By the end of June 2026, Qingdao had surpassed 100,000 valid invention patents, raising the question of how to accelerate the conversion of these "rights on paper" into "real gold and silver."
Recently, the Qingdao Municipal Committee Financial Office, the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the People's Bank of China Qingdao Branch, and the Qingdao Financial Regulatory Bureau jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the Quality Improvement and Expansion of Intellectual Property Pledge Financing (2026–2028)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), along with supporting documents including the "Qingdao 'Qingzhi Loan' Product Guidelines" and the "Internal Valuation Implementation Guidelines for Intellectual Property Pledge Financing." The multi-dimensional effort aims to reduce costs, improve quality, expand coverage, and boost efficiency in intellectual property pledge financing, creating a "Qingdao Model" for intellectual property pledge financing and effectively empowering high-quality corporate development.
The Plan targets the difficulties and bottlenecks in intellectual property pledge financing by innovatively launching the "Qingzhi Loan" product. Eligible borrowers include medium, small, and micro enterprises that hold valid patent rights, exclusive rights to integrated circuit layout designs, exclusive rights to registered trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications, and other intellectual property. The maximum loan amount for a single borrower is 20 million yuan, and the maximum term for a single loan is three years.
Qingdao is also improving its intellectual property pledge financing service ecosystem through a "four expansions and three innovations" approach.
The "four expansions" include: expanding the pool of eligible borrowers by newly covering market entities in emerging industries such as integrated circuit design firms, artificial intelligence research and development companies, and AIGC·OPC enterprises; expanding the loan supply side by making banking institutions the main force while further activating the vitality of local financial organizations; expanding the range of pledged assets by encouraging the inclusion of exclusive rights to integrated circuit layout designs and copyrights for works in new business formats as pledge targets, in addition to patent rights; and expanding valuation channels by supporting financial institutions in bringing in technology and intellectual property trading institutions to conduct valuations, providing a real market price anchor for intellectual property valuation and promoting a diversified valuation model combining "internal valuation tools + third-party appraisal firms + technology and intellectual property trading institutions."
The "three innovations" include: innovating credit enhancement methods by optimizing the types of credit guarantees to suit enterprises of different sizes and development stages; innovating the disposal pathways for pledged assets by breaking through the single judicial disposal method and exploring various market-oriented models such as entrusted disposal by technology and intellectual property trading institutions; and innovating the ecosystem by encouraging financial institutions, technology and intellectual property trading institutions, appraisal agencies, guarantee institutions, and intellectual property law firms to establish an intellectual property pledge financing supporting service alliance, achieving full-chain supporting services.
In terms of reducing corporate financing costs, Qingdao will strengthen comprehensive measures and implement support policies for intellectual property pledge loans to small, medium, and micro enterprises in accordance with regulations. It will guide supporting service institutions related to intellectual property pledge financing to improve service quality and efficiency and reduce intermediate costs. It will also instruct financial institutions to strictly implement the system of clearly disclosing the comprehensive financing costs of corporate loans, fully, clearly, and standardly disclosing to enterprises details of financing costs such as loan interest, guarantee fees, and appraisal fees, thereby safeguarding enterprises' right to be informed.
The Plan also sets out "three-year goals" for intellectual property pledge financing: in 2026, establish and promote the "Qingzhi Loan" featured product and achieve steady growth in business scale; in 2027, expand the application scenarios of the "Qingzhi Loan" product, promote batch implementation of business, strive for more standardized intellectual property pledge financing operations with more distinctive features, and drive a significant leap in the scale of intellectual property pledge financing business; and in 2028, build a complete and efficiently operating intellectual property pledge financing development ecosystem, forming replicable and promotable "Qingdao Experience."