Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd acquired the most patent rights in China last year, according to the State Intellectual Property Office.

Gan Shaoning, deputy chief of the State Intellectual Property Office, said on Thursday that the authority offered 217,105 patent rights in China in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 26 percent.

Among domestic companies, Shenzhen-based Huawei gained the No 1 position by acquiring 2,734 patent rights last year. Its cross-town rival ZTE Corp ranked second with 2,727 patent rights.

Huawei invests more than 10 percent of its annual revenue in research and development, and about half of its employees are engineers.