1. The appearance of the prosperity of China's invention industry.
If we make a rough count of the patent literature that has been published in China, and then check the first report on relevant patent information, we will be surprised to find that since the implementation of the patent law in China in 1985, the number of patent applications has been increasing year by year, and the number of patent applications reached more than 130,000 in 1999, and the total number of patent applications received by the State Patent Office has exceeded 1.3 million in the second quarter of 2003
Judging from these figures alone, it seems that China's invention and creation industry is in a good situation at present, and it has come to the forefront of the world. However, if we conduct an objective and quantitative analysis of these patent documents and conduct an in-depth investigation of the overall status quo of China's invention and creation industry, we will find that the current situation of China's invention industry is far from being as prosperous as people see on the surface, on the contrary, there is a huge innovation crisis lurking!
Second, the actual situation of China's invention and innovation is not optimistic.
Although China's declared patents are in a dominant position in terms of the total amount, they have always been in a disadvantageous position in terms of invention patent applications that can best represent the overall level of technological innovation.
From the point of view of the technical content of the patent and the degree to which the invention results have been completed, the invention patents applied for in China usually only briefly describe the design principles, and most of them fail to give specific implementation plans, while the vast majority of invention patents declared by other countries have described the principles and structures of the invention scheme in detail, and give at least one or more embodiments.
From the perspective of the fields to which the patents declared, the invention patents declared by China are mainly concentrated in daily necessities or simple work tools and some processing equipment that are closely related to daily life, while the patents declared by other countries, especially the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, Britain and other countries, are mainly distributed in various high-tech fields.
Judging from the origin of the invention ideas of the declared invention patents, more than 90 of the inventions declared in China belong to the kind of inventions that are simple improvements to the existing inventions to meet people's conventional needs (such as reducing costs, improving efficiency, increasing functions, extending life, etc.) in order to meet a certain need, based on the original technical design ideas, and only 9 The inventions of the left and right break through the design ideas of the original technology and put forward a certain groundbreaking scheme, while the proportion of original inventions that can gain insight into the evolution trend of technology and market and propose inventions that can meet the potential needs of people in the next few years is less than 0 4. Among the invention patents applied for by the United States, Germany, Britain, France and other countries in China, more than 25 inventions belong to inventions that break through the original technological innovation ideas and have significant breakthrough innovations, and the proportion of original inventions with pioneering characteristics is close to 5 5, almost more than 20 times that of ours!
In a survey of 300 inventors with more than three patents, we found that the age distribution of inventors in mainland China is clearly polarized and aging. According to our statistics: inventors under the age of 30 accounted for 19 2, inventors under the age of 30 55 accounted for 37 5, and inventors over the age of 55 accounted for 43 3 of the total number of inventors, especially in the group of free inventors, the phenomenon of age polarization and aging is more obvious. According to the evolution of creativity with age in creation science, the age distribution of patent inventors should be 16 under the age of 30, 52 between 30 and 55 years old, and 32 over the age of 55. Judging from this comparison, the backbone of invention in the mainland is not the young and middle-aged people whose creativity is at its peak, but the middle-aged and elderly people whose creativity is already in the declining stage. In addition, according to a statistical survey jointly conducted by the National Association for Science and Technology, the Youth League and other units, the enthusiasm of college and middle school students in mainland China for invention and creation is constantly weakening. It seems that the invention and creation industry in mainland China is not only facing the crisis of weak backbone and the embarrassment of aging the team, but also facing the hidden danger of lack of successors!
In the evaluation report of the scientific and technological competitiveness of various countries made by the relevant international organizations of the United Nations, we can also clearly see that in recent years, China's scientific and technological competitiveness has declined sharply in the international rankings, and there is a continuous downward trend.
From the above statistical analysis, it is not difficult to see that the inventive and creative undertakings in mainland China are not as prosperous as most of us see. On the contrary, under the surface of the prosperity of the invention and creation industry, there is a huge crisis lurking, but in fact, the invention industry of the Chinese mainland is already overwhelmed and faltering!
3. Analysis of the reasons for the downturn in China's mainland invention and innovation undertakings.
1 The average level of scientific literacy of Chinese people is low, and the sense of innovation is weak. According to a recent survey conducted by the National Association for Science and Technology, although the level of national scientific and technological literacy in China has shown a trend of increasing year by year in recent years, there is still a huge gap compared with the level of national scientific and technological literacy of some scientific and technological powers.
