With the “Sunshine Principle” coming out in late
September, patent subsidies will not only favor domestic companies,
but also foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai. All the
foreign-funded companies are to be offered a subsidy as long as
their new products are up to the standard set by the government.
The government’s finance department will defray the money to
relevant companies openly.?
Shanghai has put forward a regional intellectual
property rights strategy, Shanghai Municipal Intellectual Property
Rights Outline 2004-2010. It aims at making Shanghai an
energetic center for innovation, patent transforming, and a
metropolis of powerful and sound intellectual property rights
protection. By 2010, Shanghai is expected to have a synchronous
growth in patent application, with 150 invention patents for every
one million people on average.
As a result, a new measure for new product patents
came out in Shanghai on Monday, when the 2004 patent application
was started. Meanwhile, the patent subsidy will be open to the
public in the future. All companies located in Shanghai, without
exception, may apply for the patent subsidy under the following
conditions:
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Their products have wholly-owned intellectual property rights and
are in accordance with the state and the local industrial
trend.
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The new technique takes a leading position internationally and can
pass the new product appraisal within three years.
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The new product can bring in better economic and social
results.
The local financial department will publicly give
an aid to the research and development institute according to the
patent technology’s contribution to the economic growth. The
maximum aid can reach as much as three quarters of the industrial
research cost or half of the cost for research and development
activities carried out before being put into the market.?
“This is a brand-new type of patent subsidy,” said
Zhang Weimin, an official from the department of technical
innovation under the Shanghai Economic Commission. He added that
the new measure fits to international practice and the rules of
World Trade Organization.
At the same time, the “1122 special program” for
the development of intellectual property rights was officially
started by the Shanghai Economic Commission. With this program, 10
key industrial technologies with intellectual property rights will
be fostered; 10 leading research institutes will be supported; and
20 new products and new techniques with wholly-own intellectual
property rights and 20 products with Chinese brand names will be
created.??
Chen Zhixing, head of the Shanghai Bureau of
Intellectual Property Rights, said the new measures for patent
subsidy were seasoned with the fierce competition in international
intellectual property rights. The outline is crucial for
Shanghai to upgrade its competitive ability. It is of great
significance for the metropolis to seek quicker development in
intellectual property rights.?
Statistics from the State Intellectual Property
Office show that within the first six months this year, Shanghai’s
patent applications reached 58.8 percent, leading the nation. Its
invention patents reached 35.2 percent, merely second to Beijing’s
46.2 percent.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ruyue, October 3, 2004)