Experts call for standardization of IP services

Standards for intellectual property services are increasingly needed as the business growsrapidly in China and Chinese companies expand overseas, said industrial insiders at theInternational Exchange Conference of Intellectual Property Services Standardization in Beijing'sZhongguancun innovation area last week.
The event attracted more than 200 delegates from the government, IP service agencies,universities, research institutes, companies and industry associations, including many expertsfrom home and abroad who gave lectures on the IP service standard systems overseas andChina's efforts to build its own.
Gan Shaoning, deputy commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said at theconference that the IP system supports innovation-driven development and encouragesinnovation. He said a standardized IP service is an important means to administrative reform andimprovement of the market economy. "IP service standardization is at its initial phase in Chinaand has great potential," he said.
Although China has accumulated world-class IP resources, its IP systems are running at lowefficiency and the commercialization rate is far lower than in many other emerging economies.
"Standardization will improve the planning and management of IP resources," said He Hua,another deputy commissioner of SIPO.
Intellectual property, as a resource, and standardization, as a means, will together increase theefficiency of IP industrialization, he said.
A widely accepted system should be set up to analyze the companies' IP risks when they expandtheir businesses overseas, said SIPO official Ma Hongya, who is responsible for companies'patent management.
"IP management in Chinese companies mostly relies on the experience of the managers, andthere is a shortage of systematic regulations," he told Economic Daily. "The 'standard pluscertification' model is the international norm."
Ma Lincong, head of the China National Institute of Standardization, said that IP supportsinnovation and socioeconomic development only if there is standardized high-quality service.
During recent years, organizations for IP service standardization have been established in manyWestern countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia and the EuropeanUnion.
China issued related guidelines earlier this year, which said a standard system will beestablished by 2020.
The Standardization Administration of China will "pick up its pace" to develop and improve thenation's IP service standard system, said Cui Gang, deputy director of the administration.