The Shanghai Intellectual Property Transaction Center, to be actually operated by the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (SUAEE), officially opened on 11 October 2009. The centre will provide a platform for the evaluation and transfer of pledge in intellectual property (IP) pledge financing.

According to an SUAEE official, accelerating technological and financial innovation and building an investment and financing platform for the multi-tiered coupling of technologies and financial capital is an important move for steadily advancing the transformation of China’s economic development model.

The establishment of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Transaction Center is an important step in Shanghai’s endeavour to promote and put into practice an IP pledge financing system. Its operation mainly includes three aspects: First, take part in the price discovery process in pledgeable IP evaluation at the source, file such IPs for the record and study their potential for market circulation. Second, make use of an open trading platform for circulation purposes when market exit is actually necessary for the pledged IP. Third, actual means of circulation may include bidding and auction.

After years of development, an investment and financing service chain for sci-tech type small and medium-sized enterprises has taken shape in Shanghai’s property rights market. IP trading is becoming more and more active. SUAEE’s IP transactions exceeded Rmb10 billion between 2008 and September 2009, with the value of transaction showing a year-on-year increase of nearly 10% in the first nine months of this year.