The festival’s second Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange event was titled “Cracking the Genetic Code,” and featured an excellent panel. Moderated by Chris Kibarian, president of our IP & Science business, the panel included Harvard professor John Quackenbush, Brian Fiske of the The Michael J. Fox Foundation, and Paul Rejto from Pfizer. The three panelists each brought a unique perspective to the discussion, and their varied expertise helped to turn complicated subject matter into something very easy to understand and enjoy.

The conversation started and revolved around the human genome, and the project to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, as well as identifying the function of human genes. Professor Quackenbush almost poetically explained complicated scientific information so that it was easily comprehensible. He talked about the roadmap of the human genome and the new technologies that have contributed to the decreasing costs of identifying genes. He talked about a time in the very near future where the cost would become so low that we’d be able to generate huge amounts of data in an economically responsible manner. This data would then contribute to a better understanding about genetic factors contributing to risk of developing diseases and being able to develop more personalized care for serious illnesses. (more…)

In part two of the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange session titled “Cracking The Genetic Code,” Chris Kibarian moderates a panel with Brian Fiske, John Quackenbush and Paul Rejto about the types of scientific advancements needed to develop the treatments and life saving therapeutics that will change and improve human kind.

Follow the conversation on Twitter at #AspenIdeas.

In part one of the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange session titled “Cracking The Genetic Code,” Chris Kibarian moderates a panel with Brian Fiske, John Quackenbush and Paul Rejto about the types of scientific advancements needed to develop the treatments and life saving therapeutics that will change and improve human kind.

Follow the conversation on Twitter at #AspenIdeas.

In the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange event titled “The New Professional”, Heidi Moore moderates a panel with Reid Hoffman, Deirdre Stanley, Susan Peters and Mark Penn about maximizing the knowledge and intellectual potential of your employees in a digital world.

In 2010, the patent offices of Japan, U.S., Europe (EPO), Republic of Korea and China accounted for 77% of all new invention patent applications published worldwide. Japan, Korea and China alone accounted for 54.8% of these. An analysis of patent volumes over the last five years from these five major offices shows that inventions from China have been growing at a faster rate than any other region.

There are several attributes that can be measured to identify and track innovation trends for a particular region:

• Published patent application total volumes. This gives a measure of the total patenting activity in a region both by domestic and foreign concerns seeking protection for their inventions in order to manufacture, use or sell the invention or products in the region.
• Local priority patent applications volumes. This gives a picture of home-grown innovation by providing a measure of how many inventions claim priority in the region. In general terms, the priority country is the country from where the invention originated.
• International patent application volumes. This provides information about the extent to which a country is seeking to extend the market for its innovation beyond its domestic borders.

China has just completed the 11th Five Year plan for National Economic and Social Development. This plan highlighted innovation as a focus along with social harmony, environment, macro-economic balance, and governing the market. The corresponding science and technology plan articulated the goal of China becoming an “innovation-oriented” society by the year 2020. Many of the developments of the last 5 years have illustrated how far China has moved towards that goal:

• China has become the third-largest patent office in the world after the US and Japan by annual invention patent applications
• Published applications have increased by 16.7% per year over the period from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010
• China’s global ranking based on citations in international science papers has moved from 13th in 2006 to 8th in 2010
• China now ranks 29th as measured by the Global Innovation Index and is the only developing country among the top 30 innovators.
• In 2008, China invested 457 billion yuan (US$65.8 billion) in R&D, or 1.52% of its increasing GDP
• Significant recent technological achievements include the opening of the world’s longest sea bridge at 26.4 miles long and the ongoing development of world’s largest high-speed railway system with around 10,500 miles completed or under construction.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development was released earlier this year. In this plan, the Chinese government lays out its strategic vision and direction for the development of China over the next five years up to 2016. A key strategic priority in the plan is for China to transition from “Made in China” to “Designed in China.” This is part of a long term strategy to transform China from a manufacturing to an innovation economy.

