Abstract: High-tech firms are the most important new economic growth points in our country, but they have frequently encountered patent litigation in international development. Aiming at this phenomenon, we conducted explorative case study on the typical patent litigation cases of ZTE company. According to the development stages of ZTE company and the development of mobile communications technology, we deeply excavated the patent applications and distribution patterns of the litigant parties. Then, on the basis of firm patent layout visualization, we researched on competition situation of telecommunication forms in 2G, 3G, 4G era, and ZTE’ patent layout strategy in current situation. Finally, based on the summarized four patent layout strategies (e.g. containment layout and blanket layout) and corresponding applicability, we gave proposals regarding patent layouts to Chinese high-tech companies at different development stages such as start-up, development and maturation period to help them optimize technology resource allocation and achieve innovation-driven development.

Key words: patent layout, internationalization , ZTE corporation