MIIT Announces Plan to Establish IC Intellectual Property Alliance

On April 22, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced plans to create an "Integrated Circuit Intellectual Property Alliance," with a launch date expected before the end of 2015. The announcement was made by Wan Pengyuan, deputy director of MIIT's Electronic Technology Intelligence Research Institute, at MIIT's IPR Development International Forum 2015 in Beijing.

According to Wan, the goal of the alliance will be to:

• Enhance IP risk management by establishing an IP defense system
• Encourage research and development of key technologies
• Accumulate IPR assets through acquisitions
• Study IP asset business operation models
• Strengthen competitiveness through active participation in global standards setting

Wan told the Forum attendees that 43 semiconductor companies have already joined the Alliance as founding members, and that they are currently in the process of expanding membership to include more upstream and downstream companies in the ICT sector.