The State Council's Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy released earlier this year aims at China developing a higher capacity to create, use and protect intellectual property by 2020.

Current statistics show only 25 percent of the patents in China can find access to proper investors and the majority of Chinese enterprises do not possess intellectual property rights or original brands.

Therefore, the second China Patent Week from November 18-22, hosted by State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) is being held to help increase the application rate of patents, especially from non-service inventors (those who treat inventing as a part-time occupation). Though they are "part timers" they also contribute about two thirds of the patent applications that become part of the production of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important economic players in China.

The patent week will be held in 25 provinces and cities and its guiding principle is to improve the intellectual property market and further the construction of patent exhibitions and transactions.

Activities during the five-day patent week include in-person and on-line exhibitions, patent transactions and forums on the development of patent agencies, the assessment and financing of patents and other related topics.

Different provinces, regions and municipalities will present various activities based on and regional local circumstances.

For example, due to the close proximities of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Guangdong province will feature exhibitions and patent transactions from the three areas.

As a manufacturing giant in China, Zhejiang province will focus on patents and technologies to advance industrial upgrades, Qingdao will connect agricultural patents to agricultural production to develop "green agriculture" with less fertilizer and pesticide consumption and a heavier yield of nutritious products; Sichuan province - center of the May 12 earthquake - will concentrate on patent applications regarding quake proofing and disaster relief.

In addition, as the main venue, Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province in East China, will not only hold the opening ceremony on November 18, but also organize an achievement exhibition of China's patent development during the past 30 years.

The first China patent week was held in 24 provinces and cities nationwide from November 11 to 16, 2007, which attracted 2,265 enterprises and more than 170,000 visitors, the 250 transactions reaching a trade volume of 668.99 million yuan during the six days.

Exhibitions and transactions

There are currently 37 national patent exhibition and transaction centers in China. However, "the development of the Chinese patent market still lags behind the need to convert patents into productivity," director of SIPO Tian Lipu pointed out at the opening ceremony of the patent exhibition and transaction center in Jiangxi in 2007. "A patent market and service system with low costs and honesty are needed to improve the situation," he adds.

Therefore, designing a better patent exhibition and transaction center is an important task for the second China Patent Week. The current centers include an office or department with consulting services and some also include online services.

According to the SIPO's 2007 annual report, nearly 1.8 million patents were granted from April 1985 to December 2007. Among them, more than 1 milion were from non-service inventors, accounting for 60.2 percent. In 2007 301,632 patents were granted, 55.6 percent (167,819) of which were from non-service inventors.

However, only about 25 percent of the patents in China can be applied in production, Guangming Daily reported in June 2007, while the application rate of patents from non-service inventors was less than 5 percent according to a report by Legal Daily in January 2008.

Meanwhile, "99 percent of Chinese SMEs have never applied patents", Deputy Director of SIPO Li Yuguang noted in an interview in 2008. Statistics from the office also show 60 percent of Chinese enterprises do not possess their own brands.

"The lack of a mature transaction system in China is an important obstacle to patent applications from non-service inventors," says Lu Dahan, secretary-general of China Association of Inventions.

The major task for many patent agencies in China is to help inventors to apply for patents. Of the few helping introduce patents into production, one single agency can generally deal with 20 patents per year, of which two or three at the most are successful.

According to a document from the SIPO, the high-end patent trade fair usually has strict requirements, which SMEs and individual inventors find difficult to meet. The situation makes it easy for swindlers to violate the rights of SMEs and non-service inventors.

As a recent case reported by Legal Daily, in Tongzhou district of Beijing illustrates, a duo surnamed Li and Chen registered three patent agencies and swindled more than 810,000 yuan out of 190 persons within three months.

Editor's note: The IPR Special is sponsored by the State Intellectual Property Office and published by China Business Weekly. To contact the Intellectual Property Office, the IPR Special hotlines are 8610-64995422 or 8610-64995826, and the e-mail address is ipr@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 10/20/2008 page9)S