Companies under the direct supervision of the central government were told there's still a long way to go on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection at a two-day conference that began yesterday in Shenzhen.

Huang Shuhe, vice-minister of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said companies needed to plan, innovate and commercialize to protect IPR and catch up with their global counterparts.

He also said the companies at the conference, all under the direct supervision of the central government, needed to develop a better understanding of the importance and urgency of the work.

The IPR conference was the first one organized by the SASAC for the companies.

"Their (companies supervised by the central government) remarkable progress is positive. But what's more important is that our firms are aware that the general level of our IPR work doesn't come close to that of the world's more advanced companies," he said.

Huang said State-owned companies don't give IPR work enough importance and struggle to commercialize and protect innovations. He also criticized the companies' IPR management systems and inability to deal with copyright disputes.

Only 7.9 percent of the companies have strategic plans for IPR in place, only 20 percent have set up an IPR management system and about one-third of the firms didn't take any action when their patents or trademarks were infringed, he said.

"Strengthening IPR work is not only necessary for the companies to sharpen their competitive edge, but also very crucial for China to optimize its industrial structure and to put the nation in a more favorable position in the new era of international competition," he said.

The SASAC official urged companies to initiate strategic planning on IPR, redouble efforts to innovate, speed up commercialization, build brands and strengthen IPR management and protection.

Companies under the direct supervision of the central government applied for 14,696 patents in 2006, up 46.5 percent from 2005, and were involved in 434 cases of international standard-setting, 1,744 cases of national standard-setting and 2,781 cases of industrial standard-setting, according to official statistics.

(China Daily September 28, 2007)