"China is a country where you've seen a lot of investment in R&D, as well as in the education and science system with the long term view that this will harvest growth dividends in the future," World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Chief Economist Carsten Fink told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Speaking at the release of the World Intellectual Property Report 2015: Breakthrough Innovation and Economic Growth, Fink explained that "China faces the challenge of the economy transiting from a largely physical investment-driven economy to one where consumption and productivity play a greater role," adding that "innovation has an important role to play."
Since 2005, China has accounted for over a quarter of worldwide patents in the fields of 3D printing and robotics, the highest share among all countries.
Concerning nanotechnology, Chinese applicants account for close to 15 percent of global filings, the third largest origin of patents.
In light of these trends, Fink iterated the importance of perseverance as "innovations often take years, even decades to materialise into economic growth."
WIPO's report furthermore reveals that Chinese patent landscapes show a significantly stronger presence of universities and public research organisations (PROs) than in established innovating countries.
This is particularly important as the report documents how innovation is increasingly tied to research at universities and PROs, while WIPO head Francis Gurry highlighted with interest the recent introduction in China of legislation similar to the U.S. Bayh-Dole Act passed in the 1980s.
"China has introduced this year the equivalent of the Bayh-Dole Act to get the results of R&D that is being funded in the public sector into the productive sector, so it's a very market oriented measure to get research into the productive economy," he noted.
