OPINION> Commentary
Stop making junk patents
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-24 07:55

It is time to stop the production of academic junks in universities, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. The following is an excerpt:

Although the number of patents applied for by China's higher education institutions has been soaring since 2000, accounting for 11.7 percent of the national total, these patients do not bring expected economic benefits.

In the US, colleges only have 4 percent of the total number of national patent applications, but their license fees account for 12 percent of the total and the proceedings out of their patents exceed $1 billion every year.

The venture capital investment has been prevailing in recent years, aiding a good many high-tech enterprises to achieve quick success in the market. Thus, it makes many people wonder why over half of the patents from colleges in China cannot contribute to the economic growth.

It is said that the word "junk patent" has long been popular in technology circles in China. This word refers to the fact that many research units and teams and researchers apply for patents only for the sake of application itself, showcasing "fruits" of their research and disregarding whether they are useful or not in practice.

I cannot help thinking about the coexistence of the surge of the research papers in China's universities and their stagnant research quality. It is widely alleged that many of China's campus research magazines are the breeding ground of academic junks.

The two phenomena combined make us feel the chill from the academic circles. Higher education institutions, supposed to be at the frontier of academic research, are now busy applying for useless patents and fabricating useless papers. It is in fact the current state of China's academic world.

Many industries in China currently face the challenge of technical upgradation and the lack of core technologies is the headache of many enterprises.

Not long ago, Zhong Nanshan, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, called for the launch of an alliance of technological innovation in Guangzhou against the background of 90 percent of patents being useless and lots of technical bottlenecks remaining to be solved.

Therefore, it is high time to address academic and patent junks and to clean up the polluted academic circles.

(China Daily 10/24/2008 page8)