#21 Exclusive Interview with Mang Zhu: ZTE’s SEP portfolio management strategy

SEP portfolio strategy is about much more than just prosecution and enforcement. An organization’s patenting activities must be aligned with its standards development activities and integrated into its overall long-term and short-term R&D plan. Patent portfolio managers need to keep up with the latest connectivity standards and trends so as to identify portfolio gaps and maintain a strong SEP position against competitors in the market for SEP licensing.

In an exclusive interview with IPlytics CEO Tim Pohlmann, ZTE’s chief IP strategy officer Mang Zhu provides some insights into how she succeeded in building one of the world’s largest 5G portfolios. She discusses how she established a process over several decades that ensured alignment of R&D goals with standards development work, supported by highly skilled patent and prosecution teams. These teams work to create and maintain a SEP portfolio that meets essentiality and validity requirements to enable successful licensing programs.