On May 27, 2010, a national meeting was convened by China State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) for further implementing and improving the policy on financial subsidies for out-going patent applications. More than 100 participants from the Ministry of Finance and other ministries as well as provincial and municipal intellectual property offices were present at the meeting.

According to the official statistics of the SIPO, the IP authorities throughout the country accepted in 2009 altogether 2110 applications for financial subsidies for out-going patent applications, with a total sum of CNY 89 million yuan.  In the same year, applicants of 1146 PCT applications received special financial subsidies of CNY 52.85 million yuan.

At the meeting, it was decided that the qualification scope of applicants for financial subsidies for out-going patent applications will be greatly expanded in 2010.  In the past, it was quite common that many small and medium-sized enterprises filed out-going patent applications in the name of the bosses as natural persons so as to apply for financial subsidies. According to the new policy of 2010, if the applicant is a natural person who is also the legal person of an enterprise or company, the financial subsidies can be applied in the name of the applicant’s enterprise or company.

At present, the above-mentioned policy of financial subsidies has shown preliminary roles of positive orientation and encouragement. The statistics of WIPO indicate that, despite the first-time decrease of 4.5% of world PCT applications in 2009, China enjoyed a 29.7% growth over 2008 and ranked the fifth in the world for 7,946 PCT applications in 2009.

It was in 2009 that the State Council of China made a decision to set up a special fund for subsidizing those applicants of out-going patent applications. On August 28, 2009, the Ministry of Finance worked out a Temporary Method for Managing the Special Fund for Subsidizing Out-going Patent Applications. The ball of action began to roll. At the end of May 2010, the Ministry of Finance and the SIPO jointly issued a Circular on Application for Special Financial Subsidies for Out-going Patent Applicants.