China's top science academy plans tech patent auctions

NANJING - The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has selected a portfolio of 932 patents for its first patent auction.

The Intellectual Property Operation and Management Center of CAS is promoting the patents in the coastal provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as well as the cities of Shanghai, Fuzhou and Shenzhen, where auctions will be held in March.

Sui Xueqing, head of the center, said the auctions would increase the use of national-level science and technology resources in the economy. The academy wishes to lead by example to encourage more science institutes in China to commercialize their scientific achievements.

He said that the patents were selected from those obtained by 104 institutes and 89 national labs affiliated with the academy. Together they held 46,000 patents in total by the end of 2017.

According to the intellectual property rights trading market in Jiangsu, the CAS auction in the East China province will be held on March 21.

By Friday, 30 firms in the province had registered to join the bidding.

Fan Guohu, general manager of the Jiangsu Lanyu Aeronautics Technology Co. Ltd., said he is interested in vanguard information technology. He planned to bid on a broadband resonant radio transmission system developed by the Electrical Engineering Institute of CAS from the catalogue of patents.

"It was not only the patent that strikes me, but also the technology development team behind it," he said.

According to An Lili from CAS's intellectual property center, the minimum starting bid for the patents is expected to be 100,000 yuan ($15,700).

She said the patents cover a wide spectrum of fields, including new materials, intelligent manufacturing, advanced biomedical technology, new energy and ecological environmental technology.

The center found that new material and new pharmaceutical patents were among the most-pursued patents during market research, An said.