With the 5G market starting to take off all over the world, a patent race for leadership in the 5G market is intensifying. South Korea, which launched commercial 5G services for the first time in the world last year, and other major developed nations including China, the United States and Japan, are making efforts to win more patents and standard essential patents (SEPs) related to 5G technology.

Especially China included 5G in the 10 high-tech industries that will be promoted under the “Made in China 2025” initiative. Based on such strong political support on the national level, China is making aggressive efforts to win the 5G patent race. It already accounts for one third of worldwide 5G-related patent applications.

China held 34 percent of SEP applications for 5G technology as of March 2019, according to IPlytics, a German company that tracks intellectual property. The figure is over one and a half times as high as that of China’s SEP applications for 4G. This shows that, armed with massive funding and a long-term strategy initiated by the government, China has become more likely to lead the development of 5G technologies and secure competitive advantages in all kinds of 5G services.