Huawei tops 5G patents ranking while Qualcomm leads in true value

A new report from LexisNexis shows that Huawei has taken the top spot in the 5G patents ranking, but Qualcomm has won in true value. The research firm has analyzed last year’s patent data among the top brands in the global market.

LexisNexis has been working on a project called “Cellular Verified” for last year. It collected data from 30 top 5G patent-holding companies to improve patent data accuracy. It further turned the details into an understanding database, as per ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) protocols.

The company entitled this report “Who is leading the 5G patent race?” It has the top 100 5G ultimate patent owners and global standards contributing entities.

Among these 100 patent owners, Huawei ranked first in the 5G Patents ranking while Qualcomm won the title of true value patent firm. With these results, the report has divided the patent listings into two sectors. Let’s understand it in detail.

Firstly, Huawei ranked first in the 5G patent in four different categories:

• Patent Families pending and granted
• Patent Familities granted
• Patent Familities granted (only 5G declared)
• Submitted technical 5G standards contributions.

Under these categories, Qualcomm obtained the second spot and Ericsson came third. Others on the list include LG, Samsung, ZTE, as well as Nokia till the 7th spot.

Huawei tops 5G patents ranking while Qualcomm leads in true value (Image Credits: Qualcomm)

The report further highlighted that, unlike the US cellular tech, Chinese tech is far better. Hence, Huawei achieved amazing grades for its innovative patents.

But LexisNexis revealed that these rankings don’t make Huawei the winner of the 5G Patents race. The company said that not all patents are equal and made a separate ranking called “Patent Asset Index”. Under this category, Qualcomm came first.

Patent Asset Index showed Huawei on second spot while Ericsson at fifth. As per the report, this category reflects value-based metrics for 5G patent data. It says:

“These shifts underscore that applying a value-based metric like the Patent Asset Index to 5G-declared patent data alters the landscape, favoring R&D-driven companies and those with rigorous patent acquisition and monetization strategies. This approach highlights portfolios with higher value, providing a more meaningful assessment than raw patent counts alone.”

Simply put, LexisNexis used metrics to generate the score of individual patent families. Thus, both Huawei and Qualcomm lead the 5G patent race in different aspects.

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