Chinese tech firms, led by Huawei, continue to play a central role in global ownership of 5G standard-essential patents, according to the latest analysis by LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions.
Chinese telecom titan Huawei ranks first overall among global 5G patent holders when assessed across multiple benchmarks, according to new analysis by LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions.“Who Is Leading the 5G Patent Race?” shows Huawei holding the largest number of active and granted 5G-declared patent families worldwide and leading in substantive technical submissions to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, underscoring the company’s influence over the development of the 5G standard.
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However, the report notes that when portfolio quality is assessed specifically using the Patent Asset Index — which weights overall portfolio strength based on citation patterns and geographic breadth — Huawei ranks second globally, behind US-based Qualcomm.
The split highlights a key distinction in the licensing landscape: Huawei dominates in scale and standards participation, while Qualcomm’s portfolio shows higher average technical influence per patent family.
— Embedded influence —
Other Chinese innovators also feature prominently, though each shows a different mix of strengths. ZTE ranks sixth overall and places sixth across each of the three core benchmarks — patent counts, value-based metrics and standards contributions — indicating a relatively balanced 5G patent portfolio.
State-backed operators China Mobile and CICT also post strong results in standards contributions. Although they rank lower on patent value metrics, their sustained engagement in global standards-setting work signals continued strategic interest in shaping future generations of mobile technology.
Compared with the 2025 LexisNexis 5G report (see here), the latest analysis goes beyond patent volume by linking patent family counts to 3GPP working groups, each of which is responsible for developing a different technical layer of the standard.
The newer framework highlights how Huawei’s influence is embedded across core, mandatory technologies, particularly key working groups such as RAN 1 and RAN 2.
— Global Frand —
The report’s findings land as Chinese courts take on a more visible role in global standard-essential patent, or SEP, rate-setting. In a landmark decision in 2023, the Chongqing First Intermediate People’s Court set global royalty rates for Nokia’s cellular SEPs in a dispute with OPPO (see here), adopting a zone-based approach that differentiated rates by market and level of economic development.
The same court is now handling a separate 5G SEP dispute between ZTE and Samsung, in which ZTE has asked the court to determine licensing rates on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory, or Frand, terms.
“Worldwide courts increasingly rely on 5G patent data when evaluating and determining Frand rates,” Tim Pohlmann, head of SEP analytics for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, said. Whether applying a top-down methodology or a comparable license approach to royalty rate setting, courts are turning to patent data to assess portfolio strength and comparability, with even small shifts in perceived patent share carrying potentially large financial consequences.
“Asian 5G patent holders are steadily increasing their share and rising in the top ranks,” Pohlmann noted, adding that “5G leadership is not only about collecting royalties, but reflects even more who controls and defines the next generation shift from 5G to 6G.”
The growing prominence of Chinese SEP holders also feeds into broader US-China technological competition. As the two nations vie for leadership in next-generation communications, control over SEPs has become a strategic asset, shaping licensing flows, litigation dynamics and regulatory debates.
With Chinese firms holding a rising share of 5G SEPs and Chinese courts asserting a role in setting global Frand rates, the intersection of patent law, geopolitics and competition policy is becoming increasingly difficult for global players to ignore.
— Scale vs. selectivity —
China’s hands-on approach — treating standards development as part of the national infrastructure, central to industrial and innovation policy — leaves little to chance or corporate ethos.
In a 2021 National Standardization Development Outline, it vowed to “vigorously cultivate and develop a standardization culture” and said fiscal reserves “should be leveraged to actively guide social capital investment in standardization work.”
That has meant an offset for Chinese innovators of the costs associated with participating in 3GPP and other standard setting organizations as well as financial rewards for technical contributions, resulting in earlier and more frequent 5G declarations.
The US, by contrast, has largely left it to private industry to decide whether, and to what extent, investment in standards development is a worthwhile use of time and money.
Their differing philosophies could help explain some of the dynamics on display in the latest 5G Report: whereas China continues to strive for scale and breadth, the US is choosier, focusing on key choke points in the 5G value chain as determined by private industry.
Change could be on the horizon, however.
Last month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing cabinet agencies to organize efforts to boost innovation in wireless connectivity, with an emphasis on 6G.
Days later, the US Patent and Trademark Office announced the formation of an SEP Working Group (see here) “dedicated to ensuring that all patent holders — regardless of their size or sophistication — are treated fairly and that their rights receive strong and predictable enforcement wherever standards incorporate patented technologies.”
As one of its first initiatives, the group unveiled a pilot program to incentivize standards participation by SMEs, non-profits, universities and other traditionally underrepresented groups (see here).
Europe, meanwhile, continues to punch above its weight once population and market size are factored in. Ericsson, with headquarters in Stockholm, and Finland-based Nokia remain firmly entrenched in the top 10 across all three major benchmarks. But the duo overperform when it comes to 3GPP technical contributions, ranking 2nd (Ericsson) and 3rd (Nokia).
— analysis by Xiaoqiong Gao with additional reporting by Melissa Ritti
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