Two types of intellectual property service software were recently released in South China's Guangdong province, as part of efforts to accelerate the development of its IP service industry and boost technological innovation.

The products are the mobile app Patent Know, developed by Guangzhou Aokai Information Consulting, and patent search and analysis system ISPATENT from Guangzhou Hengcheng Zhidao Information Technology.

Both of them are designed to help companies and individuals explore the enormous patent information pool.

Patent information resources are the carrier of technical innovation and market competition, but do not yet fulfill their important role, local officials said.

"Patent information is important, combining technical, legal and economic information," said Li Qiang, director of the Guangdong Intellectual Property Research and Development Center.

"The analysis of patent information can help predict the trend of technology development, avoid infringements upon others' intellectual property rights and interests, follow the technology and market trends, and develop products with more competitive advantages," Li said

Currently, the patent search tools of some businesses are still very simple, with insufficient data analysis abilities. The connection between patent information and product research and development is also not close enough, according to industry sources.

Statistics show that Chinese companies' utilization rate of patent information is about 35 percent, while in some developed countries such as the United States and Japan, the rate is as high as 90 percent.

To fully explore the potential of patent information resources and allow companies, especially medium and small-sized businesses, to utilize patent information to its fullest, the Guangdong government started a pilot project to construct a patent big data service base in 2014.

Through the integration of online and offline services and a combination of public and commercial service models, the project aims to promote the exploration and use of regional and even national patent information.

In addition to the two new software products, the province has established other service platforms, such as a regional patent information center search and online application system and the Guangdong province intellectual property public information comprehensive service platform.

The province has completed the construction of a regional patent information service center, which is the first of its kind in China. It has more than 100 million entries of global patent information and 30 specialized theme data bases, synchronizes with the national data center and covers a huge amount of basic data resources.

"The exploration and use of patent information will promote the deep integration between intellectual property services and technological development, and plays a positive role for society and economic development," said Xie Hong, vice-director of the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office.

wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/26/2015 page17)