Who leads the global race for 5G? One way of answering this question is to analyze the number of 5G patents owned by different companies. Holding more than 15 percent of granted and active patents worldwide, Chinese manufacturer Huawei takes first place in a ranking complied by IPlytics.

As the patenting process can take several years, these percentages might still change as more patents are granted. While Huawei also launched the most application overall, U.S. company Qualcomm comes second when counting granted and open applications.

Manufacturers from South Korea, a country where 5G was implemented faster than almost anywhere else, find themselves towards the top of the list, as does one more Chinese provider, ZTE. Feature phone era companies Ericsson and Nokia are also making strides in 5G technology.

https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/20095/companies-with-most-5g-patent-families-and-patent-families-applications/