Crossing the "Last Kilometer" of Patent Transformation
2023-11-07
Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Special Action Plan for Patent Transformation and Application (2023-2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which proposes to work from two aspects: improving patent quality and strengthening policy incentives, breaking through key barriers in patent transformation and application, optimizing market services, cultivating a good ecosystem, and stimulating the innovation vitality and transformation motivation of various entities. The Plan establishes the overall goals, promotion plans, key measures, and implementation guarantees for promoting patent conversion and utilization in China in the coming years, providing institutional support for the transformation of patent system advantages into strong driving forces for innovative development. In the stage of high-quality development, innovation has become the primary driving force for development, and various production factors have gathered in the field of innovation, making substantial progress in China's innovation capacity. At present, the total number of R&D personnel in China ranks first in the world, and the expenditure on R&D funds in the whole society ranks second in the world. Basic research and original innovation are constantly strengthening, strategic emerging industries are constantly growing, and significant achievements have been made in key technology fields. However, technological innovation is not just research in the laboratory, it must be transformed into a practical driving force for promoting economic and social development. The distance from laboratory to application of technological innovation achievements seems to be only one kilometer, but crossing this kilometer faces numerous obstacles such as pilot scale up, fund raising, and marketing. Even looking at the world, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements is a universal challenge, especially in China. Due to the fact that technological innovation achievements are mainly reflected in intellectual property rights, especially patent rights, patent application and transformation are the "barometer" of China's technological achievements transformation. According to statistics, as of the end of 2022, the effective number of invention patents in China was 4.212 million, ranking first in the world. However, the industrialization rate of invention patents was 36.7%, while the industrialization rate of invention patents in universities was only 3.9%. A large number of patented technologies were idle. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposes to strengthen the deep integration of industry, academia, and research led by enterprises, strengthen goal orientation, and improve the transformation and industrialization level of scientific and technological achievements. How to activate the huge patent stock assets has become a prominent challenge in the implementation of China's innovation driven development strategy. Overall, the low patent conversion rate is due to various reasons. One is that for a long time, China's scientific and technological innovation and economic development have been separated. Universities and research institutes do not directly participate in market competition and do not understand market demand, resulting in the inability of innovative achievements to be directly transformed into products that consumers love. The second issue is the obstruction of institutional mechanisms. In the past, we incentivized enterprises to create intellectual property rights through multiple measures such as government guidance and policy incentives. However, some enterprises focused on quantity rather than quality in patent applications, and even relied solely on "manufacturing achievements" for innovation qualification selection and research project conclusion, resulting in a relatively low proportion of patents with industrial value; Although some innovative achievements meet practical needs, it is difficult to match supply and demand due to the "medium obstruction" of transformation, difficulty in determining patent value, and high transaction costs. Faced with multiple factors that hinder the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, it is necessary to directly address the crux of the problem, implement classified policies, and make multiple efforts. In recent years, legislation and important policy documents such as the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements and the Action Plan for Promoting the Transfer and Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements have been centrally introduced, committed to creating an innovative system for deep integration of industry, academia, and research,
Edit:Ling Xiaotong Responsible editor:Li Yi
Source:ECONOMIC DAILY
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email:lwxsd@liaowanghn.com