On March 20, the ChinaSecuritiesRegulatoryCommission(CSRC)formulated the "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Science and Technology Innovation Attributes (Trial)" (referred to as "Guidelines"), which requires companies applying for listing on the Sci-Tech innovation board (STAR Market) to meet the requirements of super-leading technology, and sets threshold indicators for invention patents and R & D investment. STAR Market is positioned to support and encourage “hard-core technology” companies. As of March 24, a total of 92 companies have been listed on it. The "Guidelines" proposes a specific evaluation system to evaluate companies that are to be listed on the STAR Market. The evaluation system adopts the structure of "conventional indicators and exception clauses", including 3 conventional indicators and 5 exception clauses. If companies meet all 3 conventional indicators, they can be considered eligible for the listing on the STAR Market; if companies cannot meet all 3 conventional indicators, but meet any one of the 5 exception clauses, they can also be considered as eligible for the listing on the STAR Market.

The 3 conventional indicators mentioned are: (1) R & D investment in the last three years accounted for more than 5% of operating income, or the total amount of R & D investment in the last three years has exceeded 60 million yuan; (2) there are more than 5 invention patents related to the main business; and (3) the compound annual growth rate of operating income in the last three years has reached 20%, or the amount of operating income in the previous year has reached 300 million yuan. The 5 exception clauses mentioned are as follows: (1) the issuer's core technology has been recognized by the national competent authorities as having an international leading, leading role or of great significance to the national strategy; (2) the issuer as the main participating unit or the core technical personnel of the issuer as the main participant, has won the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the National Natural Science Award, or the National Technology Invention Award, and applied related technologies to the company's main business; (3) the issuer independently carries out, or leads the "National Major Science and Technology Project" related to the main business and core technology; (4) the main products (services) produced by the issuer relying on core technology are key equipments, key products, key parts, key materials and the like that are encouraged, supported, and promoted by our country, and have achieved import substitution; and (5) there are more than 50 invention patents (including defense patents) related to core technology and main business income.

Conventional indicators and exception clauses have made clear provisions on the number of invention patents, making invention patents a key indicator for the listing on STAR Market. Normally, it takes about 3 years for an enterprise to file an invention patent application and obtain a patent authorization, because it takes 18 months from application to publication, and there may be procedures such as corrections, examination responses, etc., which may take several months. Applicants can also take some measures to speed up the review process, such as requesting the invention to be disclosed in advance, which can shorten the time by several months. In addition, the pre-examination process can be accelerated through the local intellectual property protection center, but this has restrictions on the registration location of the enterprise, the technical field to which the patent belongs, and the number of applications from a single enterprise. For example, the China (Nanjing) Intellectual Property Protection Center can pre-examine patents belonging to 60 IPC subcategories, mainly involving the field of new-generation information technology industry, and only registered applicants can request a rapid pre-examination from the China (Nanjing) Intellectual Property Protection Center service. If an enterprise plans to list on the STAR Market in the future, it should conduct patent layout in advance.