Young minds focused on IP education

Schools are promoting the subject to help children prepare to safeguard their inventions now and in later life. Yin Pingping and Yuan Quan report for Xinhua China Features.

Liu Zilu's homework was always smudged because he's left-handed. His left wrist was always smeared with ink, as it rubbed on his exercise books when he wrote. His parents, who are doctors and appreciate cleanliness, tried to prevent the smears, but to no avail.

However, the boy discovered his own solution. He invented a writing glove for left-handed people. Made from elastic gauze or rubber, it has two separate sheaths for the left ring finger and little finger. The glove has concave and convex surfaces, which results in more friction and a smaller contact area with the paper, reducing the likelihood of ink stains on the hand.

With his father's help, Liu, at age 7, applied for a utility model patent for the glove.

"A patent can protect your ideas and your work, so others cannot easily make the same thing," said the second grade student at the Experimental Primary School affiliated to Renmin University of China.

Liu is one of just a few very young people who hold a patent, but he is among a growing number of Chinese students who understand what a patent is and how to protect their intellectual property rights.

In recent years, the government has encouraged IP education. In 2015, the National Intellectual Property Administration of China and the Ministry of Education launched a nationwide pilot demonstration project on IP education in primary and secondary schools.

By the end of last year, 165 primary and secondary schools had been designated as IP pilot schools, 25 as IP demonstration schools and almost 1,000 as IP pilot schools at the provincial level.

China's IP education is among the best in the world. A report by the United States Center for Intellectual Property Understanding listed China as one of the top seven countries for IP education, alongside the US and Japan.