Photo/Shetuwang

May 5 (NBD) -- A trading platform of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is about to go online by the end of this year, in a move to coordinate and beef up efforts to protect IPR in the area.

"It will be a semi-commercial platform commissioned by the government, with the aim to facilitate IPR transactions and the commercialization of research findings," said Xia Dexing, chairman of Hengqin International Intellectual Property Rights Exchange Center (HIPEX), in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald.

The platform will be operated by HIPEX and house colleges and universities, scientific institutions and other organizations from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, according to Xia.

Guangdong boasted 3.41 million valid trademark registrations and 249,000 patents for invention as of the end of 2018, ranking the first across the country in this respect, showed a whitepaper published last month.

Last year witnessed a continuously deepening IPR cooperation within the GBA, with 25 projects landed between Guangdong and Hong Kong and 16 between Guangdong and Macao.

Despite the progress, Xia pointed out that the IPR transaction in the GBA remains comparatively a virgin land. "There are a small number of IPR transactions in the GBA due to lacking IPR protection consciousness. Now IPR trading is standing at a stage of preparing soil and growing seedlings," Xia commented.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn