Commercializing Patented Technologies at Chinese Universities

Abstract

Universities and other public research institutes (individually or collectively referred to as “universities”) are increasingly protecting their inventions, which would, in turn, help raise additional funding for research and spur new start-ups. The general strengthening of intellectual property protection world-wide, as well as the passage of legislation aimed at improving technology commercialization are additional factors that have facilitated the expansion of patenting in universities. In China, a dramatic increase of patent filings from universities has occurred in recent years, however, the rate for patent commercialization has been observed to be low. This short article examines the patent filings and commercialization in top Chinese universities and provides some recommendations for improvement.

Keywords: universities, patented technologies, Chinese universities, China, IP