadening the Innovation Landscape 2022" forum held 
at its Shenzhen headquarters.

The award is designed to recognize inventions that could create new series of 
products, become important commercial features of existing products, or that 
generate considerable value for the company and the industry.

The awarded inventions range from an adder neural network that significantly 
reduces power consumption and circuit area to a game-changing "optical iris" 
that provides a unique identifier for optical fibers. It is designed to help 
carriers manage their network resources, cutting time and costs associated with 
broadband deployment.

The announcement came in the context of intellectual property rights, the 
protection and sharing of which Huawei believes is critical to the tech 
ecosystem.

"Protecting IP is key to protecting innovation," said Huawei's Chief Legal 
Officer, Song Liuping. "We are eager to license our patents and technologies to 
share our innovations with the world. This will help broaden the innovation 
landscape, drive our industry forward, and advance technology for everyone," he 
added.

"Huawei is constantly changing itself, and constantly showcasing to the world 
the value of IP from China," said Tian Lipu, President of the International 
Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property's China Chapter.

By the end of 2021, Huawei held more than 110,000 active patents across over 
45,000 patent families. It has more granted patents than any other Chinese 
company, has filed the most patent applications with the EU Patent Office, and 
ranked fifth in terms of new patents granted in the United States. For five 
straight years, Huawei has ranked No. 1 worldwide in terms of Patent 
Cooperation Treaty applications.

Alan Fan, Head of Huawei's IPR Department, said the value of Huawei patents has 
seen wide recognition in the industry, especially in mainstream standards such 
as cellular technology, Wi-Fi, and audio/video codecs.

"In the past five years, more than two billion smartphones have been licensed 
to Huawei's 4G/5G patents. And for cars, about eight million connected vehicles 
licensed to Huawei patents are being delivered to the consumers every year," 
Fan said.

Huawei is also working actively with patent license administration companies in 
offering "one-stop" licenses for mainstream standards.

"Over 260 companies—accounting for one billion devices—have obtained Huawei's 
HEVC patent licenses through a patent pool," Fan said. He added that the 
company is in discussions to establish a new patent pool to give the industry 
"quick access" to Huawei's patents for Wi-Fi devices worldwide.

Huawei is also discussing joint licensing programs for 5G patents with 
licensing experts and other leading industry patentees.

Liu Hua, Director of World Intellectual Property Organization Office in China, 
praised Huawei's sustained focus on innovation, saying: "We look forward to 
seeing Huawei continue to take part in high-level global competition with 
innovation at its core."

For Manuel Desantes, former Vice President of European Patent Office, given the 
vast number of changes in the world these days, what matters most is no longer 
the number of registered patents or inventions. "The IP system should assure 
that the creations that merit protection are those that bring actual value," he 
said.

This marked the third innovation and IP-themed event Huawei has hosted on its 
innovation practices. Every year, Huawei invests over 10% of its sales revenue 
into R&D.

In terms of R&D expenditure, Huawei ranked second in the 2021 EU Industrial R&D 
Investment Scoreboard. In 2021, the company increased its R&D investment to 
CNY142.7 billion, representing 22.4% of our total revenue. Over the past 
decade, Huawei's total R&D investment surpassed CNY845 billion.

SOURCE: Huawei