ZTE Corp responded on Friday to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's lawsuit over patents and trademarks, claiming the former has to "fight back" any disputes, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

Huawei sued ZTE for patent and trademark infringement in Germany, France, and Hungary on April 28, 2011. It accused ZTE of infringing Huawei's patents related to data-card and Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies.

It also said ZTE used a trademark registered by Huawei on some of its products.

ZTE refuted the allegations, saying it applied for the international patents one year earlier than Huawei.

The spat between the two Chinese telecom giants has reflected that companies want to gain the upper hand in a new round of construction related to next-generation networks by accusing rivals of infringing on intellectual property rights, said analyst Ma Jun from Huachuang Securities. Both companies have expanded beyond China into overseas markets and Europe, to which both have turned to boost sales, has thus become the battlefield, Ma added.