CHINA'S State Intellectual Property Office is reported to have issued more than 580,000 patents in 2009, a record-breaking 41 per cent increase from the previous year.
Rising demand for patent services in China is also evident from eValueServe's 2009 report, which estimated that in 2005, 13,000 intellectual property (IP) disputes were filed with Chinese courts, compared with 10,000 in the US.
Given this trend, a group of enterprising graduates are making plans to delve into the Chinese patent market.
Patsnap Technologies was founded in October 2007 by three graduates of the NUS Overseas College Programme.
Its flagship product, a Web-based search and analysis platform, allows users to search, track, analyse and download worldwide patent information for an annual fee of $3,000.
Since it was launched in 2009, the company has generated revenue of $90,000 from about 500 users.
Clients are mainly business enterprises, technology transfer offices, IP agencies, IP law firms, libraries and government patent offices.
Patsnap conducted surveys in China in 2008 before deciding to leverage on the huge domestic market and fast-growing patent industry there.
Patsnap has customised its services to suit the needs of local users of IP information by translating its content and software interface into Chinese.
Its office in Shanghai is slated to start operating next month.
Patsnap sees China as a relatively untapped market with tremendous potential, and has set ambitious targets.
By the first three months of 2011, it aims to break even and establish a strong foothold in the country. After that, it intends to launch two new products - an IP workflow management system and a visualisation tool that converts IP information into business intelligence.
Its goal within five years is to a capture 20-30 per cent market share of China's patent industry.
Patsnap is a recipient of a Spring Singapore TECS grant, which aims to catalyse the formation and growth of start-ups based on strong technology IP and a scalable business model.
The company intends to use the $250,000 grant to develop innovative technologies for patent searches.
When asked about challenges, Patsnap's general manager Jeffrey Tiong said that the biggest difficulty will be to generate funds.
As one of three Singapore companies invited to pitch at the inaugural Asian Business Angels Forum, Patsnap hopes to raise $300,000 of investments, mainly to fund its China foray.
Patsnap will also showcase its services to an audience of 300 technology transfer, IP and IT professionals at the Technology Commercialisation Forum here on March 5-6.