Government and Policy

China sets 10-year plan to boost patent industry

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-11 22:11

BEIJING - The Chinese government has created numerous policies to encourage development of the country's patent industry, hoping to achieve "a series of breakthroughs in the patent field" in the next decade.

According to a national development strategy plan of patent industry released Thursday by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), China will reach a "comparatively high" level in terms of patent creations, commercialization, protection and management by the year 2020.

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The country also aspires to have a group of core patents for newly emerging industries and key technology in traditional industries within the next ten years, with patent applications from large-scale industrial companies taking up 10 percent of the total.

These specifics are the first of its kind since China issued another document on intellectual property development known as the "state intellectual property strategic outline of China" in 2008.

Gan Shaoning, deputy director of the SIPO, said the newly released intellectual property development strategy plan is a must-do to cope with fierce global competition and also a key move for the country to solve systematic and long-term problems in the development of the patent industry.

Lagging behind other countries, China hasn't formed a patent system that can effectively stimulate and protect patents, and the patent policies are usually not well linked with the policies for the economy, science and technology, Gan noted.

According to the development strategy plan, the Chinese government will provide greater support for the export of patent products and make a full use of the country's tax and financial policies to boost creations and commercialization of core patents.

The rest of the measures include building a national network on patent information and establishing an evaluation and authentication system for patent-related professions.

Last year, while patent applications declined in most countries amid the global financial crisis, China approved 582,000 out of 977,000 patent applications, up 41.2 percent and 17.9 percent respectively.

By the end of 2009, out of 1.52 million patents registered in China, 1.19 million were domestic. China's total volume of patent applications is ranked as the world's fifth highest.

A Thomson Reuters analysis on intellectual property showed, earlier this month, that China is expected to lead in global patent activities by 2011, with significant rises in both the quality and quantity of patents.

By 2009, China had more than 700 patent agencies and some 6,000 patent agency workers.