More than 600 intellectual property projects were sold at auction during the 2017 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, which was held on May 26 and 27 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, with total value of 108 million yuan ($15.8 million).

The projects included trademarks, patents and domain names, and covered a wide range of sectors including IT, new energy, new materials, electric vehicles and medicine.

All the auctioned projects were exhibited on the internet and the auctions were held through both online and offline channels, "so that the value of the intellectual properties will attract wider public attention", said Xie Xuhui, chairman of IP service website Wtoip, organizer of the auctions.

"China has a large IP reserve, and currently the biggest problems with IP are its trade and use," Xie said.

Zhu Hongren, standing deputy director-general of the China Enterprise Confederation, said that compared with one-on-one transfers, IP and technology auctions allow more companies to participate in the selection and competition to increase the trade and commercialization of IP.

More than 1,300 projects were exhibited at the 2017 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair. One of the highlights was the robots.

A waiter-like robot, developed by a Guangzhou company, will serve coffee or wine in restaurants and refill the cup or glass as needed.

A waiter-like robot developed by a Guangzhou company refills cups of wine at the 2017 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair. The robot can be used in restaurants, its developer said.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A patrol robot equipped with a rotating camera on its head can recognize and record faces of passersby and compare them with a database. It can send an alert to the police when it finds a wanted person.

A Tianjin-based high-tech company brought a robot designed to care for the elderly to the fair. It can monitor users' health conditions and will send a message to their children's smartphones when intervention is necessary.

There was also a defense system against "black flights" by unmanned aerial vehicles that endanger civil aviation safety at airports.

Its developer said that when the system's radar finds a drone in a restricted area, an optical detector will be activated to monitor its movements, while an electromagnetic device will give it a lethal attack by jamming its control signals, forcing it to land.

The fair attracted many top scientists from China and overseas.

A special campaign was held to show and promote more than 400 techniques developed by some 60 academician-led teams.

One of the projects, developed by a team led by Liu Renhuai from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, focused on the reuse of kitchen waste. It uses biochemical methods to convert the waste into alcohol, diesel, animal feed and other products with high added value.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/01/2017 page17)