Shanghai’s city government opened China's first patent exchange centre yesterday to promote inventions and sales of patents by linking inventors with investors.

"The centre will also help firms reinforce their management of intellectual property and so sharpen their competitive edge both at home and abroad," said Li Yaoting, director of the centre.

The number of patent applications has rocketed in the last few years, in keeping with the growth of China's economy, and there were more than 20,000 last year alone.

However, many individual applications did not come to fruition because of a lack of cash or knowledge.

The building, in Yangpu District, has a patent exhibition hall and will provide a platform for the exchange and use of patents, copyrights and trade marks, said Xu Zhanglin, deputy director of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Administration.

A special exchange network would open in June to put inventors in touch with potential investors, making it more likely that products will actually reach the shops.

Yesterday's inauguration was part of a citywide campaign to protect IPR, and chimed with today’s World Intellectual Property Day.

"Setting up the centre will give an impetus to the creation of more patents and their efficient use," said Xu.

Over the past four years, the city has received 1 million patent applications, equal to the amount it had between 1985 and 2000. In 1985, the city had only 806 applications, whereas last year saw 20,471.

Gu Yonghua, spokesperson for the Shanghai IPR Administration, said 70 percent of applications came from enterprises and 30 percent from individuals.

"This is because Shanghai has more foreign-funded ventures and provides a favorable policy environment," Gu said.

About 80 percent of the enterprise patent applications have been implemented, but only 10 percent of individual patents, because the owners lacked funds or did not know how to implement them.

IPR experts said the city should reinforce efforts to further raise people's awareness of patent protection and use by making the patent system better known.

In the past 20 years, the administration has handled 407 patent cases, 93 percent of which have been settled.

(China Daily April 26, 2005)