Huawei announced that it witnessed its largest ever jump in patent ownership last year. This included a variety of patents that it owns, which arrives after the company ramped up its analysis and growth effort in 2020.

According to a FinancialTimes report, the Chinese tech giant raised its efforts in innovation after it was placed in the Entity List trade ban, which essentially made it mandatory for US based firms to acquire license to trade with Huawei. Furthermore, the company also had its chip supply from TSMC cut off after the Trump administration reinforced restrictions on the company. Due to this, the brand’s smartphone shipments fell sharply within the final quarter of last year.

Thus, the smartphone maker ramped up its patent applications, with the firm holding more than 100,000 patents in 2020. This is up from 85,000 patents from a year prior, marking the highest annual jump of patents from the company. Notably, Huawei also ranks as the biggest patent holder, accounting for a large share of patents for a variety of fields like telecom equipment, 5G technology, and more.

The company has even filed for patents in applied sciences as well, including artificial intelligence. Additionally, the company was also the largest applicant in the World Intellectual Properaty Organization (WIPO). This move is also a part of the company’s efforts to raise its revenue from patent licensing, with it pushing for 5G mobile tech related patents in the US.

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The popular Chinese consumer electronic brand, Gree, has recently applied for an interesting new patent. The patent was applied for back in January 2020 and details an air conditioned sofa.

According to the patent description, the unique sofa will have a body through an air inlet, and outlet will be present. In other words, the sofa’s body could have its temperature to be controlled through air flow. The body of the Gree sofa will house a fan and an apparent cooling mechanism as well to reproduce the cooling effect of air conditioners.

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This cooling mechanism is said to be more efficient and effective than traditional air conditioners. The Gree sofa can possibly provide local cooling in regards to the users’ position. In other words, it can cool the surface area where the user is in contact with. This would essentially make it a lot more efficient and lower power consumption by only targetting areas that require cooling rather than cooling the entire sofa body.

Unfortunately, we have no design images or schematics of the product at the moment. Furthermore, even its specifications or mechanisms haven’t been detailed in the application. The patent was applied for in China’s Intellectual Property Office in Beijing but it is uncertain if Gree will actually develop such a product. So take this with a grain of salt for now.

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(Via)

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A unique Xiaomi smartphone has surfaced online through a new patent application from the company. The design was spotted on China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and reveals a smartphone with a twisting camera, that acts as both the primary and selfie shooter.

Looking at the patent, it can be observed that the display panel of the Xiaomi smartphone comprises of two parts. This includes the bottom half is the larger portion, while the smaller half houses the camera module. The latter portion that has the camera module can be twisted, bringing the rear camera module to the front to act as a selfie shooter.

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The smaller half sits on the top region of the smartphone and can be turned around. While we have seen examples of rotating cameras that make up both the front and rear cameras of a device, this is still a unique and new concept. The twisting mechanism occurs horizontally, meaning it rotates on its own axis and is joined by a hinge mechanism at the bottom.

This design may also be another form of attempt from Xiaomi to reduce bezels, although it remains unclear whether the process is automated or manual. The patent application could just be Xiaomi’s attempt to cover all bases since the viability of the technology is still uncertain. So, only time will tell if the Chinese tech giant actually plans on developing such a device.

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(Via)

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According to a recent EPO 2018 Annual report, Siemens has filed the most patent applications in Europe, drifting Huawei to the second place. In total, Siemens filed 2493 patent applications with a Year-on-Year increase of over 12.4%. On the other hand, Huawei registered 2485 patent applications with 3.6% growth on YoY basis. It is the only Chinese company which has made it to the top 10 EPO applicants list.

There are three US companies, four are from Europe and the remaining two are from the Republic of Korea in the list. Oppo is another Chinese manufacturer who has made a debut into the top 50 list. It is the 39th top filer at the EPO with 523 patent applications and registering 1276.3% of overall growth in a year. Apple managed to file 375 applications while holding 50th place on the list.

Amid the US pressure, the Chinese telecom network supplier has managed to restrain its R&D operations from falling. Oppo also did a commendable job and made it straight into the top 50 list.

Samsung with 2449 application managed the third spot with an increase of over 21.5%. Further, it is followed by the LG, United Technologies, Qualcomm and Ericsson in the top 10 list.

Moreover, EPO has witnessed a 20.8% increase in applications from 2017. Majority of the application in the last year were by American companies, constituting over 43612 patent filings. United Technologies remained the most active US company to register 1983 applications while Qualcomm stood second with 1563 applications. Notably, US companies filed nearly twice as much as the second largest filer, Germany.

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Since last year, the US started its clampdown on Huawei, shunning its 5G infrastructure on its home turf and allied nations. Australia, Japan, New Zeland, Austria, and some other countries denied Huawei from participating in 5G infrastructure trials. It led Huawei to sue the US Government last week.

(source)

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