China's tech giant Huawei topped the list in corporate patent applications at the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018, WIPO said on Tuesday.

The telecom behemoth last year made a record number of 5,405 published Patent Cooperation Treaty applications, followed by Mitsubishi Electric (2,812), Intel (2,499), Qualcomm (2,404) and ZTE (2,080).

The PCT system provides applicants invention protection in 152 contracting countries with a single application, according to WIPO.

The United Sates last year contributed the highest number of PCT filings at 56,142, followed by China at 53,345 and Japan at 49,702. For the first time filers in Asia contributed more than half (50.5 percent) of all international patent applications, then Europe (24.5 percent) and North America (23.1 percent).

For educational institution applications, the University of California ranked first with 501 patent applications, while Chinese universities for the first time reached the top 10 ranking, including Shenzhen University (third with 201 applications), South China University of Technology (fourth with 170 applications), Tsinghua University (seventh with 137 applications) and China University of Mining and Technology (10th with 114 applications).

Digital communication had the largest share (8.6 percent) of published PCT applications, and computer technology (8.1 percent) and electrical machinery (7 percent) took the second and third spot, respectively. Transport recorded the highest growth rate (11.3 percent) among top 10 technologies in terms of application shares, WIPO said.

Employees work on a mobile phone assembly line at a Huawei Technologies Co production base in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong province, on March 6, 2019. [Photo/VCG]