Abstract: Mainstream research suggest that patent abandonment is a “passive” failure of technology investment caused by the low patent quality. While in practice, firms sometimes rationally abandon patents as a result of “actively” pruning their patent portfolios. The contradiction between the two is due to that researcher’s perspective is limited to individual patent quality, while firms focus on the patent portfolio and long-term strategic goals. This study attempts to anchor on the strategy of the enterprises, draw on the real option theory, and analyze the impact of the uncertainty of the internal and external environment on the patent abandonment behavior, revealing the option logic implied by the enterprise when disposing of the patent. The empirical analysis of panel data of 2,380 A-share listed companies in 1992-2017 shows that exogenous uncertainty and endogenous uncertainty will inhibit the company’s patent abandonment behavior. Further, the study finds that when the company’s patent portfolio is more diversified, the negative effect of uncertainty on patent abandonment is stronger, indicating that the diversified patent portfolio is more valuable when addressing uncertainty. These findings complement the traditional research in which patent maintenance depends on the quality of patents, suggesting that patents are a kind of real option assets, patent decisions are simultaneously affected by the environment and the patent portfolio characteristics.