China's top intellectual property watchdog said Wednesday that the administration will curb "junk patents" that have little innovation.

 

Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said that most "junk patents" are within the categories of utility model and design.

 

According to the Patent Law, the Chinese patent system has three categories -- invention, utility model and design.

 

The SIPO does not carry out substantial examination on applications for utility model and design patents, which is also in line with the international practice.

 

"We do not substantially examine such patent applications in consideration of saving costs and other resources," Tian said, adding that new utility models and designs have much less innovative features compared with inventions.

 

Lack of substantial examination might lead to "junk patents," Tian said.

 

Many local governments provide incentives for businesses and individuals that are active in applying for patents. With their encouragement, Tian said, some applicants submitted their applications based on existing technologies or designs.

 

Tian's office is now preparing for the third revisions of the patent law, focusing on some pressing problems affecting effective patent protection. The revisions might include improvement of the current examination mechanism for utility model and design patent applications.

 

The SIPO also advised local governments to channel more incentives to invention patents, which need to have substantial examination, rather than utility models and designs.

 

However, Tian insisted that the current mechanism for utility model and design patents is largely appropriate for improving intellectual property awareness of Chinese enterprises, most of which do not have meaningful innovative capabilities.

 

In this sense, Tian said, authorization for utility model and design patents is still useful at the current stage of development.

 

China vows to better protect intellectual property

 

Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said Wednesday that China needs to make more efforts to better protect intellectual property.

 

In the past two decades China established an intellectual property legal system as well as a law enforcement mechanism which embodies judiciary and administrative ethics, Tian said.

 

In 2004, he continued, China received 588,000 trademark applications as well as 110,000 patent applications for utility model and design each.

 

In knowledge-oriented economy, only innovative capabilities can improve the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, he said.

 

Last year China received 130,000 applications for invention patents, half of which are from multinationals headquartered in developed countries.

 

Statistics showed that patent applications from American enterprises in 2005 will exceed 20,000. Companies from developed countries occupied 93 percent of patent applications in electronic transmission, 91 percent of mobile telecommunication, 90 percent in audio and visual technologies, 85 percent in semiconductors, 69 percent in pharmaceuticals and 60 percent in computing technologies.

 

Tian said 18 percent of patent applications from China are for inventions while 86 percent from foreign companies are for invention patents.

 

He said that only 0.03 percent of Chinese enterprises own key technologies with intellectual property. 99 percent of enterprises have never applied for patents and 60 percent do not have their own trademarks.

 

While China is ranked third in foreign trade, patented high technologies contribute only two percent of the total foreign trade volume.

 

"We need to encourage more Chinese enterprises, especially key state businesses, to sharpen their competitiveness by ensuring intellectual property."

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2005)