In October 2021, Zhejiang Province, China, announced that 379 patents were available for royalty-free licensing. Enterprises could use these patents without paying licensing fees, for terms ranging from one to five years. The initiative built on the open patent licensing system introduced by the 2020 revision of China’s Patent Law.
In October 2020, China adopted the fourth amendment to its Patent Law, introducing an open licensing system. Patent holders disclose licensing fees in advance, and a third party can obtain a license by notifying the patent holder and paying the stated fee. As an incentive for open licensing, the patents concerned may also qualify for reductions or exemptions from annual fees. For the more than 300 patents announced by Zhejiang Province in 2021, licensing fees were waived, allowing interested enterprises to obtain licenses and use the patents free of charge.
These patents came from 14 universities and research institutes, including Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and covered fields such as information technology, new materials and biopharmaceuticals. Chinese universities had historically recorded low rates of patent commercialization. According to CNIPA’s 2020 China Patent Survey Report, the industrialization rate of valid invention patents in China was 34.7% in 2020: 44.9% for enterprises, 11.3% for research institutes and only 3.8% for universities.
Source: http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1021/c1004-32259920.html