Standards for intellectual property services are increasingly needed as the business grows rapidly in China and Chinese companies expand overseas, said industrial insiders at the International Exchange Conference of Intellectual Property Services Standardization in Beijing's Zhongguancun 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 experts from home and abroad who gave lectures on the IP service standard systems overseas and China's efforts to build its own.

Gan Shaoning, deputy commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office, said at the conference that the IP system supports innovation-driven development and encourages innovation. He said a standardized IP service is an important means to administrative reform and improvement of the market economy. "IP service standardization is at its initial phase in China and has great potential," he said.

Although China has accumulated world-class IP resources, its IP systems are running at low efficiency 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 the efficiency of IP industrialization, he said.

A widely accepted system should be set up to analyze the companies' IP risks when they expand their 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, and there is a shortage of systematic regulations," he told Economic Daily. "The 'standard plus certification' model is the international norm."

Ma Lincong, head of the China National Institute of Standardization, said that IP supports innovation and socioeconomic development only if there is standardized high-quality service.

During recent years, organizations for IP service standardization have been established in many Western countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union.

China issued related guidelines earlier this year, which said a standard system will be established by 2020.

The Standardization Administration of China will "pick up its pace" to develop and improve the nation's IP service standard system, said Cui Gang, deputy director of the administration.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/16/2015 page17)