Ministry of Education, National Intellectual Property Administration and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly issued the “Opinions of improving the quality and promoting the exploitation of higher educational institutions’ patents” in February, 2020. This document plays a guiding role in promoting the management of intellectual property of higher educational institutions.

Professor Tang Heng, Dean of School of Intellectual Property, was invited by China Education Daily to interpret this document.

This document defines the significance and development orientation of intellectual property management of higher educational institutions. “The document emphasized the changes in three aspects, namely: (1) the focus changes from patent creation to patent exploitation; (2) the management level changes from department to universities; (3) the management mode changes from stage management to whole process quality management,” said Professor Tang Heng. “The document makes breakthroughs in countermeasures: (1) emphasizing the assessment before patent application; (2) improving the mechanism of ownership and cost sharing of service invention and emphasizing the equality of rights and interests; (3) emphasizing the establishment of professional service system for patent exploitation; (4) emphasizing the establishment of a policy system focusing on exploitation and getting rid of the assessment system focusing on patent quantity.”