According to Article 2 of Opinions of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance on Further Strengthening the Management of Scientific Research Funds in Colleges and Universities (Jiaocai [2005] 1 1), scientific research funds must be brought into the unified management of the financial department of the school. All kinds of scientific research funds obtained by colleges and universities, regardless of the source of funds, are all school income, and must all be brought into the unified management and centralized accounting of the school financial department to ensure that the scientific research funds are earmarked. According to the provisions of Article 8 of Decree No.3 of the Ministry of Education, inventions or other technological achievements made by performing the tasks of institutions of higher learning and their subordinate units or mainly using the material and technical conditions of institutions of higher learning and their subordinate units belong to service inventions or service technological achievements of institutions of higher learning. The right to apply for a patent for a service invention-creation belongs to institutions of higher learning. After the patent right is granted according to law, it shall be held by institutions of higher learning. The right to use and transfer the technical achievements of posts shall be enjoyed by institutions of higher learning.
Patent right refers to the exclusive right granted by the state to the inventor or designer within a certain period of time in accordance with legal procedures on the premise that the content of the invention is open to the public and the invention has legal interests to the society.