Executives: IP pivotal in 'Creative Hangzhou'

Companies in Hangzhou increasingly view intellectual property protection as a business incentive rather than defensive requirement, according to executives of manufacturing companies headquartered in the city.

"We consider IP protection a way of gaining profit," said Zhong Guoqing, chief vice-president of Supcon Group, the nation's biggest maker of automated control systems.

Zhong said Supcon invented China's first paperless data recorder in 1994, but did not realize the need for IP protection until two years later when copycat products flooded the market.