Sanya to build special zone for IP development

Hainan province will take the lead in China in exploring the centralized and unified service and management of intellectual property rights, and promote the construction of the Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City Intellectual Property Special Zone, authorities said.

The opening ceremony of the Hainan Center of China Copyright Protection Center was held in Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City on Monday afternoon.

The center is the first and only branch center in the country established by the China Copyright Protection Center. It will carry out services such as copyright verification and protection, value assessment, copyright trading, and the international exchange of copyrights mainly for software, cultural and literary productions and digital works.

Sanya will give full play to Hainan's policy advantages, which allow active trials, and the China Copyright Protection Center's rich resources, said Zhou Hongbo, secretary of the Communist Party of China Sanya Committee.

"We'll further improve the one-stop intellectual property public service system, enhance the level of copyright creation, application, protection, management and service, undertake international cultural trade, and carry out copyright confirmation and protection, value assessment, copyright transaction, copyright international exchange and other services, and strive to explore more practices that can be replicated and promoted," Zhou added.

"The establishment of the center forms a one-stop pattern of various intellectual property government services," said Wang Bin, director of the publicity department of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee.

The specialty of the Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City Intellectual Property Special Zone lies in its high concentration of administrative management and law enforcement functions of patents, trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications and new varieties of plants, as well as the precision and efficiency of its management services, he explained.

With the one-stop service system, granting a patent is shortened from months to a few working days.

For example, the application of the invention patent — a fishing method based on big data and drone assistance — submitted by the Hainan Tropical Ocean University Yazhou Bay Innovation Institute, was authorized within 24 working days, which used to take at least 20 months to review.

"In the pre-trial process, we will help institutes and enterprises conduct professional checks to ensure that a submission is successful and effectively save case handling time. The fast track for patent pre-examination ensures that patent applications can be processed at the fastest speed, and the efficient linkage of the process greatly reduces the time for patent review," said Lin Shukun, pre-auditor of the Sanya Intellectual Property Center in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City.

Wu Jun, who focuses on the selection and breeding of new varieties of bromeliad, moved his company to the Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City.

"Enterprises are the main body of innovation, and the construction of intellectual property special zones will protect the enthusiasm of enterprises and create a good market competition environment for their development," he said.