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Huawei
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Huawei seeks to generate revenues from patents as it signs dozens of licensing deals with companies like Nokia, BMW and Audi

  • The Shenzhen-based telecoms giant has signed more than 20 patent-licensing deals or extended such agreements this year
  • The company generated US$1.3 billion in revenue from licensing its patents between 2019 and 2021

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Huawei, which has thousands of patents, seeks to cash in on its R&D investments. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Huawei Technologies Co is doubling down on monetising its patents through licensing deals with overseas companies, as the Chinese tech giant scrambles to seek new sources of revenue after US sanctions crippled its once-lucrative smartphone business.

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On Friday, Huawei said it had extended a patent-licensing agreement with Finnish rival Nokia, but did not reveal the terms of the deal. The two network equipment makers had signed a licensing deal in 2017.

Huawei said this year it had signed more than 20 new patent licensing deals or extended agreements with companies in industries including smartphones, automobiles and telecommunications.

“We are delighted to see our technologies are helping the automotive and other vertical industries in their digitalisation,” said Alan Fan, head of Huawei’s intellectual property department. The royalties Huawei receives will in turn fund Huawei’s R&D efforts, he added.

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Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker and formerly China’s biggest smartphone vendor, has been expanding its patent-licensing arrangements while it looks for new revenue streams after it was added to Washington’s trade blacklist in 2019.
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Privately-held Huawei posted total 2021 revenue of 636.8 billion yuan (US$100 billion), a decline of 29 per cent from a year earlier, as sales from its consumer business, which includes smartphones, slumped 50 per cent to 243.4 billion yuan.
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