US Gov’t Funding Leads to Over 1,000 Patents for China-Based Inventors Since 2010

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In what has been described as an “alarming” situation, the US Patent and Trademark Office last month disclosed data showing that US government agencies have funded research which led to over 1,020 US patents for China-based inventors since 2010, Reuters reported exclusively in an August 29 report.

Reviewed by Reuters, the data was presented by the Patent and Trademark Office was presented in a letter to the House of Representatives’ select committee on China on August 14.

According to Reuters, the data disclosed “will amplify calls to cancel or renegotiate the landmark US-China Science and Technology Agreement, a cooperation deal that critics say disproportionately benefits Washington’s top geopolitical rival.”

A number of the patents are in sensitive fields such biotechnology and semi conductors, Reuters said. Notably, the Pentagon funded 92 such patents.
Funding from the Department of Health and Human Services led to 356 US patents for China-based inventors, the most of any agency, Reuters noted. The Department of Energy funded 175 while NASA funded four.

“It’s alarming that US taxpayers have unwittingly funded over 1,000 patents claimed by Chinese entities, with the Department of Defense accounting for nearly 100 of these patents,” the select committee’s chairman, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, said in an email to Reuters.

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