Patent pickup

Although Beijing ranks as a top city for new patent registrations, IP (intellectual property) officials in the Chinese capital think the number of registrations is too small and the process too slow.

Over 19,000 hi-tech enterprises in Zhongguancun area, Beijing's Silicon Valley, applied for 6,000 patents last year. But that number is smaller than the number of patents registered by one single company, Shenzhen-based Huawei. Leading firms in Zhongguancun applied for just 600 to 700 patents each.

Huawei's innovation effort is a model for all Beijing hi-tech firms to follow. Enterprises' awareness of patent registration should be enhanced, says Liu Zhengang, director of the Beijing Intellectual Property Office.

The office has named 20 pilot companies for patent registration, and established a volunteer team of eight IP specialized professors, lawyers and enterprise managers to play a leading role to all firms in Beijing.

The office, in it's new year plan, pledged to support enterprises' innovation efforts, sponsoring 5,000 yuan for each patent the pilot companies register. It will train management teams with respect to IP searches, application, management, usage and protection.

The office will also help the pilot firms form patent strategies and establish a patent alarm system.

Liu points out that many local companies lack knowledge about patent functions, such as the patent for core competitiveness and the patent for possible defense against competitors.

He says the office conducted a survey that found the number of patents registered plays a small role in a company's brand strength, revenue and tax. Many local hi-tech firms survive on the low cost of labor and energy resources. About 86.3 percent of such firms in China do not have a single patent, according to the survey.

Without their own patents, local firms can hardly survive in the global competition, Liu says.

Feng Jun, president and founder of Beijing Huaqi (Aigo) Information Digital Technology Co Ltd, agrees.

The company owns 476 patents, and its six research labs' major task is to apply for patents, on top of conducting research and development.

We are trying our best to apply for patents at the moment. All efforts are for the company's future growth, says Feng. Owning IP is like owning a nuclear weapon, which can empower a firm's competitiveness in the long run.

Established in 1993 in Beijing's Zhongguancun area as a provider of MP3 music players and flash hard drives, Aigo, behind its innovation and successful marketing, rapidly overtook its major competitor Samsung in 2003 in the domestic market. Aigo has since expanded to overseas markets, including the US and Europe.

At the moment, the company is concentrating on digital cameras, pledging to compete against the nine Japanese giants.

Many people have shown their concern over our decision (to extend to the digital camera world), but I have confidence in the area, because there are still a great number of patents to register. Aigo has many opportunities, Feng says.

The upcoming Beijing Olympics will provide a stage for local companies to showcase their brands and products. 2009 will be a golden year for Chinese companies to go abroad. It is the right time for local players to register their patents now, he adds.

Statistics from the Beijing Intellectual Property Office indicate that companies and organizations in the city applied for 31,680 new patents last year; 69 percent were invention patents. Among all new patents, about 60 percent were from enterprises, and some 30 percent were from research and educational institutions.

According to State Intellectual Property Office 2007 patent statistics, the office accepted 694,153 patent applications of three types nationwide, an increase of 21.1 percent year-on-year. It granted 351,782 patents, up 31.3 percent year-on-year.

The amount of patent applications for all three types rose rapidly and the growth rate of domestic granted invention patents was higher than foreign ones.

Among patent applications accepted last year, 586,734 were domestic and 107,419 were foreign; 245,161 were invention patent, 181,324 were utility model and 267,668 were design; 380,260 were service and 313,893 were non-service.

Patent applications in 2007 presented four characteristics all three types of patent applications increased rapidly, while utility model and design patent applications took up the major part; invention patent applications were mainly from domestic applicants and the rise of domestic invention patent applications was remarkably higher than foreign ones; the ratio of domestic applications for service patents was enhanced; and enterprises became the main body of innovation.