Yesterday, Huawei released its annual report (March 31, 2026 Huawei press release).
The following screenshot from the English version states some impressive figures —165K active granted patents and 260 license agreements:
The patent count is the result of a huge investment in R&D: approximately $28B last year (21.8% of Huawei’s revenue of approximately $128B), and $200B over the last decade (with the R&D percentage consistently in the double digits). Almost 54% of Huawei’s workforce worked in R&D.
Huawei licenses its patents bilaterally and through pools.
In our recent interview with Presiding Judge Dr. Oliver Schoen (“Schön”) of the Munich I Regional Court’s 7th Civil Chamber, we also talked about the fact that the percentage of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) by Chinese companies continues to increase. Huawei accounts for a significant part of that trend. It is one of the world’s largest patent holders.