The Intellectual Property Office of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region convened a symposium hosted by its director Liaobin to review achievements and existing problems on patent commissioning services in Yinchuan on April 10. Working plans for 2012 in this regard were also made in the event.

During the meeting, Liao said that the rapid growth of invention patent applications in the region mainly benefits from the boom of patent agencies. In the past, there was only one patent agency serving the whole region, and now three such agencies could provide professional services to consignors.

Of the 442 invention patent applications filed in 2011, 65.2% were submitted by the three major patent agencies (224 from the Patent Service Center, 56 from Chang Zheng Patent Agency and 8 from He Tian Counsel Group). It is worth mentioning that the achievements were made in the context of nascent mechanism of patent commissioning, inadequate patent agents and low revenues generated by commissioning services, said Liao.

In a bid to fulfill the target of 2 living invention patents per ten thousand people, Liao required local patent agencies to make full preparation for the challenge by cultivating talents and improving working efficiency.

In addition, the Office has launched a series of measures to stimulate patent filings. Patent agents handling over 30 applications will be duly awarded.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure the quality of applications, the Office decides to reward agents with half of applications being approved and punish those whose passing rate is below 40%. [Chinese version is available on sipo.gov.cn]

(Source: IPR in China)