Recently, the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area Intellectual Property Creation and Application Conference was held at the China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City. As the first intellectual property event jointly organized by Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in 2024, the conference has attracted numerous enterprises, universities, research institutes, financial institutions, and intellectual property service institutions to participate and participate in the exhibition.
China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City is the only national level bilateral cooperation project in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and also the only region in the country to carry out comprehensive reform experiments on the application and protection of intellectual property rights. In recent years, the Knowledge City has seized the development opportunities of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, always focusing on "knowledge" to solve problems, striving to build "three clusters and two highlands", forming a full process innovation ecosystem of "basic research+achievement transformation+production application", becoming the region with the most concentrated elements of intellectual property creation, application, and protection, leading Guangdong to transform and upgrade from industrial economy to knowledge economy, and helping to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity.
The knowledge economy is moving towards "new" and becoming more mature
On December 28, 2023, the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft, independently developed by Yihang Intelligent Equipment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yihang Intelligent"), carried passengers and held its global commercial maiden flight at Jiulonghu Square in China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City. Three months later, it obtained the world's first production license, becoming the world's first manned unmanned eVTOL model to obtain the "three major airworthiness permits".
The "first flight" of Yihang Intelligence has opened up a new industry journey for the development of new quality productivity in the knowledge city. The Knowledge City will target the low altitude economy, integrate domestic and foreign aviation industry resources, accelerate the construction of low altitude aircraft manufacturing and delivery centers and low altitude aircraft application verification bases, focus on the development of low altitude aircraft whole machine research and testing verification, and create a rich low altitude industry chain ecosystem.
As the low altitude economy enters the fast lane, the three strategic emerging industrial clusters of the knowledge city are also growing in tandem. The output value of the biopharmaceutical industry has doubled year by year, and more than 40 innovative pharmaceutical projects have been introduced, including BeiGene, Nuocheng Jianhua, Longsha, and Kangfang Biotechnology. After completion, the total production capacity of macromolecular drug raw materials can reach 660000 liters, and the Knowledge City will become the largest biopharmaceutical base in Asia. At the end of 2022, Kangfang Biotechnology will authorize the self-developed dual antibody drug Yiwoxi to go abroad, with a total transaction volume of 5 billion US dollars, setting a new record for China's innovative drug foreign licensing cooperation.
The integrated circuit industry is accelerating its rise, gathering over 80 upstream and downstream enterprises such as Yuexin Semiconductor and Shennan Circuit. Multiple core technologies have achieved breakthroughs in domestic zero, and it is expected that the total revenue will exceed 300 billion yuan by 2035. The production capacity of the new energy vehicle industry continues to be released, Funeng Technology officially starts construction, Baidu Apollo, the world's first autonomous driving travel service platform, has landed, and the Xiaopeng Automobile Intelligent Manufacturing Base only took 10 months from comprehensive construction to the first vehicle being taken offline, leading the scale development of the industry. In 2023, Xiaopeng's production of new energy vehicles reached 95000 units, an increase of 6.4 times.
In recent years, Knowledge City has deployed innovation chains around the industrial chain, laid out the industrial chain around the innovation chain, vigorously promoted the mutual promotion of industry and technology, and continuously stimulated the surging momentum of high-quality development. National major scientific facilities, key laboratories, and new research and development institutions have been established one after another; Over 1000 cutting-edge technology enterprises have taken root and settled down; Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, National University of Singapore and other higher graduate schools have successively opened, with a scale of nearly 6000 master's and doctoral students trained and over 35000 students enrolled; The Zhongxin Smart Park, Bay Area Semiconductor Industry Park and other parks have sprung up one after another, and groundbreaking technology innovation parks have begun. At present, 21 research platforms and 60 key laboratories are conducting core technology research and development in cutting-edge fields such as nanotechnology, information technology, and new materials.
"Today, it is truly exciting to see this place transform from a wasteland of paths and paper plans to a modern community with towering buildings." Deng Hongsen, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), expressed his sincere admiration for the key projects he promoted during his work at the Singapore Intellectual Property Office.
Anchoring the Global Intellectual Property Highland and Setting Sail Again
Since its inception, China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City has aimed to build a knowledge economy highland with global influence. Intellectual property is the "golden key" for knowledge cities to stimulate and enhance their "knowledge power", as well as their "trump card" for participating in international competition.
In July 2016, the State Council approved the China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City to carry out a comprehensive reform experiment on the application and protection of intellectual property rights, proposing to build the Knowledge City into an intellectual property led innovation driven development city based in Guangdong, radiating to South China, and demonstrating the whole country, exploring experience for building an intellectual property strong country; In November of the same year, 14 ministries and commissions, including the China National Intellectual Property Administration, jointly issued the Overall Plan for the Comprehensive Reform Experiment on the Application and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the Sino Singapore Guangzhou Intellectual City, which defined the task book and roadmap for the comprehensive reform of intellectual property rights in the Intellectual City.
In February 2017, the China National Intellectual Property Administration, Singapore Intellectual Property Office and the People's Government of Guangdong Province signed the Tripartite Cooperation Framework Agreement on Promoting the Intellectual Property Reform Experiment of the Sino Singapore Guangzhou Intellectual City, deepening the intellectual property cooperation between China and Singapore, learning from Singapore's advanced intellectual property management concepts and experience, and effectively promoting the intellectual property reform experiment.
In June 2023, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the implementation of the comprehensive reform, the Guangdong Provincial Government and the China National Intellectual Property Administration jointly issued the Implementation Plan of China Singapore Guangzhou Intellectual City for Deepening the Comprehensive Reform of the Application and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (2023-2027) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") to launch a new round of comprehensive reform of intellectual property rights. In the new plan, the knowledge city is given higher expectations and missions. It must focus on the strategic positioning of building a "national knowledge center with global influence", further deepen the comprehensive reform experiment of intellectual property application and protection, connect the entire chain of intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and service, build an internationally first-class intellectual property ecological demonstration system, and build a city of intellectual property led innovation driven development that is based in Guangdong, radiates to southern China, demonstrates the whole country, and affects the world.
The sustained and substantial policy support has greatly promoted the vigorous development of the knowledge city. The Knowledge City has invested more than 9 billion yuan to build the largest intellectual property service park in China, covering an area of 420 acres. It has introduced high-end intellectual property resources such as the Patent Examination Cooperation Center of the Patent Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the Guangzhou Trademark Examination Cooperation Center, and the China Automotive Intellectual Property Application Promotion Center. It has landed in key projects such as the International Intellectual Property Service Hall, the International Intellectual Property Talent Port in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Sino Singapore International Intellectual Property Training Base. The intensity of intellectual property elements has continued to increase.
Data shows that since the implementation of the comprehensive intellectual property reform experiment, the number of invention patent authorizations in the Knowledge City has increased from 29 in 2017 to 1032 in 2023, and the number of PCT international patent applications has increased from 37 to 180, demonstrating a strong surge of innovation vitality.
At this conference, Shen Changyu, Director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, highly praised the development of the Knowledge City, especially the comprehensive reform of intellectual property. "Here, intellectual property elements are highly concentrated, and every time I come to the knowledge city, I feel the power of innovation, knowledge, and intellectual property."