According to the latest LexisNexis report, although Huawei maintains a leading position in 5G contribution, Qualcomm has surpassed Huawei in “True Value”.

For many years, the evaluation of 5G patent ownership has failed to reach a consensus on the position of various stakeholders in the ranking table. Different consulting firms and law firms have provided varying ranking results. This is mainly due to inconsistent reporting methods used by technical contributors. To address this issue, LexisNexis (which acquired IPLytics two years ago) has launched a project called “Cellular Verified”, which aims to clean and validate patent data to improve its accuracy.

After a year of hard work, LexisNexis has released a new report titled ‘Who is leading the 5G patent race?’ (with a download link attached at the end of the article). The report points out that since the launch of 5G, the number of patent claims has surged, increasing from 18832 “declared patent families” in 2020 to 57426 in October last year. The report subsequently listed the top 100 ultimate 5G patent owners and technology contributing entities, with Huawei occupying the top spot.

However, the report also developed a separate ranking called the Patent Asset Index, which takes into account the value differences of different patents, not just the quantity. Under this value oriented indicator, Qualcomm ranks among the top, Huawei ranks second, and Ericsson ranks fifth. Some research focused institutions have performed well, such as InterDigital located in Delaware, which rose from 17th place on the contribution table to 7th place on the patent asset index.

These changes emphasize the impact of using value based metrics such as the Patent Asset Index on 5G declared patent data, which is more advantageous for research and development driven companies as well as those with strict patent acquisition and monetization strategies. This method highlights higher value investment portfolios and provides a more meaningful evaluation than just the number of patents.

However, the ‘Cellular Verified’ project is unlikely to end the debate over 5G ownership or prevent others from publishing their own patent forms. Experts may wish to learn more about the methodology behind the patent asset index. Anyway, Qualcomm’s advantage in LexisNexis value ranking seems to indicate many issues, especially in core 5G technologies such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), where Qualcomm’s position is particularly important.