China considers law revision to spur inventors

China wants to give greater incentives to inventors in academia to commercially exploit their work by raising the minimum reward to 50 percent of their inventions' worth, according to a top legislature bill unveiled on Monday.

The bill on revising the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements was brought up for a second reading at the ongoing bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

The draft allows state-owned research institutes and universities to transfer or license use of their sci-tech achievements or invest with them as trade-ins, stipulating that the bottom line of rewards for contributing scientists should be no less than 50 percent of the invention's worth.

When the draft amendment was read at the top legislature for the first time in February this year, the bottom line was set at 20 percent.

The revision was based on comments from the NPC's Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee, many lawmakers and some local organizations, said Xie Jingrong, deputy head of the NPC's law committee, at the session which runs from Monday to Saturday.

The draft is the first attempt to revise the law in nearly two decades. It intends to allow research establishments to retain all the income from their ideas instead of turning over gains to the treasury, theoretically allowing them to reward the best scientists and fund future research.

The move aims to encourage and standardize the commercial development of inventions made in research institutes and universities and accelerate sci-tech progress, Xie said. Endi