A government official urges businesses and research organizations to take steps to ensure that patents protect their technology-related discoveries.

Under World Trade Organization agreements, intellectual property rights are an important part of technology contracts, said Yuan De, an official with the patent examination division of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). Chinese businesses and research institutes should regard intellectual property rights (IPR) as valuable assets, he added.

According to SIPO's Department of Policy Study, China has more than 30,000 State-level science and technology discoveries each year, but only one-third apply for patent protection. That essentially means two-thirds of China's discoveries become part of the world's public domain and China has no control over how they are used.

Han Xiucheng, SIPO's policy study director, said: "Technology findings, which are disclosed without patent protection, are something like an unconditional handover to others."

The State, Yuan added, has established policies that it hopes will solve the problem. He also suggested that enterprises should establish training courses on IPR.

Patent-protection systems and technology-innovation policies should be developed in parallel, said Yuan.