Beijing is Launching Landmark Legislation to Remove Policy Barriers of Technology Commercialization

SHANGHAI, September 26, 2019 (Newswire.com) - ​Innova Research, a leading market research and technology scouting service provider based in Shanghai, China, recently finished a consulting report on China’s innovation ecosystem. According to the report, the Chinese innovation ecosystem is set to improve, bringing large opportunities to corporate R&Ds, corporate VCs, and other investors both in and out of China. 

One of the pieces of evidence is the efforts made by municipal and provincial governments to remove policy barriers of technology commercialization. For example, Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing, the capital city, recently announced that the city government was pushing to launch landmark legislation, named “Regulations on Accelerating Technology Commercialization,” which would allow individual researchers in state-owned universities and research institutes to have ownership of the inventions and technologies produced on duty.  

In China, the vast majority of top universities and research institutes are state-owned and, therefore, intellectual property created by professors and other researchers on duty is treated as the property of the state. Currently, universities and research institutes are in charge of managing the intellectual property on behalf of the state. While the lack of ownership significantly reduces the enthusiasm of the individual researchers to commercialize their technologies, university managers have little motivation to push forward the technology commercialization either. As a result, the commercialization rates of the technologies and inventions from top Chinese universities and research institutes are much lower, averagely, than those of their counterparts in the United States and Europe.

To overcome the barrier of technology commercialization, the above-mentioned draft regulation stated that, while the universities and research institutes could share the future profits and other benefits, the ownership of the intellectual property could be granted to individual researchers directly. This will be the first local legislation in China to grant ownership of the intellectual property that is produced on duty to individual researchers, and such legislation will no doubt give a strong motivation to individual researchers to commercialize their technologies, or seek proper partners to license out their technologies.

Richard Jun Li, the founder and general manager of Innova Research, commented, “In fact, the launch of such legislation in Beijing is likely to be followed by other major Chinese cities and, therefore, has a chance to create nationwide legislation in the future. This will bring a large number of technology spinoffs based on the technologies and inventions from the universities and research institutes and, therefore, creates large opportunities for corporate R&Ds, corporate VCs, and other investors seeking technology partners and investment targets in China.”  

About Innova Research

Innova Research is a market research and consulting firm focusing on emerging technologies, including advanced materials, renewable energy, advanced electronics, industry internet and robotics, energy storage, among others. The company also provides technology scouting and deal sourcing services to corporate VCs, VCs, and R&D clients. Driven by primary research, Innova Research’s market intelligence reports, technology scouting and consulting services help our clients to make the right strategic and investment decisions in the fast-changing technology world. Visit www.innovaresearchinc.com for more information.

Source: Innova Research