Study On Patent Issues Of Public Agricultural Research System In China

The output and efficiency of agricultural research system are the key elements for the agriculture development. In the recent agricultural research system evaluation in China, deficiency of IPR protection has got much attention and evaluators are considering whether it has affected scientific activities, such as scientific innovation, technology transfer and international cooperation in the system. Based on the current characteristic of agricultural research in China, the study estimates the potential impact of this deficiency and provides policy advice through comparison with international public research organization (PROs), analysis on policy, patent application, researchers'patent behaviors and patent licensing etc.The study consists of five parts. 1) international hot topics on IPR protection of PROs; 2) the necessity of patent protection in the view of laws, microeconomics and institutional economics etc and China's current policies and regulations on this issue; 3) Patent application and protection status in China's agricultural research system in terms of amount, success rate, patent life, main research areas of patent; 4) Using Logistic model to analyze researchers'patent behaviors and major affective elements; 5) case study on patent licensing and technology transfer in agriculture.The conclusions of this study are as follows: 1) Globally IPR protection is weak in agricultural PROs. Usually, the major objectives of IPR protection in agriculture is not to raise fund but technology transfer; 2) Considering the characteristics of the agricultural research system, more efforts should be made on IPR protection of agricultural research system in China to overcome its disadvantages, such as single structure, weak research capacity of private sector etc. In order to promote technology translation, mixed public research and private research should be separated and S&T enterprises should be boosted under the framework of established IPR protection; 3) Although agricultural researchers have realized the importance of IPR protection and conducted patenting in a larger scale, number of patents, patent life and rate of applying and licensing in agriculture are still lower than other industry due to limited research contents, insufficient knowledge on IPR protection. Major patented fields are biotechnology, animal vaccine, fertilizer and plant protection. 4)Researchers'patenting activities are driven by responsibility. Patent is a tool to increase their scientific reputation instead of raising money. Major elements which affect researchers'patenting behavior are times of visiting abroad, age and their research capability; 5) Although the number of patent and patent licensing are limited in agriculture, the case study illustrates that patent protection promotes technology transfer, R&D investment of private sectors and brings economic and social benefits to the society. However, some problems still exits and need further study.The conclusions could be transferred into sound policy suggestion. 1) IPR protection should be emphasized in China's agricultural research system. More efforts should be put into institutional restructure and implementation in the system. The objective of the agriculture IPR strategy should be innovation promotion and technology transfer. The strategy should be formulated at three levels, namely government, research institution and individual level. It can be applied to two different parts, public research and private research. The different levels and parts should be treated separately in accordance with their own characteristics; 2) IPR protection should be promoted through equipping researchers with basic IPR knowledge, promoting international cooperation in the field of agricultural research and suggesting some foreign government to facilitate personnel exchange not to ban or set obstacle; to promote communication between researchers and private sector in order to increase researchers'understanding and make proper judgment on the market value of research or technologies; 3) To establish IPR union in the system with purpose to promote patent technology transferring or licensing and provide professional and reliable service for researchers.