BEIJING - The Chinese government will set up an award to encourage on-campus invention, a move believed to help boost the number of the country's international patent registrations.
In a bid to encourage universities and schools to put more resources toward encouraging invention, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) plans to display inventions by teachers and students at an annual conference on patents, which will run from November 9 to 11, said Xu Fang, an official in charge of intellectual property rights (IPO) registration with SIPO, here Thursday.
The creators of these inventions will compete for the award.
The SIPO will recommend the top ten prize winners to take part in the Geneva International Invention Show in 2012, and sponsor them by providing free return-trip plane tickets and a booth for each invention at the show.
"Chinese universities should play a bigger role in invention and innovation," Xu said.
The number of China's international patents lags far behind that of the United States and Japan, Xu said.
The number of Chinese patents was only equal to 27.5 percent of that of the US, he said, adding that no Chinese university was listed in the world's top 50 universities holding the most international patents.

(Source: Xinhua)