Beijing's Zhongguancun area has set up a financial services system related to intellectual property rights (IPR), to help small-to-mid-sized technology companies in the area get loans. The system is known as the “zhongguancun system” and is developed by the China Technology Exchange and the State-owned Properties Investment & Management Co, in the Haidian district. The system’s goal is to handle intellectual property evaluation, guarantees, and investment, with backing fromthe State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and the Haidian government. If a company applies for financial help, its intellectual property will be evaluated by the Technology Exchange and the State Intellectual Property Office so that surety and fund companies can provide credit based on their findings. If the borrower has difficulty to make payments on the loan, the lenders will become shareholders and, after the loan is paid off, they can choose to either remain as shareholders or sell their shares. The trading system provides a site for both tangible and intangible assets. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Monday, 22 December2014 (Source: China Daily)