A survey by Sinoipro IP Management and Technology Transfer Co has found that less than 5 percent of patents owned by Shanghai's universities and research institutes have commercial value. Zong Gang, general manager of the company, said that is mainly because the government has paid more attention to the number of patents than to quality. The inappropriate use of patents also aggravated the problem, he said. For example, patents count instead of academic papers when researchers apply for higher academic titles.