#China #Beijing #Huawei #Innovation #Intellectual Property

Huawei's Sixth Innovation and Intellectual Property Forum

On November 11, 2025, in the vibrant city of Beijing, Huawei held its sixth Innovation and Intellectual Property (IP) Forum, a pivotal event focused on the role of openness in driving innovation. The forum gathered numerous experts in innovation and intellectual property from around the globe, all aiming to explore how open practices can enhance creativity and societal progress.

Liuping Song, Huawei's Legal Affairs Director, highlighted the company’s commitment to open innovation, stating, "Open innovation propels society and technology forward. It is part of our DNA. A transparent approach to innovation is essential for us." Furthermore, he emphasized Huawei’s respect for others’ intellectual property and the protection of its own, which includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

In 2024, Huawei generated approximately $630 million in revenue from patent licensing. The company’s payments for patent rights over the years have nearly tripled the amount it has received from its own licensing activities. Marco Alemán, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), remarked that Huawei stands out as a leading global user of WIPO's services, characterizing it as a powerful engine for innovation. In 2024, Huawei filed 6,600 published patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), affirming its position as the largest user of the PCT system since 2014.

Etienne Sanz de Acedo, CEO of the International Trademark Association, noted, "As an intangible asset, intellectual property serves as a universal language that translates innovation and creativity into measurable value." Additionally, Ningling Wang, the newly elected President of the Licensing Executives Society International, encouraged industry leaders, policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to bolster collaboration, share insights, eliminate barriers, and embody responsible licensing.

Throughout the forum, Huawei showcased innovations that earned accolades in the Top Ten Inventions list for the sixth time. These innovations span various business domains crucial for future development, including computing solutions, the HarmonyOS operating system, and advanced storage technologies. Alan Fan, Huawei's Vice President and IP Division Director, underscored the company’s role as a leading contributor in the ICT sector. He noted Huawei’s commitment to sharing technologies via open-source software, open-source hardware, patent applications, expert publications, and participation in formulating technical standards.

In a notable achievement, Huawei published 37,000 patents in 2024, reaching a new corporate high. Moreover, the company contributed over 10,000 technical proposals to standardization organizations while releasing more than 1,000 scholarly articles. Simultaneously, the source code for OpenHarmony expanded by an additional 10 million lines, thanks to contributions from over 8,100 community members, and the openEuler system exceeded 10 million installations.

By the end of 2024, Huawei’s patent-based mobile standards had licensed over 2.7 billion 5G devices. In the Wi-Fi domain, more than 1.2 billion consumer electronics devices received licenses based on Huawei's patents. Additionally, over 3.2 billion multimedia devices were licensed under the company’s video codec patents. A total of 48 Fortune Global 500 companies hold direct or indirect licenses from Huawei.

Heiwai Tang, a Vice-Rector at the University of Hong Kong, emphasized that innovation acts as a key driver of modern economic growth, insisting that its sustainability depends on a robust, open, and globally credible patent system. He was pleased to see companies like Huawei adhering to international intellectual property standards, maximizing value while fostering a healthy business environment.

To promote open innovation further, Huawei launched the Chaspark Patent website in June 2024 - a free, efficient, and reliable platform for researchers worldwide to access patent information. This service is particularly beneficial for students, individual researchers, and smaller tech organizations that often face financial hurdles. Major updates to Chaspark Patent were announced during the forum, including new features like semantic search and AI-driven summaries.

Other notable speakers at the forum included Yali Zhu, CEO of PatSnap China; Qi Wang, Asia Pacific Director at Clarivate; Mattia Fogliacco, President of Sisvel; and Laurie Fitzgerald, President of Avanci Vehicle, who shared their insights and best practices on open innovation.

In conclusion, Song reaffirmed Huawei's dedication to creating an environment that protects innovation and intellectual property. He expressed the company’s commitment to collaborating closely with industry partners to promote constructive IP protection, ensuring the industry continues to grow and develop collectively.