Tian referred to a US research paper he had read which stated that, for a 30 gigabyte iPod video that retails for $299, $114 goes back to Apple because of the IP it owns, while only $4 stays with the manufacturers in China. “We are still at a relatively low level,” he said.
Tian used this as an example of why the US trade deficit with China is often exaggerated, but also said that the case study shows that Chinese companies need to focus more on developing high-end technology.
Tian said that Chinese universities, institutes and companies only accounted for one-third of China’s patent applications, whereas in developed countries they account for over 90% of applications. He also stated that only 15 domestic Chinese enterprises are responsible for 20,000 – over half – of the patents filed by domestic companies. He added that 99% of enterprises in China have never even applied for patents.
China’s National IP Strategy aims to change this by making China one of the world’s most innovative countries by 2020. It was completed on June 5 this year after three years of research and negotiations between 13 ministries and buureaus within China’s government.
Tian drew attention to how the attitude of the Chinese government to IP has changed from the 16th Communist Party Congress, in which leaders referred to improving the IP protection regime, to the 17th Congress, in which they talked about the implementation of the IP strategy.
“We need to protect IP, but protection is not enough” he said. “The core of the outline is to push forward system reform and improve the intellectual property regime,” he added.
The first reform of China’s IP regime will be a series of amendments to its Patent Act. The latest draft of these amendments was published at the end of August this year and they are expected to be passed in early 2009.
The February edition of Managing IP magazine will contain an exclusive interview with Tian Lipu conducted after his presentation.
