The Chinese company filed the highest number of new inventions with the European Patent Office last year.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich The Chinese IT supplier Huawei is under a lot of pressure because of the US sanctions. “The struggle for survival is not over yet,” Chairman Guo Ping said recently. The only way forward is through continued heavy investment in research and development.
The Chinese innovation offensive is having an effect: In the ranking of the European Patent Office, Huawei regained first place from Samsung with 3544 applications. As the best German company, Siemens was able to move up to fifth place with 1,720 registrations last year. The second best applicant from Germany is Bosch (1289).
Huawei represents a clear trend: “Chinese companies are showing a high level of innovation, especially in digital technologies,” said Yann Ménière, chief economist at the European Patent Office (EPO), the Handelsblatt. China concentrates on a few global companies, which then apply for many patents in selected areas. “Chinese companies are among the leaders in digital communication.”
The development can be clearly seen in the numbers. The number of patent applications by Chinese companies in Europe rose by 24 percent last year to 16,665 registered inventions. China, which now ranks fourth, posted by far the largest increase among the major nations.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Huawei has been hit hard by US sanctions imposed by then-US President Donald Trump in 2019. Since then, the company has been largely cut off from the supply of high-tech semiconductors that contain US technology. In addition, the company is no longer allowed to use the Google operating system Android.
“Germany needs to step up its game”
The result: Last year, Huawei sales collapsed by more than a quarter to almost $100 billion. The group wants to turn things around with new developments. Last year alone, Huawei spent more than $22 billion on research and development. According to an analysis by the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, only Google parent Alphabet recently spent more on R&D. In the past ten years, the Chinese IT equipment supplier has spent a total of 132 billion US dollars.
The group employs more than 100,000 people in this area. There is an incentive system for them to apply for patents. The Chinese group currently holds more than 110,000 patents.
Huawei represents the entire Chinese economy. The annual report of the Federal Government’s Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (Efi) also recently reported that China was catching up at an enormous pace.
The European Patent Office in Munich recorded a record number of applications last year.
(Photo: imago images/Smith)
In the past 20 years, China has increased its research output in future digital technologies by a factor of 17.5. In Germany, the number of publications increased by a factor of 3.4. “Germany needs to step up its game here in order not to run the risk of losing technological sovereignty and thereby risking prosperity,” said Efi Chairman Uwe Cantner.
In politics and business, there is always a controversial discussion about how valuable Chinese patents actually are. But with a view to the registrations in Europe, EPA chief economist Ménière sees no “mass instead of class” effect. “The patent applications of Chinese companies in Europe are of the same high quality as those from other regions of the world.”
>> Be there: At the Handelsblatt Innovation Summit we show the latest ideas and products from the research laboratories and companies
In China itself there is a much larger number of applications, of which only a limited proportion is also submitted in Europe, according to Ménière. But then the applications resulted in a granted patent about as often as with companies from other countries.
At the top of the patent office statistics, however, is again the USA with 46,533 applications. Companies from Germany were able to slightly increase the number of registrations last year to 25,969 registrations. That was enough for second place.
Number of patent applications in Europe increases again
Among the German companies, the industrial group Siemens performed particularly well and improved to fifth place. “Siemens is still at the top of German companies,” said Siemens boss Roland Busch. In research and development, the group is concentrating on the topics of sustainability and digitization. “With success: In these fields we are particularly strong with new patents.”
Siemens is strong in the digital transformation of classic industries, said EPA chief economist Ménière. The group is now also registering many inventions in the IT and software sectors. “We need more comparable players in Germany and Europe.” Besides Siemens, only the supplier Bosch made it into the ten companies with the most patent applications in Europe.
After a small setback in the first year of the corona virus, the Patent Office again recorded a new record with an increase of 4.5 percent to a total of 188,600 applications in 2021. “We are seeing a return to normality,” said Ménière.
The most important future fields included autonomous driving and electromobility as well as the transformation of the energy industry towards renewable energies. “Especially in the energy sector we see many innovations from Germany.” Experience has shown that there is a correlation between energy prices and registrations in this field. “Therefore, the activities here should now continue to increase.”
Most companies invest long-term and sustainably in innovations, says Ménière. As a result, there are few short-term fluctuations in business cycles. The chief economist would therefore not expect any short-term effects from the Ukraine war. “The innovation area is very resilient.” Companies know how important long-term investments in research and development are.
More: Germany falls behind in key technologies.