An annual matchmaking activity between companies in Guangdong province and intellectual property investment, financing and service agencies was held last month in Nanhai district in Foshan.

The December event set a record for the number of cooperation agreements signed on site.

Among 41 IP projects displayed by the attending companies, agreements of cooperation intention were reached for 17 at a value of a combined 150 million yuan ($23 million), covering fields such as advanced manufacturing, information technologies, new materials, biomedicines, electronics and environmental protection.

Fifty-eight agencies also took part in the matchmaking event.

"We hope the activity could help local startups attach greater importance to IP rights and better integrate angel investment and entrepreneurship resources to realize a higher level of commercialization of core patents in Nanhai," said Xie Hong, deputy director of the province's IP office, Zhujiang Times reported.

"As a national comprehensive pilot zone, Nanhai not only has advantages in IP rights creation, use and management, but also boasts ample experience and achievements in IP investment and financing. A group of companies with proprietary technologies are growing and developing here," Xie added.

Liu Ming'en, deputy head of Nanhai district, said Nanhai is working on the construction of a new financing service system that integrates equities, bonds and IP rights. The district now has 82,000 patent applications, including 219 international applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

He Anning, chief risk officer of an investment management company in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, said it was the first time he has attended such an activity in Nanhai. He said the local companies have strong technological competitiveness.

"The matchmaking activity provided many good options for us, which could save a lot of time for our investors," He said.

Many agencies from outside the province also came to Nanhai to attend the annual event. An investment manager of Tian Hong Asset Management said he came from Beijing in the hope of finding suitable projects in which to invest.

During the event, two platforms of IP investment and financing services and technical property rights exchanges were also launched. In addition, more than 30 IP and investment and financing agencies, including risk control institutes, associations of lawyers and accounting companies, set up an IP investment and financing service alliance.

"Due to the central government's encouragement of mass innovation and entrepreneurship, a large number of young entrepreneurs have emerged and started new businesses with great enthusiasm," said Li Bobo, deputy general manager of a Foshan investment company, which was one of the founders of the alliance. "We hope the alliance can protect their inventions and help them keep their passion for innovation."

The annual event was first held in 2011 and has helped 29 projects access a total of 638 million in investment during the past four sessions.

In 2011, the first session attracted 42 IP projects and more than 30 investment agencies, resulting in nine agreements of cooperation intention worth 200 million yuan.

In 2012, the event, which highlighted biomedicines, promoted cooperation between five projects and investment and medical companies.

In 2013, the activity focused on polymer materials and promoted four agreements of cooperation intention worth 170 million yuan.

The 2014 activity, which focused on manufacturing as its theme, ended with seven agreements of cooperation intention, many of which were for robotics projects.

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