Chinese Tech Company Creates Intellectual Property Bank

Two converging trends in evidence here; first the increasing recognition of IP value in China is driving business behavior. No longer content to be a 'brawn' country, China is working assiduously to become a 'brain' country that creates value through design, marketing and finance. The understanding that additional value capture is only possible by moving up the value chain has taken root. The second trend is that increasing employee mobility and wage demands are driving Chinese companies to experiment with new forms of compensation. That this came out of the tech industry is not surprising. Whether the practice will spread is an interesting question, but the initiative is noteworthy. From Zhang Hongyu at China People's Daily:

"The Zhongtian Technology Company recently established its "Intellectual Property Bank," the first of its kind in China's private manufacturing industry.

According to sources, in addition to enjoying the corresponding rewards, intellectual property created by employees in production, management and business activities will also obtain corresponding intellectual property points in the bank, and the score and calculation method are linked with the contribution in principle.

Items that can cash in rewards from the bank include new product results, new technological achievements and soft science achievements that are completed by employees or teams company resources or platforms, or with the help of research institutes, as well as various rationalization proposals.