5G core standard essential patents, who is the real leader? Clarivate Analytics released Demystifying the 5G Standard Essential Patent Landscape with Manual SEP in October: The Phase 2 report attempts to provide an answer.

As the 5G landscape evolves, companies are filing patents with the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI), but many of them don't match the standard.

Through manual comparison with THE ETSI standard, the report selected the standard essential patents that are highly compatible with the standard from the 21,626 patents that have been declared as of March 31 this year, marking the essential patents for 5G core standards.

According to the report, 4,796 patents of 5G standard declaration are essential for 5G core standards, accounting for 22 percent of the total declared patents.Among the suppliers, Huawei is ahead of other companies in many aspects, such as the holding of core patents, the proportion of claimed patents, important technology areas, and the distribution of terminal/base station side.

Six companies, including Huawei, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson, together hold 70 percent of the patents necessary for 5G core standards. All due respect,Huawei topped the list with a commanding 21 percent ownership。

Huawei and Ericsson were the only two companies with 22 percent more patents than the average, and Huawei ranked first with 27 percent.

To better understand vendors' commitment to 5G technology, the report also provides the average remaining life of their 5G core patent family. Huawei, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm and Ericsson showed little difference in the average remaining life of 5G core standard patents, with Huawei and LG having the highest average remaining life of 13.2 years each.

The report also analyzes the 5G core patent family in the three technical Specification Groups (TSG) of the 3GPP. — Distribution of wireless access network (TSG RAN), service and system aspects (TSG SA), and core network and terminal (TSG CT). Seventy-eight percent of the 5G core patent family relates to TSG RAN, which is responsible for defining network functions, requirements and interfaces, illustrating the importance of this technology area.

In terms of technology distribution, Huawei's holding of essential patents for 5G core standards in RAN TSG is much higher than that of other companies, and huawei's holding of essential patents for 5G core standards in SA TSG and CT TSG also ranks among the top. Specifically, Huawei has the most 5G core patent families in R1, R2, R3, C4, S2, S3 and S5 working groups.

Terminal and base station equipment play a decisive role in the 5G communication market. The report shows that Huawei's essential patents for 5G core standards take the first place in the layout of terminal side and base station side, accounting for 708 and 569 respectively.

Overall, the number of patents required for 5G core standards increased by 51 percent in the nine months from July 1, 2020, indicating that 5G technology is booming and suppliers are continuing to make progress on the technology evolution path. Huawei's performance in all dimensions of the report is very impressive, fully demonstrating its leading position in the FIELD of 5G technology, as well as its huge investment and outstanding contribution to 5G.