Military announces declassified patents at Foshan invention expo

Brochures with basic information on more than 2,400 declassified national defense patents were issued at the opening ceremony of an invention exhibition last week in Foshan, Guangdong province.

The National Defense Intellectual Property Rights Bureau of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department also issued CDs storing detailed explanations of these military patents.

Yang Jianbing, deputy director of the bureau, said it was an important measure to boost the coordinated development of the civilian and defense sectors.

The patents cover such fields as information technology, new materials, energy technology, biological and environmental resources, and advanced manufacturing and automation technology.

The bureau started to organize patent holders in 2015 to review their patents and determine whether they could be declassified.

In March, about 3,000 national defense patents were declassified, of which 2,346 were made open to the public.

It was the first time the military declassified and made public military patents since it began to register such patents in 1985, according to PLA Daily.

During the exhibition, the bureau organized more than 70 military institutes and universities to showcase 156 projects at the civil-military integration exhibition zone, facilitating the transfer of military technologies to civilian industries.

The People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force University of Engineering debuted a gamma ray system at the expo. It is used for recognizing, positioning and analyzing radioactive nuclear waste in sealed containers. Zhang Quanhu, a professor of nuclear engineering at the university, said the system was the result of over 20 years of research, with a total investment of 10 million yuan ($1.51 million).

He added he hopes the exhibition will help to promote the system and provide a platform to find business partners.

The China National Exhibition of Inventions is one of the country's largest and most influential events in this field.

This year's event, held from Nov 23-25, involved more than 800 exhibition booths, presenting about 1,600 research projects brought by participants from 40 countries and regions, as well as four international organizations.

Yu Huarong, secretary-general of the China Association of Inventions, said Foshan has a solid industrial foundation and a strong culture for innovation.

He said he hopes the event will help the city to bring in the latest scientific achievements and high-quality invention patents to integrate with local industries and to create social and economic benefits.

Foshan Mayor Zhu Wei said the exhibition is an important opportunity for the city to accelerate construction of an innovation system.

The city government has highlighted creative industries for years. Since 2012, it has invested over 2 billion yuan annually to meet the requirements of a national innovation city.

Last year, expenditure on research and development reached 22.36 billion yuan, accounting for 2.6 percent of the city's GDP.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/30/2017 page17)