Huawei turns to patents for a lifeline — including those in the U.S.

BEIJING — Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is turning to patents for a lifeline as the company seeks to forge a path forward in advanced chip technology — the prized tech which the U.S. is trying to cut off from China.

In 2022, Huawei announced it signed more than 20 new or extended licensing agreements for its patents. Most were with automakers, for 4G and LTE wireless technology, the company said.

Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW and at least one U.S. automaker were among the licensees, said Huawei’s global intellectual property head Alan Fan. He said he wasn’t able to say which American company.

Huawei has more on the way — and filed a record number of more than 11,000 patent applications with the U.S. in 2022, according to IFI Claims Patent Services. Their analysis showed just under half typically get approved each year.

But the sheer number of patents filed meant Huawei ranked fourth last year by the number of patent grants in the U.S., IFI said. Samsung was first, followed by IBM and TSMC.

“The U.S. is still a substantial market that everybody wants to have a part of,” said IFI Chief Executive Mike Baycroft. “They want to make sure when they’re developing those technologies that they’re protecting those IP [intellectual property] rights for the U.S. market for the European market.”

Over the last two years, Huawei’s U.S. patents have increased the most in areas related to image compression, digital information transmission and wireless communication networks, according to IFI.

The U.S. government put Huawei on a blacklist in 2018 that restricted its ability to buy from American suppliers. By October 2022, the U.S. made it clear that no Americans should work with Chinese businesses on high-end semiconductor tech.

Huawei’s revenue dropped for the first time on record in 2021, and the consumer division that…