OVC rolls out IPR service export incentives

A news conference is held on Feb 10 in the Optics Valley of China to roll out its supporting measures for the export of services. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

The East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC) took the lead among the nine national intellectual property right (IPR) service export bases to release supporting measures for the export of services on Feb 10.

The valley, identified as a national IPR service export base last year, has doubled down on efforts in international operation, service optimization, and talent cultivation in IPR service exports.

The new measures are designed to encourage IPR export trade, help enterprises to operate high-value international patent businesses, strengthen the clustering of IP service providers, and enhance international exchanges and coordination in IPR protection.

For example, the government will give a bonus of 500,000 yuan ($73,350) to enterprises for each product they export to the overseas market if the products are recognized as patent-intensive. A single firm can receive up to 2 million yuan in such bonuses.

IPR service providers with a foreign-related business scale of at least 500,000 yuan annually will also be subsidized at 25 percent of that trade volume. In addition, they are also advised to cooperate with top IPR experts around the globe, and will be granted a 300,000-yuan bonus for doing so.

Corporations' high-value invention patents which have been included in industrial, national, or international standards will be awarded 500,000 yuan, 1 million yuan and 2 million yuan in bonuses, respectively.

Please refer to the WeChat account of Optics Valley of China ("中国光谷" in Chinese) to learn about the full version of the measures. The period of validity for the measures is three years from their issuing.

In 2022, OVC reported 35,600 authorized patents, a year-on-year increase of 14.1, of which 13,937 were invention patents, up by 20.2 percent.

Now, the average ownership of high-value invention patents has reached 155 patents per 10,000 people in the valley, and a total of 178 local enterprises have obtained 1.43 billion yuan in loans through IPR pledge financing channels.