(Yicai Global) July 14 -- Huawei Technologies has added manufacturers of fourth-generation mobile network-based cell phones, Wi-Fi6 devices and Internet of Things-driven equipment to the list of companies it charges to use its patents to ensure that the Chinese telecoms giant remains at the forefront of innovation.

Royalty fees on 4G smartphones will be up to USD1.50 per unit, the Shenzhen-based company said yesterday at the Huawei 2023 Innovation and Intellectual Property Forum in Shenzhen. It already charges a royalty fee for the use of its 5G patents of up to USD2.50 per smartphone.

“Huawei earned around USD560 million from patent licensing last year, more than it spent on patent licensing for the second time ever, but its total expenditure is still three times what it earns from the sale of intellectual property rights,” Shen Hongfei, vice president of Huawei's legal department, said at the forum.

“Huawei has spent more than CNY977.3 billion (USD136.8 billion) on research and development in the past decade,” said Chief Legal Officer Song Liuping. And the company had over 120,000 approved patents globally by the end of last year, he added.

Reasonable charges are the result of innovation, not the purpose of it, Shen said. Huawei is not introducing these fees to boost revenue and profit. The firm takes part in major patent pools worldwide to earn income as a patent right holder and to get patent licenses as a patent user.

“Huawei advocates reasonable charges on patents, which are neither too high nor too low,” Shen said. “This is because if the fees are too low it will restrain innovation, but if they are too high they will result in unreasonable costs paid by patent users and thus hinder the widespread use of advanced technologies, making innovation the privilege of the minority.”

“Huawei is applying for or owns 20 percent of the world’s Wi-Fi6 patents, 10 percent of 4G patents, 15 percent of patents on narrowband IOT and long-term evolution machine type communications, which constitute the main source of Huawei’s income from patent licensing,” Shen said.

The firm bagged between USD1.2 billion and USD1.3 billion in income from intellectual property from 2019 to 2021, according to data the company released earlier.

More than 350 firms have obtained Huawei’s patent licenses via patent pools, according to data released at the forum. Huawei has penned nearly 200 bilateral patent license agreements with leading tech firms, such as Samsung Group, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications and Nokia Corp., as well as automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor