China's intellectual property "ecosystem" is getting better and better

Pan Xutao, Yang Linna

Figure (1): The green intelligent light environment system developed by Jinshengda Bioelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. in Ma'anshan Economic Development Zone, Anhui Province has more than 400 intellectual property patents. The picture shows employees checking the growth of plants. Photo by Wang Wensheng (People's Vision) (2): Chongqing Xinwei Glass Co., Ltd. has more than 30 patents. The picture shows workers producing glass instruments. Photo by Liu Hui (People's Vision) Figure (3): On April 25, the Copyright Bureau of Rugao City, Jiangsu Province, together with Rucheng Street, carried out the publicity and education activity of "Intellectual Property Rights on Campus". Photo by Xu Hui (People's Vision) Figure (4): Golden Eagle Heavy Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., located in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, has continuously strengthened its core technology research and obtained a total of 261 authorized patents. Photo by Xie Yong (People's Vision) (5): Located in Dongying City, Shandong Province, the Shandong High-end Petrochemical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community focuses on cultivating an innovative ecological environment and has obtained 295 patents. The picture shows the technician conducting equipment debugging experiments in the pilot workshop. Photo by Liu Zhifeng (People's Vision) Data source: State Intellectual Property Office

An LED manufacturer in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, with a patent, drove the annual sales of products to 150 million yuan;

A straw weaving product manufacturer in Wenling City, Zhejiang Province, relying on the data intellectual property rights accumulated over the years, successfully obtained 50 million yuan in financing;

After a German company discovered that its trademark had been infringed by a Chinese company, it reported it to the Market Supervision Bureau of Fengxian District, Shanghai, and completed the rights protection in two days......

April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day. In recent years, China has strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights, accelerated the transformation and application of intellectual property rights, and the intellectual property "ecosystem" has become more and more excellent. China's unremitting efforts to protect intellectual property rights and optimize the business environment have been praised by the international community.

At the 2024 China Intellectual Property Protection High-level Forum held recently, Shen Changyu, Director of the State Intellectual Property Office, said: "Intellectual property rights are the basic guarantee to stimulate innovation. ”

Acceleration of transformation and application——

Enterprises build a "patent wall"

China continues to promote the transformation and application of intellectual property rights and accelerate the industrialization of high-value patents.

In the dust-free workshop of Huizhou Jufei Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Guangdong Province, the automated machines are running at high speed, and the LED backlight substrates are waiting to be shipped out of the warehouse one after another. On the "patent wall" of Jufei Optoelectronics, a patent is particularly eye-catching. The patent, titled "Chip-level Packaging Method and LED Packaging Device", has won the "China Patent Excellence Award", driving the annual sales of the company's related products to reach 150 million yuan, becoming a "magic weapon" to open up the market.

"Without independent core technology and patents, enterprises will not go far. Looking at more than 100 patent certificates of various types on the patent wall, Song Dong, general manager of Jufei Optoelectronics, said that the development of the enterprise was not smooth sailing, and the initial development of overseas markets had been due to insufficient core patents and insufficient technology.

In order to get rid of the predicament, in recent years, the company has continued to increase technological innovation and patent development, and finally knocked on the door of the supply chain of the head customer. "The Mini display, Mini backlight, optical film, automotive LED and other products developed by our company have reached the international leading level. Song Dong said.

Nowadays, more and more enterprises have a "patent wall", and the patents on the wall have become the confidence of enterprise development and transformed into dividends for enterprise development.

Huiyang (Guizhou) New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. is a technology-driven enterprise specializing in the R&D, production and sales of lithium-ion battery anode materials. In the face of the "harsh" needs put forward by customers, Huiyang spent a year on technical research, and finally broke the performance record in the industry and formed a patent for the preparation method of graphite composite materials.

The company also associated this patent with the preparation and supporting processing technology of anode composite materials, continued to increase the defensive patent application for more than 10 technologies, and successfully built a patent pool. At present, the economic value of the company's supporting technology has exceeded 100 million yuan. Hu Wenliang, executive deputy general manager of Huiyang, said. In just over 2 years since its establishment, Huiyang has applied for 61 domestic and foreign patents and obtained 27 authorizations.

With the acceleration of the "cloud" of enterprises and the "cloud" of government affairs, the cloud computing platform has become a key infrastructure for carrying various applications, and how to ensure data security on the cloud platform has become a new problem that needs to be solved urgently. Zhejiang Kyushu Quantum Information Technology Co., Ltd. integrates quantum cryptography technology with cloud computing technology to develop patented products that ensure the information security of cloud computing platforms.

"Quantum cryptography technology is an encryption method based on the principle of quantum mechanics, which uses optical quantum characteristics to ensure information security, and is an encryption method with a high level of security. Zheng Shaohui, founder of Kyushu Quantum, said. The company set up a special R&D research team, which lasted more than a year and successfully applied for a number of invention patents such as "a quantum key scheduling method for cloud computing platform", which opened a new application scenario of quantum keys in the field of cloud computing, and the quantum cloud shield products based on this invention patent have been put into the market.

In October 2023, the General Office of the State Council issued the Special Action Plan for the Transformation and Application of Patents (2023-2025), proposing that by 2025, a number of enterprises focusing on hard science and technology and mastering patents will grow and expand, and the competitive advantage of intellectual property rights in key industries will be accelerated. According to data released by the State Intellectual Property Administration, in 2023, 921,000 invention patents were authorized in China, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%, and the industrialization rate of invention patents of Chinese enterprises exceeded 50% for the first time, maintaining growth for five consecutive years. According to the Global Innovation Index 2023 report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the number of China's top 100 science and technology clusters has reached 24, ranking first in the world for the first time.

While accelerating the transformation of enterprise innovation achievements into real productivity, universities and scientific research institutions are also accelerating the transformation and application of existing patents, so that more intellectual property achievements can go out of the "study" and into the "factory".

Shaanxi Changwu Tingnan Coal Industry Co., Ltd. has been plagued by the technical problems of efficient hardening and forming of roadway floors for many years. 1,300 kilometers away, Wang Jun, a teacher at the School of Energy of Shandong University of Science and Technology, has a number of innovative achievements. After the successful docking between the two parties, Wang Jun's R&D results were applied to Tingnan Coal Industry and solved the dilemma of the enterprise.

Shandong University of Science and Technology has established a technology transfer research institute and set up a team of more than 600 "science and technology matchmakers" such as "transformation specialists", "technology brokers" and "science and technology correspondents" to achieve accurate matching of scientific research achievements with enterprise technology needs. In the past three years, nearly 400 scientific and technological achievements of the university have achieved technical application and achievement transformation, and the contract value of transformation has exceeded 150 million yuan.

In January this year, the State Intellectual Property Office, the Ministry of Education and other departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for the Revitalization of Patent Stock in Universities and Scientific Research Institutions" to promote the industrialization of a number of high-value patents as soon as possible on the basis of a comprehensive inventory of the existing patents. Up to now, more than 1,700 universities and scientific research institutions across the country have completed the inventory of 914,000 patents, including 636,000 invention patents. In the first quarter of this year, the number of patent transfer and licensing activities of universities and scientific research institutions across the country increased by nearly 40% compared with the same period last year.

"To improve the effect of patent transformation and application, it is necessary to continuously improve the quality of patents. Shen Changyu said that universities and scientific research institutions and enterprises are encouraged to carry out joint research, carry out order-based research and development and investment-based innovation, pay more attention to condensing scientific research problems from practical needs and carry out joint research, and form more high-value patents that meet the needs of the industry.

Improvement of financing capacity——

In exchange for more "real money"

The inclusiveness of intellectual property pledge financing has been increasing, and more and more "intellectual property" has become "assets".

Located in Daijiashan Science and Technology Pioneer Park, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, Aosendike Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is a provincial-level specialized and new small and medium-sized enterprise providing industrial laser processing solutions. In the past three years, the company's production scale has been expanding, and there is a greater demand for funds.

At a recent patent industrialization investment and financing fair, Zhang Haowen, assistant to the general manager of Aosendico, learned about the relevant policies of intellectual property pledge financing, so he applied for financing to Wuhan Rural Commercial Bank.

On April 11, the staff of the Jiang'an Branch of Wuhan Rural Commercial Bank came to assess the company's situation. After a comprehensive evaluation of Orsendico's revenue, credit history, intellectual property value, etc., the staff gave a financing line of 8 million yuan. "I didn't expect that intellectual property rights could help us get a large amount of money. Zhang Haowen said.

"Most technology-based SMEs operate asset-light, lack sufficient collateral, and have relatively limited financing channels. Zhou Shunxi, head of Daijiashan Science and Technology Finance Workstation, introduced that intellectual property pledge financing refers to a financing method in which enterprises obtain loans from banks with patent rights, trademark rights, and property rights in copyrights as collateral, which can effectively alleviate the financing difficulties caused by the lack of real estate guarantee for small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises.

Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the amount of pledged financing registration and the number of enterprises benefiting have continued to grow rapidly. According to the data, in 2023, the registered amount of China's patent and trademark pledge financing will reach 853.99 billion yuan, benefiting 37,000 enterprises, of which 26,000 small, medium and micro enterprises will benefit from inclusive loans with a pledge registration amount of less than 10 million yuan.

In the era of digital economy, data has become a new factor of production, and data intellectual property rights can also be exchanged for "real money".

Zhejiang Shunpu Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. is an enterprise engaged in the production of straw products in Wenling City, Zhejiang Province. However, due to the lack of independent brands, it has long played the role of "processing workshop" for international brands. To this end, enterprises urgently need a large amount of capital investment to promote innovative R&D and brand operation. Where does the money come from?

At the end of 2022, Wenling City became one of the pilot projects for the reform of the data intellectual property system in Zhejiang Province. Wenling City focuses on advantageous industries, establishes and improves the institutional system for the protection and application of industrial data intellectual property rights, and promotes the pilot work of data intellectual property rights, so Shunpu Company has ushered in development opportunities.

Shunpu has launched hundreds of hat styles, and all of them have applied for patents. "While we are applying for patents, we are also collecting a lot of data. In the past, the production of hats relied on experience, but now to produce hats that are popular in the market, data is indispensable. Chen Junbiao, general manager of Shunpu Company, said that the sales data accumulated over the years and the feedback of different styles in different markets are the "secret weapons" for the company's products to gain a firm foothold in the domestic and foreign markets.

In November 2023, Shunpu Company registered a number of straw hat-related data on the Zhejiang Provincial Data Intellectual Property Registration Platform. Two weeks later, the evaluation of data intellectual property pledge was completed, and the company successfully obtained a credit of 50 million yuan. "With this money, we want to be our own brand and break out of the world. Chen Junbiao said.

According to the data, 17 provinces and cities across the country have carried out pilot work on data intellectual property rights. Up to now, the pilot localities have received more than 13,000 applications for data intellectual property registration and issued more than 7,000 certificates.

Increased protection –

Optimize the business environment

China's intellectual property protection efforts continue to increase, and the results are becoming increasingly significant.

Recently, a case disclosed by the Supreme People's Court has attracted widespread attention - the porcelain "Wusu" beer and the "Niaosu" beer, which are identical from the name to the packaging, were found to constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Since 2006, Xinjiang Wusu Company has successively registered a number of trademarks such as "Wusu" and "Wusu Beer". With the increase in the popularity of Wusu beer products, some enterprises produce and sell infringing products counterfeit Wusu beer through "free riding" and "famous brands".

"In 2020, Nanjing Bird Su Beer Company used 'Bird Su' as its corporate name, and 'Bird Su' beer with similar packaging and decoration to 'Red Can Wusu Beer 500ml' appeared on the market. Jiang Tao, general manager of Xinjiang Wusu Company, said that in order to protect the rights and interests of the enterprise, Xinjiang Wusu Company filed a lawsuit with the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court. After the trial of this trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute case, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court and the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court found that the defendant's infringement was established, and fully supported the plaintiff's claim for compensation of 2.08 million yuan.

According to the data, in 2023, 44,000 cases of patent and trademark violations will be investigated and prosecuted, 68,000 administrative cases of patent infringement disputes will be handled, 4,745 cases of copyright infringement and piracy will be investigated and handled, 62,000 batches of suspected import and export infringing goods will be seized, 19,000 cases of intellectual property rights will be approved for the record of customs protection, 490,000 cases of various types of intellectual property rights will be concluded, 31,000 people will be accepted, examined and prosecuted for intellectual property infringement crimes, more than 2,500 cases of intellectual property civil and administrative litigation supervision will be handled, 40,000 cases of intellectual property infringement and production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods will be investigated, and social satisfaction with intellectual property protection will increase to a new high of 82.04 points.

In order to create a favorable environment for innovation, China has always adhered to the principle of equal protection of the intellectual property rights of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises.

Recently, at an investment promotion conference in Fengxian District, Shanghai, the arrival of a foreign company executive, who is the Greater China Development Manager of Heidelberg Printing Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., attended the meeting on behalf of the German headquarters. In Fengxian District, Heidelberg has no plans for industrial layout, so why did the enterprise representatives participate in this investment promotion conference? The answer stems from a rights protection exercise.

Heidelberg AG is a global leader in the printing equipment manufacturing industry, and its only assembly plant in Asia is located in Qingpu District, Shanghai. In June last year, the Fengxian District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau received a report from Heidelberg, reflecting that Shanghai Debao Packaging Products Co., Ltd., registered in Fengxian District, used the word "Heidelberg" in the name of the company and used "printed in Shanghai Debao" as a slogan.

In fact, after discovering that the name of the enterprise was confused, Heidelberg Company was also worried that it had not invested in the registration of a company in Fengxian District, and whether the functional departments of Fengxian District could fully defend its rights. Soon, the actions of the law enforcement officers dispelled Heidelberg's concerns.

After receiving the report, the Fengxian District Market Supervision Bureau quickly began to carry out verification work. On the day the case was filed, the law enforcement officers immediately visited and interviewed the enterprise involved, and the person in charge of the enterprise immediately deleted the infringing publicity content and went through the procedures for changing the company's name the next day.

The strength and speed of China's intellectual property protection have been affirmed and appreciated by more and more foreign-funded enterprises. "Thank you for protecting our company's intellectual property rights in China, which makes our company more confident in the Chinese market. Recently, the Intermediate People's Court of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province received a letter of thanks from Ferrero in Italy. In the trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute case between Ferrero and Jiang, the Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court mediated the cases in Yangzhou and Quanzhou, which involved the same defendants, to solve the infringement of Ferrero in a "package".

"The State Intellectual Property Office, together with relevant departments, is speeding up the formulation and introduction of the implementation plan for the construction of the intellectual property protection system, which is a key task in the protection of intellectual property rights this year. Shen Changyu said that the plan will put forward a series of effective measures to solve the problems of frequent infringement, long rights protection cycle, high cost of rights protection, low infringement compensation and difficulty in presenting evidence, improve the systematization, specialization and facilitation of intellectual property protection, further consolidate the foundation of intellectual property protection, and better shape a good innovation environment and business environment.