Recently, Huawei released its annual report for 2024, announcing that as of December 31, 2024, it had signed more than 230 licensing agreements.

In 2024, Huawei signed major deals with Amazon and Vivo, both of which involved 5G patents. It also helped launch Via LA’s Voice Codec pool alongside Dolby, ETRI, JVCKenwood, and NTT and transferred over 760 3GPP-related patent assets to Ueran Technology, a U.S.-based non-practising entity, that were previously owned by Samsung, Sharp, Innovation Technologies Lab, and Alcatel Lucent. Most recently, Huawei announced its intention to join Via Licensing Alliance’s HEVC/VVC patent pool as a VVC licensor and licensee. And, at the turn of the new year, it settled its WiFi 6 standard-essential patent (SEP) dispute with Netgear.

Huawei’s net profit saw a 28% year-on-year drop. However, this is largely due to a huge surge in R&D investments.It spent 179.7 billion yuan ($24.7 billion) on R&D in 2024, representing 20.8% of its revenue and a 22.4% year-on-year surge. It has now spent over 1.2 trillion yuan ($165 billion) on R&D over the last decade. As of December, more than half (54.1%) of the company’s workforce was made up of R&D staff (113,000 people), which suggests the company is doubling down on becoming a technology leader and licensor.

In its annual report today, Huawei stated that the company is an industry leader in patents in multiple major standard fields, including cellular communications, short-distance communications, and audio and video codecs. In its report, Huawei also emphasized its commitment to the ICT sector, noting it has reached cross-license agreements with several major ICT companies across the globe.

From IPRdaily

April 3rd, 2025