On October 19, 2019, the first Roundtable of CIPnet named "Technology Transfer at Higher Education Institutions in China" was held at Renmin University of China in Beijing. The Roundtable invited scholars, enterprise personnel and judges from China's most well-known universities, intellectual property public service platforms and courts to conduct in-depth discussions on the topic of technology transfer in colleges and universities.

China has amended the Law of Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in 2015. Ministry of Education of the P.R.C. has issued relevant provisions to cooperate with the law. And Ministry of Finance has also issued an administrative proposal notice to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, further delegating the relevant powers to colleges and universities. The government is committed to gradually increasing the share of benefits among inventors. However, whether the above measures have effectively solved the practical problems regarding technology transfer in the Chinese higher education institutions, what problems remain to be solved urgently in the current system and are there any proposals to improve the legal framework, the judicial activities and the related public service? The purpose of this Roundtable is to discuss the above issues and listen to advice and suggestions from all sides.

YU Libiao, Deputy General Manager of SIPOP, pointed: at present, the technology transfer is a hot topic regarding innovation and entrepreneurship in China, and this topic is inseparable from the protection of intellectual property rights. Yu believes that the technology transfer in the Chinese colleges and universities should pay attention to the following three aspects: first, no matter whether the technological achievements are really mature or not, they must be prepared for commercialization, listing, and even export, and thus patent protection is crucial. Genes that respect intellectual property rights should be formed at the beginning of the research project; second, to compile a strict “protection network” around technological achievements and products, using from patents to trademarks, copyrights, and so on; third, it should be aware that patents are not only technical information, legal information, but also a type of economic intelligence. Based on such a comprehensive intelligence or big data analysis, the corresponding guidance and instructions can be provided in patent literature and related technical information, which can be used in the scenarios of the government’s investment attractions, enterprise’s talent introduction and recruitment, and scientific research project setting up in universities. The use of similar technical analysis can help us find the direction of research and development, which has a role similar to a compass.

TONG Haichao, Justice, Intellectual Property Branch of SPC, pointed that the courts in China are taking several major measures to strengthen the hearing of intellectual property cases in the technology industries in order to help the transformation of technological achievements. Patent cases in certain jurisdictions are required to be filed in the correspondingly appointed IP courts; the three intellectual property courts are established in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which unifies the adjudication standards regarding cases of technological achievements. At the same time, in recent years, various courts have been approved the establishment of special bodies for the judicial examination of intellectual property rights, some of which are called courts and some are called judicial chambers. These specialized judicial institutions, through the centralized acceptance of cases across regions, to a large extent, unified the first instance adjudication standards of the whole province. In addition, according to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, from this year on, the Supreme People’s Court has solely authority of accepting second instance cases of technology-based intellectual property rights cases, which will be heard by the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme Court. In the past, the cases of the first instance of the Intermediate People's Courts have been appealed to the Higher Courts of various localities. Therefore, it is conceivable that it is difficult to avoid the occurrence of inconsistent adjudication standards. Now, the Intermediate People's Courts’ cases are directly appealed to the Supreme Court. This is crucial to the unification of law enforcement standards.

PENG Wenyi, Justice, Beijing Intellectual Property Court believed that at the micro level of litigations in courts, there are two aspects worth discussing. One is from the R & D stage of technological achievements, and the other is the stage of transformation. In the stage of research and development, the determination of the ownership of the so-called "technological achievements" is important. Although there is a relatively clear wording in provisions, in practice, there will be a variety of complex facts that will affect the court’s judgment, which should attract the attention from colleges and universities. In addition, it should be noted that many technological achievements in colleges and universities are completed through intermediary institutions, and the relationship between intermediary institutions and the ultimate beneficiaries should be handled properly.

CHEN Baiqiang, Deputy Director, Technology Transfer Center from Beijing Institute of Technology pointed: In fact, the so-called conversion rate of technological achievements in Chinese colleges and universities is not that low. We should take China's political system and national conditions into consideration. The legal framework of ownership, licensing and transfer mechanism of technological achievements in colleges and universities should be improved, and the protection of intellectual property rights should be strengthened. The transformation of scientific and technological achievements in Chinese colleges and universities is better than that in foreign countries, because colleges and universities directly undertake economic construction and directly undertake the major R & D and application tasks entrusted by the government.

SHEN Jian, Director, Intellectual Property Management Office of Renmin University of China, believed that there is a lot of criticism on the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in China. Our leaders attach great importance to this problem, and investment in science and technology is getting higher and higher every year, but despite the huge investment, in fact, the level of technology is still not good, and the central government leaders are determined to devote a lot of energy to solving these problems. Through various, we probably estimate that the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in American colleges and universities is 50%, not 100%, and not to the extent of 80%. So now in this place, we can come to the conclusion that the comparison of the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements between Chinese and American universities is 5.5% versus 50%. A matter that the main leaders of the State Council are grasping is the reform of the ownership of scientific and technological achievements. And how to do a good job in developing the mechanism dealing with inventor’s reward, profit sharing and other support resources is a key question we should consider.

XIANG Bo, Associate Professor, Law School of NanKai University believed the problem of inventor incentive in the transformation of technological achievements in colleges and universities is a problem that should be paid special attention to at present. The relevant players in the transformation of technological achievements of universities are four parties: one is the state (government), the second are universities, the third are inventors, and the fourth are enterprises. Inventors are mostly risk-averse persons, generally taking no market risk and are willing to hire others to do the market development. Companies are more willing to take on market risk on the other hand. How to design a reasonable incentive mechanism which can deal with the relationship between inventors and enterprises, is very important.

In the comment and free discussion session, GU Yongjiu, Researcher, Haidian District Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, pointed: the transformation of technological achievements is not difficult, because a lot of things we use now, especially high-tech things, are all the result of the transformation of technological achievements. To put it bluntly, it is difficult to make money by patented technology, not by transformation. Haidian District is operating a high-value patent operation and cultivation center, a project led and supported by the CNIPA. Through these efforts, and under the guidance of the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office, we hope to do a good job in intellectual property protection and operation.

GUO He, Associate Dean & Professor of Intellectual Property Academy, Renmin University of China, summarized the meeting. He pointed that The scholars, judges, university administrators and government officials in this conference mainly discussed the current situation and existing problems of the mechanism, mode and incentive system of technology transfer in China, and proposed possible solutions. Although the perspectives of the participants were quite different, they all agreed that the transformation of technological achievements and its intellectual protection is a direct driving force to boost China's economic development.

ZHANG Guangliang, Professor, Intellectual Property Academy, Renmin University of China suggest that for the next event, we should look beyond China. Scholars, university administrators and legal practitioners from different countries and regions can be invited to compare and discuss the protection of intellectual property rights and transformation of technological achievements at higher education institutions and combine it under a background of the global trade and the development trend of science and technology in future.