Cultivating Chinese Indigenous Innovation and Knowledge Creativity in Food Industry: Government Supports in Patent Application, Protection, Sharing and Utilization

摘要

This study aims to investigate the Chinese indigenous innovation and knowledge creativity in food industry. A set of Intellectual Property (IP) policies and high-level strategies, established by Chinese central government, were evaluated to cultivate and encourage indigenous innovations and creation of knowledge in food industry through enhancing the application, transfer and protection of patents. This study surveyed 80 food production related enterprises located in Jiangsu province, including 60 private-owned, 11 state-owned and 9 joint ventures. Then, 200 questionnaires were distributed through the Intellectual Property Office of Jiangsu, 102 were returned, in which 98 were evaluated as valid. The data collected exhibit that patent application has been widely employed as an effective approach not only to protect food products and service innovations, but also to promote enterprises' reputation, attract government financial and political supports, generate monetary or other profits from licensing or transferring patents and be eligible for tax reduction and exemption. Thus, the data analysis indicated that the governmental IP policies and strategies have strongly strengthened the indigenous innovations in food industry. However, the analysis also pointed out a series of problems and barriers in patent utilization. The conclusions thus advocate completing the national legislation system in IP and formulating specific supporting strategies at regional level by individual provincial IP administrative offices. The research study reported in this study is of interests to China IP policy makers and politicians, as well as the managers of Chinese enterprises interested in increasing organizational creativity and protecting their innovations.