The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) sponsors the annual China International Patent Fair to offer a wider platform for domestic and overseas companies or research institutes.

The 2004 fair was held in coastal Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province and displayed the latest patented technologies and products from domestic and overseas companies and research institutes.

More than 500 patented technologies from some-20 countries, including Canada, France, Japan, Russia and the United States, were touted. About 150,000 visitors and business people attended.

Independently developing core technologies and patenting intellectual property rights (IPR) in cutting-edge scientific fields are a trend, with those who hold the greatest number of IPR-based technologies and products taking the greatest market share, said SIPO's Director Wang Jingchuan.

Held since 2002, Wang said the annual fair helps commercialize patented technologies, propel innovations among enterprises and enhance co-operation between domestic and overseas companies.

The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has developed a kind of marrow-related stem cell that can help treat leukaemia and other difficult blood diseases and malignant tumours.

The academy is applying for clinical trials from State Food and Drug Administration.

China has 4 million blood disease patients and the number of leukaemia patients increases 40,000 per year, and half of them are children aged below 16. Each year, at least 10,000 patients are in dire need of blood-making stem cells to save their lives, according to the academy.

The Shenyang Application Ecological System Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences has brought good news for the country's arid regions. The institute has developed a comprehensive water-saving technology which is suitable for grains,fruit trees and other cash crops.

The technology has been tried on 10,000 mu (666 hectares) of farmland in dry areas of Northeast China.

More than 11,000 farmers have been trained to use the technology.

The devices will also benefit arid regions in Northwest China, according to the institute.

Busan Techno Park of the Republic of Korea organized seven companies to take part in the fair.

Park Chan-hum, manager of the Powda Design Company, said his company has not had opportunities to meet with so many visitors and business people from outside China. But the fair has allowed the display of products to thousands of visitors.

The company produces toilets and air-blowers for families that raise pets, to help reduce indoor pollutions caused by pets' excrement.

"It is easy and a big pleasure to enter this big market of China," he said.

But he is worried that foreign products, including products of companies from his country, might be duplicated in China.

Boreskov Institute of Catalyst of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences displayed its purification and treatment of industrial waste water technology at the fair.

Valentina I. Shport, the institute's researcher, said she wished to transfer this technology in China. Of course, her institute hopes that their patents will be respected in the Chinese market.

"I wish that Russian and Chinese companies or research institutes will have candid co-operation and mutually benefit," she said.

Although it is the first time for the institute to participate in the China International Patent Fair, Shport said she is confident conducting business in the Chinese market.

International appreciation

Shougang Group, one of China's major iron and steel producers, is trying to develop new technologies and diversify its products to compete in today's fierce markets. Liu Nianhua, an official of the group's technology and quality department, told China Daily that this State-owned group has developed electronic technology and a real estate business to help make profits.

"Our targets are to develop high-value and high-profit technology and products to increase profits," said Liu.

Over the past two years, Shougang has applied for 379 patents from State Intellectual Property Office. And 70 per cent of these patented technologies have been used, gaining more than 50 million yuan (US$6 million) additional profits each year, according to Liu.

The group's patented technology for a blast furnace gas boiler has been used in the Shanghai Baosteel Group Co, and iron and steel companies in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Wuhan of Central China's Hubei Province, and in East China's Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

This technology is important to the safe operation of boilers.

Researchers from remote and relatively poor Northwest China's Gansu Province are also talking about technology innovation and patent protection.

The Lanzhou Tonkon Biotechnologies Co Ltd is a high-tech enterprise of Northwest China's Gansu Province.

The company has developed a kind of casein peptide from rough casein, to help reduce high blood pressure. This product has no side-effects, according to Wang Ying, the company's researcher.

Wang said peptides for reducing high blood pressure have been written into pharmacopoeia in Germany.

Wang said her company is determined to allow its products enter both domestic and overseas markets in the future.

Hu Qingrong, a company director, said his company has also developed many other casein-based healthcare foods.

The company is expected to mobilize local high-tech firms to help enlarge the regional industry and economy, said Hu.

At the second day of the fair, the SIPO gave an on-the-spot trial of a patent case involving a pressure-reducing device for a heating system for tall buildings. The trial was designed to further enhance the public's knowledge and awareness of patents.

It is first time that SIPO's Re-examination Department has openly tried a patent dispute case outside Beijing.

Li Kuanxin, the device's patent holder, said Liaoning Zhilian High Buildings Heat Supply Technology Co Ltd has used his technology without his permission and thus infringed on his patent. He has sued the company in a local court.

But the company denied it had infringed on the patent and asked SIPO's Re-examination Department to declare Li's patent invalid.

This patent dispute case has aroused great attention among patent holders in Liaoning Province over the past year.

According to China's Patent Law, individuals or work units can ask patent re-examination departments to declare a patent invalid if they think the patent doesn't accord with the law.

At the fair, the patent holder Li was absent, so the two sides couldn't resolve the dispute. But sources from SIPO's Re-examination Department said the two sides are intent on making peace. Thus, the department didn't announce the trial's result on the spot. The two sides must notify the department within 10 days if they have resolved the case, or the department will announce its trial result in 10 days. (China Daily 08/23/2004 page5)  

2013-07-17