China Declassifies 2346 Military Patents For Civilian Use

China has declassified more than 3000 national defense patents with 2346 of them released to public to promote civilian use.

The patents by the National Defense Intellectual Property Office of the Equipment Development Department of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) were published on the PLA Weapon Equipment Acquisition Information Network (PLA-WEAIN), ChinaMil reported Monday.

This is the first time that a select set of patents have been released to the public in 30 years.  This is China's instructive practice of "from military to civilian" and an enhancing interaction in technology information between the military and civilian under the context of in-depth development of China's civil-military integration.

Information on the PLA-WEAIN includes the patent name, patent number, patentee, abstract and technical information covering areas, such as material, communication, measurement and control, image processing, aircraft design and vehicles.

Academician Yu Qifeng from the PLA National University of Defense Technology declassified nine national defense patents in this batch.

"The release of declassified national defense patents is significant for the country, the national defense research units and those who work in the science and technology fields," Yu was quoted as saying by the news daily.

There were few civilian uses of national defense patents until recently as the majority of the technology was used by the military due to an imperfect system and inefficient information exchange.

To rectify this, the competent authorities of the national defense intellectual property carried out a review since 2015 of the classification levels of authorized national defense patents, which led to a large-scale declassification and a release through the PLA-WEAIN.

The next step is to develop specific regulations of the classification and declassification of national defense patents and carry out regular releases of declassified national defense patents, according to the competent authorities of the national defense intellectual property.

Meanwhile, the authorities will also develop the national defense intellectual property portal and the national defense intellectual property comprehensive service platform to provide better services through the PLA Weapon Equipment Acquisition Information Network.