Abstract: The number of patent litigation in telecommunication industry is sharply increasing in recent years. NPEs played an important role in the patent litigations and caused great damages to related manufacturing enterprises. However, there are no quantitative indicators to measure the enterprises’ willing to initiate patent litigation. This paper defines patent litigation propensity of patent holders to assess some well-known enterprises in telecommunication industry and some NPEs’ willing to initiate patent litigation. The results show that the NPEs’ patent litigation propensity is greater than the practicing entities and patent litigation propensity has a close relationship with product types of the enterprises, the country of the enterprises and the duration of relevant litigation.

Key words: patent litigation propensity, telecommunication industry, NPE, productive enterprise