Hengqin's vision takes lead in push for more commercialization

Commercializing intellectual property is the only way to realize IP's business value, said Xie Hong, deputy director of Guangdong IP department, at a recent forum in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The forum, whose theme was the commercialization of IP, was held by the Hengqin IP trading center to be a highend platform for discussion of this issue.

At the forum on Aug 24, IP specialists from Guangdong and Macao discussed the commercialization of university technology and IP operation.

Sun Mingke, general manager of Goscien Technology, said China owns many patents, but still has a lower patent industrialization rate than the United States. Sun made this assessment after comparing figures from Sun Yat-sen University and Harvard University, and others from the South China University of Technology and Stanford University.

He called for a cooperative organization that would work to change this situation.

The national Hengqin IP trading center was designed to be such an organization, said Xia Dexing, chairman of Hengqin international trading center. With the core businesses of IP trade, financial innovation and international operations, the platform covers e-commerce, finance and big data and went online recently.

"When small and mediumsized companies need technology, they cannot find it in a supermarket as we buy goods," said Guan Yonghong, director of the IP institute of the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.

"Hengqin trading center is actually doing this job, where idle technology products can be placed on the website and wait to be bought by companies," he said.

If needed, a third-party institution can provide evaluation to decide an acceptable price for both parties, he added.

In the first six months of this year, 62,000 applications for invention patents were filed from Guangdong, with 109,000 patents granted at the same period, both ranking first nationally.

Zhuhai became a national model IP city in 2013, and had achieved 4,640 valid patents for inventions by June 2016, ranking second in the province after Shenzhen.

Xie Hong said Hengqin had provided good experiences in IP operation services along with rapid growth in innovation. She said that since the Hengqin platform was established, it has cooperated with Zhuhai Gree Electric, launched IP financial products, and proposed pledge and investment service alliances.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/31/2016 page17)