IPR ownership of major scientific projects - except those related to national security and important social benefits - will be granted to those who actually carry out the research work.

Scientists or their backers are free to decide how to transfer or commercialize their technological findings, according to the regulation released yesterday in Beijing.

The regulation has been approved by the State Council and aims to enhance the awareness of IPR protection and stimulate technology invention and commercialization, said Shi Dinghuan, secretary-general of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

IPR ownership of research programs for national security and public benefits should be defined by relevant scientific planning administrations either at the start or at the end of research work.

Research institutes with financial difficulties in patent application and protection will be given special grants to let them sustain patent protection from government allocation for scientific projects.

"Some research institutes still neglect IPR protection and only care about the evaluation of technology and publication of academic papers.

"Ignorance of patent applications has caused a great number of overlapping projects and a waste of resources," said Shi.

The country has produced an average of 30,000 important technological findings each year since the 1990s but only a small part of these are registered for patent protection.

In 1998, for example, only 462 technological findings of the 30,000-odd ones were registered for patent protection.

Shi attributed this to a lack of IPR awareness among research institutes and the loose management of governments on IPR ownership for research programs.

Loose management on IPR ownership for research programs has caused confusion among technology researchers and users.

The Central Iron and Steel Research Institute said it was often frustrated by unclear ownership of patents.

The institute has co-operation links with factories and has developed technologies and paid money for patent protection in the past few years. But relevant profits from using the new technologies usually go to the factories, the institute said.

"Hopefully, this new regulation will help us settle disputes of IPR ownership," said Jin Xiangrong, a researcher with the institute.

(People's Daily May 21, 2002)