Strengthening the Foundation of Manufacturing with Intellectual Property

Observations from the 2026 World Manufacturing Convention —

Manufacturing is the foundation of the real economy, vital to the national economy, and the foundation for building the nation, the instrument for its prosperity, and the cornerstone of its strength. How can intellectual property empower the development of advanced manufacturing and help enhance the self-reliance and controllability of industrial chains?

Seeing Patent Value Through Cutting-Edge Manufacturing

The World Manufacturing Convention focuses on emerging industries such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles, next-generation information technology, and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as future industries such as quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and biomanufacturing, showcasing a series of cutting-edge manufacturing achievements.

Making AI understand the “voices” of industrial equipment — the industrial acoustic large model exhibited at this convention by the National Manufacturing Innovation Center for Intelligent Speech, led by iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as iFLYTEK), solves the problem of real-time acoustic diagnosis in industrial scenarios.

“In industrial scenarios, operating conditions and on-site noise vary greatly, and labeled fault samples are scarce. Therefore, acoustic large models cannot directly copy the training methods of large language models. Through technologies such as ‘acoustic pre-training,’ ‘self-supervised learning,’ and ‘cross-operating-condition generalization and domain enhancement,’ we have opened up the complete chain from sound collection, acoustic representation, and deep understanding to anomaly detection and fault diagnosis, giving industrial sounds their own ‘smart brain.’” Qi Huawei, chief engineer of the National Manufacturing Innovation Center for Intelligent Speech, told reporters that the large model has been deployed in quality inspection of products such as home appliances and motors, and has been used in anomaly detection and intelligent operation and maintenance scenarios for key equipment in key manufacturing fields such as rail transit, aerospace, and power and energy. The innovation center has accumulated more than 200 intellectual property rights, of which invention patents account for more than half.

In the robotics and embodied intelligence exhibition area of the World Manufacturing Convention, a Huangmei Opera performance by a robot attracted many spectators as soon as it began. This was a humanoid robot developed by Zhongke Bote Intelligent Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhongke Bote).

“Unlike robots used in industrial scenarios, the humanoid robots we develop are mainly used in business services and family companionship, which places very high demands on bionic technology. Through new artificial muscle technology, we make its appearance and emotional expression more humanlike; through a sensor system, the robot can ‘perceive’ external changes in real time and provide early warnings of danger; and with whole-body tactile technology, we enhance the robot’s tactile perception and achieve better interaction.” Shu Liangxuan, CEO of Zhongke Bote, told reporters that thanks to the pilot reform of “rights empowerment + transfer + agreed returns” launched by the University of Science and Technology of China in 2020, a batch of intellectual property rights from the university were empowered to the company for implementation and commercialization. Since then, the company has maintained exchanges and cooperation with USTC, enabling more cutting-edge technologies to be transformed into practical applications as quickly as possible.

“At present, China has a huge industrial manufacturing system. For it to grow from large to strong, the empowerment of intellectual property in the industrial chain is indispensable,” said Yi Jiming, director of the International Intellectual Property Research Center at Peking University. As the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation accelerates, he said, it is necessary to adopt an inclusive and prudent regulatory approach, explore more reasonable and effective ways to protect intellectual property in emerging fields, and promote the continuous emergence of innovation. At the same time, standardization should be advanced in some advantageous fields to promote the healthy and orderly development of related industries.

Achieving Value Leap Through Effective Utilization

The effective use of patents is an effective way to achieve a value leap in innovation outcomes.

At the matchmaking meeting, Leng Jinsong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor and doctoral supervisor at Harbin Institute of Technology, and dean of the School of Future Technology, presented a set of data to participants: in the past five years, global smart materials patents reached more than 27,000, including 5,948 high-value patents. Among them, China ranks first in both the number of patents and the number of high-value patents.

“This requires us to do a good job in patent industrialization,” he said. The smart materials industrial ecosystem consists of five types of actors: universities, enterprises, engineering platforms, end users, and the government. Each actor assumes a differentiated functional position in the innovation chain, forming a closed loop of “demand—R&D—verification—application—feedback.” Opening up the channels for factor flows among actors is key to achieving collaborative innovation and transformation.

“We need to promote high-quality development of manufacturing through the integration of the ‘innovation chain,’ ‘industrial chain,’ ‘capital chain,’ ‘talent chain,’ and ‘service chain.’ Intellectual property plays a role in connecting and driving the five chains. For example, intellectual property finance pulls the capital chain for technology-based enterprises and plays a role in providing vital support for the commercialization of innovation outcomes,” Yi Jiming said.

At this matchmaking meeting, Anhui Province built an intellectual property finance “circle of friends.” The Anhui Intellectual Property and Quality Finance Alliance, jointly initiated by 46 institutions in the province, was officially established to promote deep integration of intellectual property, brand quality, and financial resources. The reporter learned that the alliance will carry out regular and precise industry-finance matchmaking, rely on professional services to improve the credit evaluation system, break down industry information barriers, innovate financial formats that integrate intellectual property and brand quality, and at the same time keep government-enterprise feedback channels open and build an efficient communication bridge.

Innovation is about implementation, and value lies in transformation. A batch of patent transformation achievements with advanced technology and strong industrialization potential were showcased at the matchmaking meeting. Through diverse models such as transfer, equity contribution, and licensing, these transformation projects pushed patented technologies from the “bookshelf” to the “shelf.” Their transformation experience provides a reference for more innovation entities and business entities.

The matchmaking meeting also released a batch of patent licensing declaration information, covering the latest scientific research achievements of universities, research institutes, and enterprises, precisely matching the development needs of emerging and future industries such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles and next-generation information technology. This information was simultaneously released on the China Patent Publication and Announcement System and the Anhui Intellectual Property Protection “One-Stop” Platform. The platform will be open on a regular basis and dynamically updated, so that good patents can find good enterprises and good needs can find good technologies.

As more innovation outcomes emerge and more patents are transformed, intellectual property will continue to stimulate the vitality of advanced manufacturing, help China’s manufacturing industry accelerate its leap from a “major manufacturing country” to a “smart manufacturing powerhouse,” and accumulate inexhaustible momentum for the construction of a modern industrial system and the high-quality development of Chinese modernization.