Where does ZTE Corporation rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), ZTE Corporation ranks #81 of 49,997 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does ZTE Corporation hold?

ZTE Corporation holds 4,193 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 115 technology areas.

What is ZTE Corporation's Innovation Score?

ZTE Corporation has an Innovation Score of 73.8 out of 100 (top 1% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does ZTE Corporation focus on?

ZTE Corporation's top technology area is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks) with 2,546 patents. Grants appear in 115 CPC subclasses total.

Is ZTE Corporation's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

ZTE Corporation's recent grant velocity is -17% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). Grant activity has slowed relative to earlier years.

What does claim depth mean for ZTE Corporation's patents?

ZTE Corporation's patents average 14.8 claims each. This is an aggregate descriptive count from the grant record; it does not establish claim scope, legal strength, enforceability, or design-around risk.

How is the ZTE Corporation patent data sourced?

All patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering US granted utility patents from 2015 to 2025.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView Foreign Corporation

ZTE Corporation

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 4,193 granted patents across 115 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2025. Grant-trend analysis is cross-referenced to USPTO Patent Public Search; it does not measure application filings, current R&D, or legal strength. Primary class: H04W (Wireless Communication Networks).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, ZTE ranks #81 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 4,193 patents across 115 technology areas.

#81
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (73.8/100): 14.8
avg claims per patent: -17%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R81 · Foreign Corporation #81 · 4,193 grants

GRANTS-LARGE · TOP-DECILE · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-WIDE · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-LARGE 4.2K grants
TOP-DECILE #81/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Basf SE
CPC-WIDE H04W · 115 areas
INNOV-STRONG 73.8/100
CLAIMS-RICH 14.8 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -17% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Basf SE (±2 grants)

Instrument codes from this assignee’s USPTO PatentsView grant sheet: volume band, corpus rank, photo-finish peer, lead CPC, Innovation Score, claim depth, assignee type, velocity, and book completeness. Not a USPTO rating of patent strength.

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Wolfspeed · near

74
Verizon Patent and… · near

74
ZTE · this assignee

74
Bnsf Railway · near

74
The Boeing · near

74
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows ZTE's Innovation Score is 73.8/100 (top 1% of the PatentsView-derived corpus). The chart places that score against the nearest Innovation Score peers plus corpus poles, not a reprint of the volume ranking.

How ZTE's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, ZTE Corporation received 1,653 grants versus 1,982 in 2015–2019 (-17% equal-window velocity, above median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2024 at 558 grants and bottomed in 2021 at 222. Lead class H04W accounts for 60.7% of the portfolio across 115 subclasses. Volume neighbours: GlobalFoundries Inc. (#77) and Kyocera Corporation (#85).

ZTE's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, ZTE Corporation moved from 721 to 1,201 grants (1.67x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). Among 3,296 tracked assignees with ≥100 grants and ≥20 prior-period grants, that multiple ranks #334. See the growth leaderboard.

Globalfoundries

4,547
Sumitomo Electric…

4,378
Guangdong Oppo Mo…

4,374
Commissariat A L'…

4,218
ZTE ◀

4,193
Basf SE

4,191
Caterpillar

4,178
Konica Minolta

4,158
Kyocera

4,151

What this shows ZTE holds 4,193 patents at rank #81, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near ZTE

By rank, the assignees closest to #81 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04W (Wireless Communication Networks)

Other assignees with the most granted patents in ZTE's primary technology class.

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for ZTE, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above).

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (74 here).

Bnsf Railway Company 74 Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. 74 The Boeing Company 74 Wolfspeed, Inc. 74

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (14.8 here).

Airbus Operations Limited 14.8 avg Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 14.8 avg Xi'an Zhongxing NEW Software Co., Ltd. 14.8 avg Owens Corning Intellectual Capital, LLC 14.8 avg

ZTE's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

Composite of portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth (0–100)

74 Top 1% higher than 99% of 49,997 US assignees

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US assignees. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USPTO PatentsView, PlainPatent Innovation Score · 2015–2025

USPTO utility patent grants by year · 2015–2025

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

ZTE Corporation patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	421	10.0%
2016	481	11.5%
2017	416	9.9%
2018	395	9.4%
2019	269	6.4%
2020	230	5.5%
2021	222	5.3%
2022	318	7.6%
2023	325	7.8%
2024	558	13.3%
2025partial year	558	13.3%

Which technologies does ZTE Corporation patent most?

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 2,546

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 2,342

H04B - Transmission 776

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 405

Y02D - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN Information AND Communication Technologies [ICT], I.E. Information AND Communication Technologies Aiming AT THE Reduction OF Their OWN Energy USE 385

H04J - Multiplex Communication 249

H04M - Telephonic Communication 213

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 197

H04Q - Selecting 133

H03M - CODING; DECODING; Code Conversion IN General 63

H01Q - Antennas, i.e. Radio Aerials 58

G01S - Radio DIRECTION-FINDING; Radio NAVIGATION; Determining Distance OR Velocity BY USE OF Radio WAVES; Locating OR Presence-detecting BY USE OF THE Reflection OR Reradiation OF Radio WAVES; Analogous Arrangements Using Other Waves 55

H02J - Circuit Arrangements OR Systems FOR Supplying OR Distributing Electric POWER; Systems FOR Storing Electric Energy 53

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 37

H05K - Printed CIRCUITS; Casings OR Constructional Details OF Electric APPARATUS; Manufacture OF Assemblages OF Electrical Components 36

Top 15 of 115 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

#81

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

73.8 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

ZTE Corporation's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

ZTE Corporation's lead technology class is H04W (Wireless Communication Networks), 60.7% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04W
Ranked #81 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare ZTE Corporation against GlobalFoundries Inc., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 73.8/100 blends volume, velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth. How it's calculated

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through May 2026; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView - official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the USPTO PatentsView database. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sources used on this page

USPTO PatentsView - the disambiguated bulk patent-grant, assignee, and CPC data this page's figures are derived from. patentsview.org
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) - the joint USPTO/EPO classification scheme used to group patents by technology area. cooperativepatentclassification.org
USPTO Patent Public Search - the official interface to verify the status of any individual patent. ppubs.uspto.gov

Compiled by PlainPatent, US Patent Intelligence Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

Every figure on PlainPatent is rendered directly from USPTO source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on USPTO source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2026.