CEBSIT's Innovative Patent Commercialization Model Drives Biomedical Technologies into Clinical Reality — Harnessing IP as a Strategic Asset for Future Industry Leadership

A test subject who had undergone limb amputation years ago successfully controlled a mouse with brain signals to play video games after receiving an invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) surgery and undergoing three weeks of training. This achievement was showcased by Shanghai StairMed Technology Co., Ltd. during a media briefing in May this year, marking significant progress in the first-in-human (FIM) clinical trial of its long-term implantable invasive BCI system. In addition, the company has completed its Series B financing round of 350 million yuan, established a medical-grade microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) electrode processing platform, and achieved a full-chain closed loop from research and development to mass production.

StairMed is one of the technology enterprise representatives incubated by the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Brain and Intelligence Excellence Center) through systematic industrial transformation. The rapid transformation and substantial investment in this brain-computer interface project are inseparable from the solid support of full-cycle patent management and operations. The industrial transformation work of the Brain and Intelligence Excellence Center is coordinated and promoted by the Intellectual Property and Achievement Transformation Department. In the early stages of technology development, this department deeply intervenes in technology mining and patent layout; during the critical phase of transformation, it is responsible for patent price negotiations, designing complex milestone terms, and handling licensing transfer tasks such as sales royalties and non-clinical application revenue distribution. This not only drives the efficient implementation of technology but also safeguards the current and long-term interests of the Brain and Intelligence Excellence Center.

"Since completing the first technology transfer in 2019, the center has carried out more than 60 technology transfer projects, transferring and licensing over 100 patents externally, with the total contract value of technology transfer exceeding 1.76 billion yuan," said Zhang Jun, Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Department at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology. "Relying on continuous and in-depth transformation practices, the center has incubated nearly ten biopharmaceutical companies, attracted more than 2.5 billion yuan in social capital investment, and advanced multiple innovative drug and medical device projects into clinical stages, including gene editing, epigenetics, cell therapy, brain-computer interfaces, and neurological diseases." This year, the center's case of "innovating the revenue distribution model to promote the implementation of biosequence-related patent technology transfer projects" was selected as one of the first batch of excellent patent transformation and application cases by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

Brain science is a frontier field of global scientific research, and the development of related industries is still in its early stages. "High investment, high risk, and long cycles are notable characteristics of the transformation of brain science achievements, which determines that the entire transformation ecosystem requires the participation and promotion of multiple parties, including scientists, research institutes, social capital, and industry companies," said Zhang Jun. "Only by using patents to tightly protect new technologies with potential value, and then allowing companies to gradually improve and mature them, can they eventually form products for consumers and truly transform scientific research achievements into real productive forces."

Protecting intellectual property rights with an industry-oriented approach is the basic premise for the Center of Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology to carry out patent transformation work. The center establishes a technical value assessment process before paper publication, comprehensively determining whether to apply for patents and the potential patent authorization scope based on industrialization prospects. "The market value of the technology itself is the core factor in deciding whether it can be transformed, how it should be transformed, and the pricing of the transformation. Uncovering scientific research results with industrialization potential is the foundation of patent transformation and application," said Zhang Jun.

"Brain science is an industry oriented towards the future, where investors value long-term returns and invest in the industry's future," said Zhang Jun. He emphasized that a transformation plan ensuring fair protection of the rights and interests of investors, enterprises, research institutes, and scientists is particularly crucial. The Center for Excellence in Brain Science has innovated its income distribution model, breaking through the traditional "milestone + royalty" approach. Through systematic institutional design and flexible agreement mechanisms, it balances the interests of all parties, achieving full-cycle coverage of the institute’s short-term, medium-term, and long-term rights.

"The income from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements is crucial to the future development of the center. It not only provides the center with continuous and stable non-fiscal funding support but also significantly enhances the center's endogenous self-sustaining ability. By converting original scientific and technological achievements into actual economic benefits, the center has realized a feedback loop for cutting-edge basic research, allowing it to independently lay out forward-looking technologies, attract and cultivate high-level scientific research talents, and advance long-cycle, high-risk projects. This virtuous cycle greatly strengthens the internal driving force for the sustainable development of the center, serving as a key strategic path to achieve self-empowerment and ensure the long-term development of the scientific research innovation system," said Zhang Jun.

Since the establishment of the Intellectual Property and Industrial Transformation Department in 2018, the Center for Excellence in Brain Science has made remarkable progress in several aspects, including the amount of funds received from the transformation of achievements, agreement amounts, number of patents transformed, transformation rate, and the valuation of incubated technology enterprises. Particularly, the agreement amounts have been steadily increasing. According to the national report on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements released by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2024, the Center ranked 2nd among multiple research institutes within the Chinese Academy of Sciences system in terms of agreement amounts for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, rising three places from 2023. It ranked 4th among 3,000 universities and research institutes across China, moving up eight places from 2023. In terms of patent transformation rate, by the end of 2024, the Center’s patent transformation rate reached 30%. "We not only focus on promoting the transformation of achievements but also emphasize fostering results with transformation value and then entrusting them to the market and the future," said Zhang Jun.By reporter Yang Liu）

(Edited by Liu Shan)