Good morning. Welcome come to this week’s IP Cafe. Here’s Fino. Now let’s take a cup of coffee and enjoy the following five minutes with me.
Let’s quick browse the headlines:
· China Releases Master Plan for Hainan Free Trade Port
· Guangzhou to Set Up China's First Blockchain Development Pilot Zone
· Initiative Aims to Put Virus Weapons in Hands of All
· Chinese Premier Stresses Providing Relief to Businesses, Stimulating Market Vitality
· Huawei Tops 5G Patent Numbers
· Patent Filings Rebound after Virus Halted Work
Chinese authorities on Monday, June 1, released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port, aiming to build the southern island province into a globally influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.
A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, according to the plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council.
The authorities expect to make Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, the frontline of China's integration into the global economic system, according to the plan.
Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to construct the first blockchain development pilot demonstration zone in the country, accelerating the city's development of its blockchain technology and industry in the years ahead.
As a major software industrial hub in the mainland, the southern metropolis has also introduced specific measures for the city's development of blockchain technology and industry 2020-22, according to a statement released by the city government.
Major companies in the city will be encouraged and guided to develop and integrate blockchain technology with finance, information, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain, bio-medicine, scientific research, logistics, intellectual property, industrial Internet and related industries in the coming years, to further upgrade their supply chain technologies and digital transformation, said the statement.
Meanwhile, Guangzhou has continuously strengthened the deep integration of the blockchain technology and various fields of the traditional economy, and built a new engine for high-quality economic development in the city.
Now, let’s move on to the new vaccine progress in combating the Coronavirus.
More than 30 countries and multiple international partners and institutions have signed up to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP, a new initiative aimed at making vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies to fight COVID-19 accessible to all.
More than 6 million cases and over 369,000 deaths from COVID-19 had been reported by last Sunday, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said global solidarity and collaboration are essential to fighting COVID-19. "Based on strong science and open collaboration, this information-sharing platform will help provide equitable access to life-saving technologies around the world."
The C-TAP will be voluntary and based on social solidarity. It will provide a one-stop shop for scientific knowledge, data and intellectual property to be shared equitably by the global community, the WHO said.
The aim is to accelerate the discovery of vaccines, medicines and other technologies through open-science research, and to speed up product development by mobilizing additional manufacturing capacity. This will help ensure faster and more equitable access to existing and new COVID-19 health products.
C-TAP will be a sister initiative to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and other initiatives launched earlier in collaboration with WHO to support efforts to fight COVID-19.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed the importance of providing relief to businesses and stimulating market vitality during his inspection tour to East China's Shandong province from Monday to Tuesday.
Li, who cared a lot about small- and micro-sized enterprises, urged related authorities to properly address the issue of allowing companies to use their intellectual property to secure loans and cut down their financing costs.
The premier called for more ways to increasing credit line for small and micro businesses to help them solve financing problems.
He also encouraged banks to make appropriate interest concessions, so that businesses can sustain themselves and assure success for the future, which will also benefit banks' development.
Noting that the number of college graduates will touch a new high this year, Li said he hopes companies can recruit more college graduates, adding that the central government will also provide support.
Huawei has declared 3,147 5G standard essential patents (SEPs), ranking first in the number of SEPs among 5G companies worldwide, according to the latest data from IPlytics, a German patent data company.
SEPs declared by the Chinese technology company accounted for 15.05 percent of the global total, making it a leader in the 5G communication field.
According to Huawei's 2019 financial report, the company spent 131.66 billion yuan ($18.49 billion) in research and development in the 2019 fiscal year, accounting for 15.3 percent of its total revenue.
Data also show that, including Huawei and ZTE, Chinese companies have a share of 34.02 percent among the global total in 5G SEPs, ranking first in the number.
Huawei was followed by Qualcomm, Nokia, Samsung, LG, ZTE, Ericsson, CATT, NTT DOCOMO and InterDigital.
Patent applications in China posted a V-shaped rebound in the first four months of 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to official data.
From January to April, the number of patent applications on the Chinese mainland was 1.32 million, an increase of 5.7 percent year-on-year, China National Intellectual Property Administration said in a statement.
The number of patent applications in February dropped by 33.2 percent compared with the same period in 2019. But it rebounded quickly in March, with a year-on-year growth of 10.5 percent. In April, the growth rate accelerated to 15.7 percent.
The sharp turnaround shows that market entities have fostered innovation to improve their ability to respond to the pandemic, the statement said.
Those for this week’s news. For more IP events in China, please visit www.chinaiptoday.com. See you next Saturday and enjoy the nice weekend.
