Patents not a Chinese virtue, says EU report

Published on 22/08/2012 00:00

China’s drive to produce millions of new patents in the next few years as part of a switch from a “made in China” to “designed in China” economic model will curtail
innovation standards, a European study has warned.

China is seeking to transform itself from the world’s factory floor into a pioneer by setting ambitious state-mandated patent targets – a goal that resulted in it surpassing the United States last year in patents filed.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce has said in a new report that China filed 1.6 million applications in 2011, but only 32 per cent met the highest threshold for quality – new
inventions.

The study noted that while China’s innovation potential is “impressive”, its actual innovation is “overhyped”.

“This explosion [of patent applications] has come with a price in terms of the quality and mix of patents. This is not in the right direction,” European Chamber secretary general Dirk Moens said yesterday.

In some cases, financial incentives and performance evaluations for state-owned firms, officials and academics drive the filing of low-quality patents as they seek to meet quotas of two million annually by 2015 under one national plan.

Sixty-five per cent of patent applications filed by medium and large-sized Chinese state-owned enterprises have been for the lower-end design or utility model patents, making them among the country’s least effective innovators, the study said.

“One cannot drive or ‘force’ creativity, but only nurture it, whereas creativity leading to breakthroughs of the type that typically produce the highest quality patents at best comes in spurts …” it added.