#China #Beijing #Huawei #Intellectual Property #Innovation Forum

Huawei's Sixth Innovation and Intellectual Property Forum in Beijing

On November 11, 2025, Huawei organized its sixth Forum on Innovation and Intellectual Property in Beijing, gathering thought leaders and experts from across the globe. The forum served as a platform not only to celebrate groundbreaking advancements but also to announce the winners of Huawei's biennial "Top Ten Inventions" award. This event marked a significant step in discussing the critical role that open innovation and intellectual property (IP) protection play in fostering societal progress and technological advancement.

Liuping Song, Huawei's Chief Legal Officer, emphasized, "Open innovation is part of our DNA. We are committed to adopting an open approach to innovation." He elaborated on the company's respect for third-party IP and its commitment to safeguarding its own IP through patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

In the past year, Huawei reported patent licensing revenues of approximately $630 million, significantly outstripping the royalties paid by the company, which were nearly three times the amount received in royalties.

Marco Alemán, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), acknowledged Huawei's prominent role in utilizing WIPO’s global IP services and as a leader in innovation. He revealed that Huawei submitted around 6,600 applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2024, maintaining its position as the top user of the PCT system since 2014.

Etienne Sanz de Acedo, General Director of the International Trademark Association, remarked that intellectual property represents invaluable assets that translate innovation and creativity into quantifiable value. Further encouraging collaborative engagements, Ningling Wang, the elected president of the Licensing Executives Society International, called upon industry leaders, policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to promote collaboration and share knowledge while engaging in responsible licensing practices.

Amid these discussions, Huawei unveiled the winning innovations highlighted in its sixth "Top Ten Inventions" award, spanning diverse sectors vital for future development, including computing, the HarmonyOS operating system, and data storage.

Alan Fan, Huawei’s Vice President and Head of IP Rights, reiterated the company’s commitment to sharing its technological advancements. He stated, "As a leading technology contributor in the ICT sector, we share our technologies through open software, open hardware, patent applications, participation in drafting standards, and by publishing academic papers."

In 2024 alone, Huawei achieved a remarkable milestone by publishing 37,000 patents, setting a new record for the company. Moreover, Huawei submitted over 10,000 technical contributions to standardization bodies and published more than 1,000 academic articles. The contributions of over 8,100 community members led to an additional 10 million lines of code enriching the OpenHarmony source code, while OpenEuler has surpassed 10 million installations.

In cellular standards, more than 2.7 billion 5G devices have been licensed under Huawei’s patents by the end of 2024. Additionally, over 1.2 billion consumer electronic devices obtained licenses under Huawei’s patents related to Wi-Fi, and licenses for the company’s video codec patents were granted for around 3.2 billion devices. Notably, 48 companies from the Fortune Global 500 possess licenses directly or indirectly from Huawei.

Heiwai Tang, an associate vice president at the University of Hong Kong, spoke at the forum, highlighting innovation as a key driver of modern economic growth. He asserted that sustainable innovation relies on a robust, open, and globally trusted patent system. He expressed satisfaction at seeing companies like Huawei adopt international IP standards, enhancing their value while promoting a healthy commercial ecosystem.

In a bid to further open innovation, Huawei launched the "Chaspark Patent" platform in June 2024, providing researchers worldwide access to patent information that would typically be costly. At the forum, substantial updates were announced for the Chaspark Patent platform, including new features like semantic search and AI-generated summaries.

Guest speakers at the forum included Yali Zhu of PatSnap China, Qi Wang from Clarivate for the Asia-Pacific, Mattia Fogliacco of Sisvel, and Laurie Fitzgerald of Avanci Vehicle, each sharing insights and best practices for open innovation.

Liuping Song concluded the event, stating, "We are committed to creating an environment that protects innovation and intellectual property, and we are working closely with our industry partners to promote constructive IP protection. This collaborative approach will enable all sectors to grow and develop together."