Huawei tops list of Patent Cooperation Treaty applications with bright ideas

Overall, the total number of international patent filings under WIPO's PCT for 2008 represents the highest number of applications received under the PCT in a single year and China improved its ranking by one place, to become the sixth largest user of the PCT, with 6,089 filings.

According to WIPO, Huawei beat Philips Electronics, which had topped the list for a decade but in 2008 fell to third place with 1,551 filings. Panasonic came second with 1,729 international patent applications.

For the first time, China beat Britain in the number of international patent filings.
The number of international patents filed by mainland firms rose 11.9 percent to 6,089, putting China in sixth, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea and France.

Mr. Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President, Middle East Region at Huawei Technologies, said:

"Contrary to the general perception that Chinese products and solutions compete only on the basis of pricing mix more so in the telecom industry, Huawei Technologies contradicted this belief with its R&D initiatives as the company emerged as the largest patent applicant in 2008."

"Huawei's ranking and its focus on research is a contrast to the public that our company an Innovative organization which invests an average of 10% of its revenue in R&D, participates in standardization organizations, and holds a large number of patents," added Ghattas.

The PCT offers inventors and industry an advantageous route for obtaining patent protection internationally. By filing one 'international' patent application under the PCT, protection of an invention can be sought simultaneously in each of a large number of countries. Both applicants and patent offices of PCT member states benefit from the uniform formality requirements, the international search and preliminary examination reports, and the centralized international publication provided by the PCT system.

The national patent granting procedure and the related expenses are postponed, in the majority of cases, by up to 18 months (or even longer in the case of some offices) as compared with the traditional patent system. By this time, the applicant will have received important value-added information concerning the likelihood of obtaining patent protection as well as potential commercial interest in that invention.