To support this goal, there are plans to further develop China’s intellectual property rights system and for heavy investment in science and technology education and R&D through development in seven “Strategic Emerging Industries” (SEIs). These are:

• New Energy – Nuclear, hydro, wind and solar power
• Energy conservation and environmental protection – Energy reduction targets
• Biotechnology – Drugs and medical devices
• New materials – Rare earths and high end semiconductors
• Next-generation IT – Broad band networks, internet security infrastructure, network convergence, “Internet of things”
• High–end equipment manufacturing – Aerospace and telecomm equipment
• Clean energy vehicles – battery cell technology; target to produce 1 million electric vehicles per annum by 2015

There are plans to spend more than RMB 4 trillion on these industries during the next five years, with a view to increasing the SEI’s share of GDP from around 5 percent today to 8 percent by 2015. The drive for domestic innovation continues with the implementation this year of the 12th National Five-Year Plan on Science & Technology Development which also lays out a number of ambitious goals for the further development of China as a technologically advanced nation:

• Increase in R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP from 1.75% in 2010 to 2.2% in 2015;
• Improvement in ranking of citations in international science papers from 8th to 5th;
• Increase in invention patent ownership per 10,000 head of population from 1.7 to 3.3

Measures to support this growth in indigenous innovation include:

• Research & Development investment in science and technology aimed at achieving key breakthroughs in targeted technology subsectors, such as core electronic devices, integrated circuits, life sciences, space, marine, earth sciences and nanotechnology.
• Intellectual Property improvements through efforts to strengthen creation, use, protection and management of IP rights.
• Incentives through fiscal and financial policies that support high-tech industry, including updating management of research funding and systems for venture capital investment.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

On Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 David Brown, Thomson Reuters president of IP Solutions, delivered a presentation titled, “IP and Innovation to Drive Economic Value” at the inaugural Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange event in Beijing. The event focused on the state of innovation in China and how Chinese companies, institutions and the government can continue to use IP and innovation.

Key points from David Brown’s presentation include the following:

• China is poised to become an innovation-based economy by 2020.
• Patent filing volume and scientific literature output show China leading or on the rise.
• China’s global assertion of its IP rights provides the foundation for creating economic value for domestic inventions.
• The IP marketplace is ripe with opportunity – the key is to be open to partnerships and leverage patent portfolios where possible.

What does it take to go from being a manufacturing powerhouse to a design and innovation hothouse?

This is an absolutely fascinating question to ponder, but for a country like China, which is trying to move up the value chain, it is a vital one as well. As China becomes a wealthier country, as costs rise, inflation bites and currency adjustments take their toll, the days of being the world’s cheap workshop are in danger.

Cheap just isn’t good enough. Someone – some country – can always be cheaper and competing down the ladder of success isn’t going to make your nation a lasting, prosperous, satisfied success.

But competing on smarts, competing on innovation, competing on design and competing on invention — these are things that can deliver lasting value. They are difficult to do, however.

China’s leaders have long emphasised innovation and it is a cornerstone of the new five year plan. That means national attention and resources are lined up behind this goal, with focus and urgency.

And looking at the numbers, that emphasis has paid off.

The Thomson Reuters Web of Science ranks China second worldwide in terms of the number of research papers published annually. A new Thomson Reuters report says patent applications have raced ahead at an annual rate of 16.7% during each of the past five years.

But of course the numbers game isn’t enough. Quantity alone without ensuring top quality won’t move anyone up the ladder.

The good news is that improvements in innovation will bring advances and reforms throughout the system.

Once Chinese companies become innovators, they will join their world wide peers in demanding enforcement of intellectual property rights laws — Chinese intellectual property will need and deserve the same standard of world wide protection. The rule of law will become ever more established as Chinese designers and inventors assert their rights. And information will flow more freely since true innovation and invention simply can’t happen in a vacuum.

We’re not all the way there today.

But Chinese inventors and companies are as determined as their government to make innovation a key attribute of a developing China.

That’s a key thing to watch as the world’s second largest economy moves into new stages of development and maturity. (more…)