In late April, the China National Intellectual Property Administration released a “6G Communications Technology Patent Development Report”, identifying more than 38,000 rights applications thought to be relevant to the next generation of wireless standards. The headline finding is that 35% of the cited patents come from China. That ranks China as the world's biggest owner of 6G patents, securing a lead over the United States, which is the next biggest source of possible 6G patents with 18% of the total.

Despite all, the top five entities identified as holding 6G-relevant rights are all from Japan and South Korea. The leaders of the pack so far: NEC, Daewoo Communications, Mitsubishi Electric, ETRI, and Samsung. Huawei and ZTE don’t figure in the top 10, while Chengdu city-based University of Electronic Science and Technology of China made it onto the list, ranking 6th.

It is also noteworthy that 80% of the 6G telecommunications patents applications in China were filed by domestic entities, of which the top 10 are Chinese universities and research institutes.

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