BEIJING, Apr.30 (China Daily) -- A Zhongguancun intellectual property promotion meeting was held in Beijing on April 29, where a 2016-2018 plan for IP promotion was unveiled.

Wang Hong, director general of the Beijing IP bureau, introduced the plan and said that Zhongguancun will strive to implement seven projects to upgrade IP quality and transformation, strengthen IP protection and optimize IP public service in the next three years. The projects included IP reform, IP service cluster development demonstration zone construction, patent navigation industry development pilot zone construction, IP innovation training and application upgrading, and IP internationalization and protection. Zhongguancun will speed up development of new technology, industry and commercial activities, upgrade industry internationalization, and encourage the public to start up businesses. Those measures will play an important role in turning Zhongguancun into a globally influential scientific innovation center and part of a high-level advanced economy.

According to the plan, the number of authorized patents from Zhongguancun will break 40,000 by 2018, including 20,000 patents for inventions. The number of effective patents will reach 60,000. Two or three IP industries featuring predominating global technologies will take shape. IP protection systems will merge into a diverse IP protection system featuring administration, justice and arbitration. IP service advantages will stand out, and three to five IP service institutes with international influence will be nurtured through developing national IP service cluster demonstration zones. New IP services featuring internet plus will be developed.

Guo Hong, director of the Zhongguancun management committee, introduced Zhongguancun's innovation and start-up business and IP development. He said that IP is an important and forceful support to transform Zhongguancun into a scientific innovation center with global influence and has played a significant role in upgrading local enterprises' innovation capacity and increasing their market competitiveness. In 2015, the number of patent applications from Zhongguancun broke 60,000, and more than 30,000 patents were authorized, including 10,000 patents for inventions. PCT applications were more than 70 percent of all the applications in Beijing. Gross income of companies in Zhongguancun reached 4.07 trillion yuan in 2015, one seventh of all the national high-tech zones. Local enterprises created 555.7 billion yuan in added value, one fourth of the total in Beijing. They contributed 36.8 percent to Beijing’s growth. In particular, artificial intelligence, new material and biotechnology have made breakthroughs. Zhongguancun’s IP work will focus on the strategic goal of turning Zhongguancun into a scientific innovation center with global influence and boosting scientific innovation and upgrading industry innovation capacity. We can expect encouragement of IP service model innovation, upgrading of IP service added value, a push for IP service to become professional and extend towards the high-end of the value chain, and development of an integral well-developed IP service cluster.

The Beijing IP authority has worked with the Zhongguancun management committee to implement IP promotion plans since the beginning of 2011. Zhongguancun has been named one of the first national IP service cluster development demonstration zones and a national patent navigation industry development pilot zone. It took the lead in carrying out national IP investment and financing services, patent insurance and IP evaluation work. Zhongguancun's IP work has made important breakthroughs and achieved significant results.