A report showed on Monday that LG Electronics owns the highest number of patents related to Long Term Evolution, the fourth-generation communications network technology.

The report released by U.S.-based technology and intellectual property research firm TechIPm said the country’s electronics firm LG was noted to be the leading possessor of LTE essential patents as of the second quarter this year.

LG was followed by Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Nortel, InterDigital and Qualcomm, according to the report.

The event takes place as the Boston-based research firm analyzed 187 LTE essential patents applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by June of this year.

The Korean IT giant, a firm that has been lagging behind smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung Electronics, has been betting on LTE smartphones, hoping the handsets operating on the upgraded networks would expand its smartphone presence on the global stage.

As testament to LG’s effort, another previous study unveiled by U.S. investment bank Jefferies and Co. also indicated that LG excelled over other companies in terms of LTE-related patents last year.

The company also said it plans to roll out its LTE handsets in 20 countries by year’s end, doubled from the current 10.

Although not many countries ― excluding those such as Korea, the U.S. and Japan ― have adopted the LTE smartphones due to the lack of 4G LTE network set-up, the global demand is expected to surge buoyed by a strong lineup of LTE handsets.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, shipments of LTE handsets across the world are likely to jump almost 10-fold on-year to 67 million units this year.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)