Chinese pesticide producers are lagging behind the rest of the
world in applying for patents even though the country is the
world's second largest pesticide producer, said an official with
the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).
Of all the pesticide patent applications handled by the Chinese
government, applications submitted by foreign companies were about
five times that of Chinese companies, SIPO statistics showed.
"The lack of awareness in patent protection will hinder the
development of Chinese pesticide companies, as the sector has been
fully opened to foreign competitors," Yang Ming, an official with
the SIPO agricultural and chemistry section, told a forum on
Saturday.
Yang said a similar problem was evident in China's chemical
fertilizer industry, which registered the world's biggest output
and became fully open to foreign competition on December 11 under
China's WTO commitment.
From 1985 to November 2006, the number of patent applications
filed by Chinese companies accounted for only 20 percent of the
3,526 domestic applications in the sector. The rest were submitted
by Chinese individuals or research institutes.
During the same period, of the 1,039 patents applications made
in China from foreign countries, about 80 percent were from foreign
companies, according to SIPO figures.
"Chinese entrepreneurs seem to have not fully understood the
role of patents in competition," he said.
Wang Ren, a senior engineer with the China Oil and Chemical
Planning Institute urged Chinese companies to take more initiative
in their intellectual property rights protection and adapt to
international rules.
(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2006)