Legal Issues Of Intellectual Property Pledge In SMEs

The 13 th Five-Year Plan of IT and IP Protection and Utilization indicate that we will offer strong support to the future development of SMEs and IP pledge.The difficulty on financing has always been a leading cause of hindering SMEs' development.Undeniably,the legislation on Intellectual Property in China needs improvement.It is not sufficient to improve it by innovating new IP financing models,and improvement on IP pledge legislation is the crucial factor to ground the diversification of financing of SMEs.The thesis can be divided into two parts.The first part is the first chapter which clarifies the intellectual property pledging of China and its main problems.Firstly,the concept and characteristics are analyzed,then the intellectual property pledging of China is studied.It is found that there is incompatibility in the scope of legal objects,registration and valuation in IP pledging.The second part is mainly about the proposals in according with the incompatibility of aforesaid three aspects.The main drawbacks and corresponding solutions in the scope of legal objects are discussed in Chapter Two.Currently,the articles in legal objects in IP pledging are rare and vague,mostly stipulated in patent,trademark and copyright,which dissatisfies the practicing in IP pledging of SMEs.Therefore,the thesis offers two suggestions to deal with the situation.One offer is to clarify the scope of legal objects in IP pledging,the other is to enlarge the scope through adding some other kinds of IP such as the right of patent application and layout-designs of integrated circuits,in order to increase the possibilities in channels of SMEs' financing.Chapter Three is aimed to reveal the incompatibility and its suggestion in registration of IP pledging in SMEs.After investigation and comparison in the practicing of SIPO,SAIC and NCAC,there are two problems discovered in IP pledging.One is the rough publicity and diverse search patterns.Another one is that there is only one way to apply the registration.Thus,two proposals given in the thesis to solve the problems: to innovate a new legal mechanism on IP valuation and to allow ledgers by themselves to apply the registration of IP pledge.Chapter Four indicates the weak parts and the proposals in valuation in IP pledging.One of the weak parts is unqualified assessment agencies in IP valuation.Another one is the incompatity between current valuation method and the unsteadiness of IP value,which hinders the IP valuation.With the comparison of foreign legislations,it is suggested to corporate universities and scientific institutions to create professional and well-qualified IP assessment agencies.In order to conquer the second weakness is to innovate dynamic valuation in IP valuation,which means to bestow the pledges the right to claim another valuation in the IP collateral after the establishment of IP pledge.With the title to IP or advanced technology and comparison of legistrative practicing,the paper presents three ways to achieve the perfection of legislation of IP pledge in China.The first one is to clarify and enlarge the scope of legal objects of IP pledging.The second one is to perfect the registration of IP pledging.The last one is to innovate a new legal mechanism on IP valuation.After completion of these three proposals,there will be more possibilities for SMEs' future financing.