Patent Law and Innovation (Nanjing, December 2-4 2012)

On December 2-4, 2012 the Sino-German Institute for Legal Studies and the Konrad-Adenauer- Foundation Shanghai jointly held an international symposium on “Patent Law and Innovation”. The symposium follows a long term tradition of bringing together academics, practitioners and politicians to discuss current issues that have a high impact on society. One such issue is patent law: The government of the People’s Republic of China (“China”) seeks to gradually change its production dominated industry into one driven by innovation. Goods shall not only be made, but also be created in China. Therefore the Chinese government has designed different kinds of incentives to promote research and development: local governments could receive a bonus for the number of patents granted in their territory, corporate income tax could be reduced quite significantly when filing many patents, professors who acquire patents are more likely to win tenure, workers and students enhance their chances to earn a hukou. In conjunction with a low patent fee these measures have created an atmosphere that has actively encouraged patent application, which has in turn led to a sevenfold growth in patent filings at China`s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) during the last decade.[...]On December 2-4, 2012 the Sino-German Institute for Legal Studies and the Konrad-Adenauer- Foundation Shanghai jointly held an international symposium on “Patent Law and Innovation”. The symposium follows a long term tradition of bringing together academics, practitioners and politicians to discuss current issues that have a high impact on society. One such issue is patent law: The government of the People’s Republic of China (“China”) seeks to gradually change its production dominated industry into one driven by innovation. Goods shall not only be made, but also be created in China. Therefore the Chinese government has designed different kinds of incentives to promote research and development: local governments could receive a bonus for the number of patents granted in their territory, corporate income tax could be reduced quite significantly when filing many patents, professors who acquire patents are more likely to win tenure, workers and students enhance their chances to earn a hukou. In conjunction with a low patent fee these measures have created an atmosphere that has actively encouraged patent application, which has in turn led to a sevenfold growth in patent filings at China`s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) during the last decade.[...