2 At present, China has not yet formed an atmosphere of advocating invention and creation. Most people do not have enough understanding of the value of scientific and technological innovation, and do not give due attention and encouragement to invention and creation. In some enterprises and institutions, the remuneration and attention of an outstanding inventor are far from being as high as the remuneration of a marketing manager, which seriously dampens the enthusiasm of service inventors. In addition, factors such as the delay in applying for research funds and too much artificial resistance from outside have also made some service inventors feel at a loss.
The situation is even more difficult for freelance inventors, especially those who are pre-professional inventors who focus on inventing and creating. Many inventors have gone bankrupt and lived on the streets for the sake of inventions, and some inventors have even died in bankruptcy. At school and at home, some children who are good at invention and innovation receive far less praise and encouragement than a student who learns a foreign language well or does well on exams.
3 China's research and practical exploration of creation theory is progressing slowly, at present, China has not yet formed a set of creation theory system suitable for China's national conditions, let alone can not provide strong theoretical guidance for the current creation and invention activities, many inventors just rely on their own enthusiasm for invention and creation to engage in invention and creation, to put it bluntly, it is brutal and blind invention, resulting in the inaccurate market positioning of many invention achievements themselves. The design is not reasonable enough, and there are even fatal design defects, and the market development value is not large or there is no market development value at all, resulting in a waste of resources, and also dampening the enthusiasm and vigor of the inventor.
Fourth, it is urgent to revitalize the motherland's cause of invention and innovation.
China is currently facing a critical moment of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and if we want to realize our dream of becoming a strong country, we must first revitalize our invention and creation undertakings and make our country a big country of invention and innovation. For example, in 2000, the annual patent applications of the three largest industrial enterprises in the United States were twice the total number of patent applications of China's 500 largest production: enterprises, and the sales of these three enterprises were nearly twice the sales of China's 500 largest industrial enterprisesIBM's annual patent applications were twice the sum of the annual patent applications of all enterprises in China's IT industry, and IBM's annual sales were more than double the total sales of China's IT industry: in 2000, Japan's Sony Corporation relied on its own technical strength, in China's **500,000 new technology TVs to obtain profits, even more than a TV manufacturer in China to sell 5 million TVs!
Technological innovation has become the focus of enterprise competition, and at present, some multinational companies are relying on their own strong technological invention and innovation strength, and using patent application as a means to stake their ground in the development space of many high-tech fields in our country and seize the space resources for scientific and technological development. If our country is not able to take measures to revitalize China's invention and creation undertakings as soon as possible, establish its own invention and innovation system, and train a large number of outstanding inventors to defend our space resources for scientific and technological development, then in a few years, we will find that in the lucrative high-tech field, we will not have much new products to develop freely, and we can only give up our market. From this point of view, it is even more urgent to revitalize China's invention and creation cause, cultivate a generation of invention elites, and form a strong invention and innovation vanguard
5. The preliminary idea of revitalizing China's invention and innovation undertakings.
1. First of all, it is necessary to create an atmosphere of concern, respect and even admiration for invention and creation throughout the country. This requires the joint participation of inventive and innovative people.
2. Inclusion of non-service inventors, especially those freelance inventors with outstanding inventive talent and dedication to inventions, into the national technological innovation system. To give these quasi-professional inventors the necessary help, learn from the successful experience of some scientific and technological powers, through the form of fundraising, those inventors who have made certain achievements in the field of invention and creation to build a small invention laboratory, to solve the experimental problems of these inventors in the research of new projects, and at the same time, consideration should be given to allowing professional inventors to borrow non-confidential national laboratories established by the state, and make full use of existing resources to improve the environment for invention and creation.
3. Popularize the knowledge of creation, especially those who have decision-making power and influence of the group to master the knowledge of creation, enhance the sense of innovation, you can consider adding some content about creation in the examination of national civil servants, and when selecting the principals of various local schools, we should also focus on their scientific and technological innovation literacy. At the same time, basic courses in creativity are set up in universities and middle schools, especially normal schools, to popularize creativity education, improve young people's awareness of innovation, and let more people understand, pay attention to, support and participate in creation and invention.
4. Revise the employment system of national technology research and innovation institutions, and build a green channel for outstanding invention and creation talents to enter national technology research and innovation institutions.
Excerpt from: Sun Weiming.