On April 24, a white paper on intellectual property conditions
in Jiangsu Province was jointly issued by 27 institutions,
including Jiangsu Intellectual Property Office, Jiangsu
Administration of Industry and Commerce, Jiangsu Copyright Office
and Court of Jiangsu
Province. Though a remarkable number of patents have been
applied in the province in recent years, most of them are in the
hands of multinationals, especially those in high-tech fields.
According to the white paper, in 2003, the province handled 18,393
patent applications, having outnumbered
Beijing, ranking
the fourth in the nation. Patent application is becoming prevalent
in the southern areas of the province: 22 counties (towns,
districts) own over 100 patent cases, including Kunshan City
(1,000), Wujin District (600) and Jiangyin City (400).
However, many multinationals from Japan, the United States and
Europe are struggling to have the patent products registered ahead
of their Chinese counterparts. The multinationals’ applications
count for more than 50 percent of the total in high-tech fields, 70
percent in computer tech, 87.3 in biotechnology, 92.4 in
information technology, 90 percent in semi-conductors. Obviously,
the patent market in Jiangsu Province is being monopolized by
foreign magnets, a situation similar to other parts of China.
Chen Suning, director of the Jiangsu Intellectual Property
Office, said that foreign companies’ monopoly has seriously
affected local enterprises’ strategy to become big and powerful
international enterprises. This is partly due to the opening of the
market, said Chen, but on the other hand, it is due to local
enterprises’ poor awareness of IPO protection.
(China.org.cn by Li Liangdu, April 29, 2004)