Will Huawei surpass ZTE? Analysis of patent data

In the era of knowledge economy, critical knowledge and technologies are key to enterprise competition. Huawei and ZTE are well known as top Chinese communication equipment suppliers. Both have paid great attention to intellectual property protection, and have applied a great amount of patents in information and communication technology. In this article, patent analysis is used to figure out whether there exists difference between Huawei and ZTE in technology research and development. The results show the patent portfolios of them are similar but difference exists. During the period 2006-2012, ZTE performed better than Huawei on the whole.