In a bid to promote awareness of intellectual property (IP), especially among small businesses, China's Electronic Intellectual Property Center and Intel China Ltd jointly unveiled an "e-learning website" in Beijing on Monday.

"Through the training designed for small firms, we hope to increase IP awareness and build a more innovation-friendly environment in industry," Han Jun, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Science and Technology, said at the launch ceremony.

Part of a strategic cooperation agreement signed by the center - which is part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology - and Intel early this year, the e-learning portal incorporates "valuable results" of collaboration between the two sides over the past three years, said Ge Jun, Intel China's executive director.

The site includes courseware used in a two-year IP training program that ended last year and had attracted more than 1,100 representatives of small companies in five cities - Beijing, Qingdao, Dalian, Chongqing and Fuzhou.

Ge said "it's important to put the offline training contents online to expand access to IP knowledge".

He added that personalized services such as online consultancy will be added in the future.

The website also provides resources such as a searchable patent database, laws, and regulations and policies from home and abroad.

All are open to users free of charge.

"We need an intermediary to help small firms with their difficulties in inquiries, the language barrier, and technology," said Liu Yi, an official at the ministry's small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) department.

Currently, over 99 percent of all companies in China are SMEs. They produce about 50 percent of the nation's exports, taxes and technological innovation, she said.

Companies with an edge in technology and branding, though small in size, are in a better position to avoid market risks, she added.

Bosses of SMEs struggling to survive often claim that innovation and IP are too far to reach, Liu said, repeating what they have told her. "Even how to survive is a question," they said. "How can we spare funds for investment on innovation?"

"But innovation is key to sustaining a company's growth," she noted. "Without the core competitiveness, it is rather hard to grow in such an open, internationalized market like today."

Ge noted that "innovation and IP are reciprocal".

"While innovation results in IP, full use of IP in turn injects vigor into innovation," he said.

"After a year of preparation, the e-learning platform has been launched to provide opportunities for more Chinese SMEs to learn about and benefit from IP," Ge said.

The website is expected to help a growing number of small firms incorporate IP into their business management and philosophy, as well as learn to use IP to promote innovation and prepare for a long-term development, he said.

"It (promoting IP awareness) is no one-step goal, but requires consistent efforts," he said. "It's not easy - it's like climbing a slope. Only after climbing to a certain level can you see the sunshine and future."

(Source: China Daily)