The first national patent alliance for the LED industry was unveiled at an intellectual property management summit forum in Guangzhou late last month.

The event was organized by Guangdong Solid State Lighting Industry Innovation Center.

The alliance aims to "serve the LED companies by helping them deal with IP problems", said Gui Shirong, director of the center and director-general of the alliance.

In a speech at the unveiling ceremony he welcomed all LED companies and organizations as well as IP service providers to join the alliance to promote the LED patent protection.

According to research by the center, there were more than 200,000 patents granted in the LED industry in China by the end of March. Companies and organizations in Guangdong province accounted for more than 50,000 of them.

The sales of LED lighting facilities around the world will increase 60 percent this year, according to the research report. At the same time, the use of LED lighting is expected to increase by 80 percent in China.

The industry in Guangdong generated 281.1 billion yuan ($45.5 billion) last year and average annual growth has stood at 30 percent for many years, said Gui. The figure is expected to be around 350 billion yuan this year.

The report noted that more than 60 percent of patent applications were about LED encapsulation techniques and application, but very few focused on "core technologies that concern the long-term development of the industry".

Li Wenyu, head of the center's strategic research department, said the Chinese LED industry mainly concentrated on processing and OEM projects due to advantages in the cost of labor and raw materials.

"We did not need patented technologies or brands to sell products," he said. "This has resulted in weak IP awareness of many domestic LED companies."

Yuan Youlou, deputy director of the provincial intellectual property administration, said there were serious patent problems in the emerging sectors, especially the LED industry.

"Patent risks are inevitable as Chinese companies are increasingly export-oriented," Yuan said.

The forum attracted more than 150 delegates from LED companies, research institutions and IP agencies across the nation.

Lei Zhigang, deputy director-general of the IP research center at China University of Political Science and Law, called for corporate patent strategies that agree with the companies' current actual situation "to protect the contribution they have made to the industry".

Sun Yinsheng, legal supervisor at Beijing-based Comips Intellectual Property Office, suggested that companies enhance their competence in using patent information and seeking new potential patents, and improve their patent quality and management.

He also suggested IP agencies improved their services "to foster a better IP environment".

A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guo Jinxia, said that professional IP agencies' failure to be involved in the development of patents and their inadequate cooperation with research institutions were part of the problems in the commercialization of LED patents.

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(China Daily 08/06/2014 page17)