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:

 

l         Their products have wholly-owned intellectual property rights and are in accordance with the state and the local industrial trend.

l         The new technique takes a leading position internationally and can pass the new product appraisal within three years.

l         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)