The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) announced in June 2012 a selected list of the first batch of 47 developed units for national brand IP service agencies and initiated the development in a bid to implement the Guidance on Speeding up the Cultivation and Development of IP Service Industry. Before the period came to a close, SIPO entrusted China Intellectual Property Society, All- China Patent Attorneys Association, China Trademark Association and China IP magazine as third parties to jointly evaluate the results and effects of the developing units.

China IP magazine took on some specific responsibilities in the evaluation and set up a special working team. The team drafted an evaluation form for scoring the IP service agencies on the basis of self evaluation questionnaires in line with requirements of the Notification of the SIPO Working Office on Submission of Reports by Cultivating Units on the First Batch Brand IP Service Agencies. The evaluation form combined the relevant theoretical and practical features of the IP service industry, mainly covering such aspects as the basic capability, development capacity, risk tolerance and brand influence of service providers, and fully considered differences of various types of service agencies and regions.

The whole evaluation process went through strict, standardized procedures. Members of the expert committee came from government departments, industry associations, the legal profession, academia and business circles. At the evaluation conference the experts scored each development unit based on their written reports, self-evaluation questionnaires and on-the-spot presentations.

According to data of a national IP service survey, the cultivating work for the first national brand IP service agencies has born remarkable fruit. The statistics show that the average growth rates of important indicators for the development units in the cultivating period are all improving: the number of professionals increased by 66%, the number of customers upped by 120%, the total number of service contracts rose by 122% and the revenue increased by 136%.

Gan Shaoning, Deputy Commissioner of SIPO, spoke highly of the cultivating work and the evaluations. He pointed out that currently there is a great development opportunity for China’s IP service industry. The Central Government has attached great importance to the development of IP service industry. Each time IP service industry makes a step forward, the marginal effects and economic benefits that follow will go far beyond the development of IP service industry itself. As can be seen through the evaluations, the cultivating work has made great and exciting achievements, which should be publicized and promoted.

(Translated by Wang Hongjun)