Shenzhen: Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies said it applied for over 56,000 patents and invested around $4.8 billion in research and development in 2012, which showcases its commitment towards promoting innovation.

"We filed more than 40,000 patent applications in China and over 14,000 outside China in 2012, which makes Huawei the largest firm in China and fourth largest in the world to file for patents in 2012," Huawei Technologies Deputy Chairman and Rotating Executive Officer Ken Hu said here during the Asian launch of Global Innovation Index 2013.

Hu added that the company was granted patents for over 30,000 applications.

Stressing the importance of research, Hu said the ICT industry is fast changing and in order to acquire new customers and retain the existing ones, there is no other way but to innovate.

"We spent around $4.8 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2012 and we had spent over $19 billion since the inception. Usually, 10 per cent of the revenues are invested on R&D," Hu said.

"The company has employee strength of 1.5 lakh people globally and around 50 per cent of staff is working on R&D activities.

"Of our 1.5 lakh employees, around 70,000 work on R&D. We have 16 R&D centers outside China," Hu added.

Stating that open and fair trade are the true engines of innovation, Hu said, "Open trade facilitated global resource reallocation and industry restructuring, maximizing the utilization of technical innovations."

He said the concept behind the company's success in innovations is to remain customer and market-oriented and not just focused on technology.

"We focus our innovation on customers. So far, we have set up 28 joint innovation centers with customers around the world," Hu added.

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