Last year, a patent promotion mechanism was specially developed by the Office of Science and Technology of Liuyang, a city in Hunan Province, to address the lack of awareness on technical innovation and patent protection among local enterprises. The approach, as part of the city's plan to promote patent promotion, clearly stated that entities participating in the city's scientific and technical programs must file a certain number of patent applications before the programs terminated.

Since the regulation took effect, a great many high-tech enterprises have started to pay attention to patents. As a result, the city's patent applications amounted to 262 in the first half of this year, up 25%, with the invention patents growing by 79% year on year. The new approach has greatly aroused local businesses' enthusiasm in filing patent applications. Fengri, a good example among those companies, filed as many as 28 patent applications last year, and the enterprise even started to think about its international patent strategy.

It was noted that, enterprises enrolled in the final assessment and examination of the scientific and technical programs this year all included patent-related achievements as a significant sector in their assessment presentations. Several companies that failed to meet the target on patent applications had been disqualified from participating in the final appraisal.

Those that did not accomplish the patent tasks are not eligible to set up new programs of municipal level this year, said Li Pingsheng, deputy director of the Office, according to whom, Liuyang will develop a large market through a wise use of the patent promotion scheme, to continually enhance the local enterprises' patent awareness and their patent promotion efforts.

(Source:IPR in China)