According to a Reuters report on April 13, China has been making leaps and bounds in several areas. The outside world has different predictions about how long it will take for China to bridge the technological gap, but some patent experts say it may be achieved in the near future.
David Shen, the head of China’s intellectual property at Anli International, said: “According to the number of scientists trained in China each year, China will eventually catch up, no matter what the United States does.'
Intellectual property lawyers now believe that, in fact, China’s earlier promise to protect foreign intellectual property rights reflects China’s confidence in the status of major innovators in the fields of mobile communications and online payment, as well as the ability to catch up in other areas.
According to the report, China replaced Japan as the world’s second largest patent right application country last year. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the number of Chinese patent applications has increased by 13.4% annually. If this growth rate is maintained, it will take more than a year to surpass the United States. China's ambitions are evident, and the basis for helping to achieve this progress is likely to increase further.
China now spends 2.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development. Although it is less than the US’s level of 2.75%, it is already much higher than 0.7% in the 1990s and is close to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The average level of member states is 2.35%. According to World Bank data, China has 1,177 R&D personnel per million population, which is three times the 1990s and consistent with the global average. The United States has 4,321 per million population, but China’s population is four times that of the United States, which offsets this advantage of the United States, and the number of Chinese researchers will only increase.
'If you look at 5-10 years, you will see a more equitable competitive environment in terms of innovation, especially online platforms, digital innovation, machine learning and artificial intelligence,' JP Morgan Asset Management Co., Ltd., which manages $80 billion in assets Richard Tisselington, chief investment officer of emerging markets, said that online payment is the most obvious example. China has already led the United States in this regard; in major cities in China, mobile phones have become a payment method that almost completely replaces credit cards, but Many Americans still use cheques.
However, intellectual property experts said that the number of patents does not represent everything. In the fields of semiconductors, robotics and biotechnology, China still needs some time to catch up. Mayer Brown JSM Asian Intellectual Property Director Gabriella Kennedy said: '(Chinese) The work done in some big companies is very successful, but not otherwise innovative, but I don't think they will take a long time.'
The lawyer stated that if the United States wants to delay China’s technological progress, it may consider further restricting US companies’ authorization of products to Chinese companies and expanding the scope of the definition of trade secrets. However, they also warned that more stringent regulations may backfire because companies can Trying to circumvent these regulations, including establishing entities in non-U.S. jurisdictions to maintain access to the vast Chinese market.
'If the U.S. government really takes extreme measures to prevent U.S. companies from exposing their intellectual property (IP) in China, then this may also damage U.S. companies,' said a partner of Gao Weisheng.