Xing Huina:
Thank you, Mr. Hu, for your introduction. Now it is time for questions. Please indicate the media organization you work for before raising a question.
CCTV:
In recent years, China has strengthened its work on patent and trademark pledge financing to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs represent the "capillaries" of the national economy, and they have been under tremendous pressure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to know, over the past year, what work has the CNIPA done to support SMEs? Thanks.
Hu Wenhui:
Thank you, I will answer your question. To support SMEs and mitigate their difficulties, CNIPA has worked with related departments to issue, promote and implement a series of policies and measures, which provide strong support for the innovative development of SMEs in terms of cultivating entities, financing, transfer and application and improving services. These works are as follows:
First, we have expanded the intellectual property pledge financing work to mitigate the difficulties SMEs have faced in accessing financing. CNIPA, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the National Development and Reform Commission launched the three-year campaign entitled, "Intellectual Property Pledge Financing to Benefit Enterprises in Industrial Parks," promoting intellectual property pledge financing services to benefit more SMEs, with an aim to cover "100 industrial parks and 10,000 enterprises." As I just mentioned, in 2021, China's patent and trademark pledge financing reached 309.8 billion yuan. Inclusive loans worth less than 10 million yuan have been issued to 11,000 enterprises, accounting for 71.8% of the total enterprises benefiting from the policies.
Second, we jointly launched a patent transfer plan to support patent technology transfers for SMEs. We worked with the Ministry of Finance to organize and implement a three-year special plan for patent transfers, in a bid to promote innovations from universities and institutions to transfer and utilize in SMEs. So far, a total of 30 provinces have launched the special plan to further promote the policies and measures that benefit more SMEs, among which eight provinces have received the first batch of subsidies and rewards.
Third, we have stepped up efforts to foster SMEs and increase their capacity for intellectual property management. We have encouraged SMEs to implement the national standard of enterprises intellectual property management and further optimize intellectual property management systems. We have scaled up our efforts to foster demonstration enterprises with advantages in intellectual property among SMEs. Among the total 5,729 national demonstration enterprises, the number of SMEs accounted for more than 76%. The research and development investment, the average number of in-force patents, and other indicators of those SMEs are higher than the national average.
Fourth, we have enhanced intellectual property service to support the innovative development of SMEs. We have guided the construction of patent navigation service bases and promoted applying a series of national standards like the Patent Navigation Guidelines. We have pushed forward the establishment of the decision-making mechanism in patent navigation, thus effectively serving the innovative development of SMEs. By establishing trademarks and brands guidance stations, we have provided SMEs with convenient and high-quality guidance and services on trademarks and brands. Meanwhile, we have launched a campaign to "provide intellectual property services in a tour of ten thousand miles." With the critical tasks of attracting employment and entrepreneurship to the intellectual property service industry, supporting rural vitalization with geographical indications, and benefiting and helping enterprises, we have guided and supported nearly 10,000 local online and on-site activities, benefiting more than 15,000 market entities, mainly SMEs. In addition, we have sped up the building of the comprehensive intellectual property service window, providing all intellectual property services through the window.
Going forward, we will continue to implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, launch the SMEs intellectual property strategic promotion project, and take multiple measures to bolster the innovative development of SMEs. Thank you.
