o entrust agencies with applying for their patents.

" Nan Yong cheap adidas superstar sale , the former director of the Chinese Football Administrative Center, is taken away by police after a court proceeding in Tieling, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on June 13, 2012. Photo: IC
Former Chinese soccer chief Nan Yong recently had his prison sentence reduced by one year after a Beijing court said that he had behaved well and obtained four patents while locked up.


Nan, 52, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association and former director of the Chinese Football Administrative Center, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for taking bribes totaling 1.19 million yuan ($191,570) in June 2012. He began his jail term on September 5 that year.


Yancheng Prison in Hebei Province, where Nan is imprisoned, presented an abatement proposal to the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court on November 13 citing Nan's good behavior during his two years in jail.


Besides Nan, other jailed officials or celebrities have also reportedly had their sentences reduced after getting patents as China's Criminal Law stipulates that inmates may have their jail terms commuted if they ""provide great contributions to the state and society.""


Judges have said that prisoners' invention of products that qualify for patents, which are seen as such great contributions, have become one criterion on which courts can base this kind of sentence reduction.


However, this trick for industrious prisoners to earn their freedom has warped into a loophole exploited by some intellectual property agencies that seek profits through helping prisoners buy their way out of prison.


Inspired inmates


According to the website of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), Nan applied for patent certificates in December 2012 and 2013 for four inventions including a device to practice soccer strikes and a portable goal.


Nan's case is not uncommon. Liang Jianxing, former head of the health bureau of Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, who was sentenced to eight years behind bars in 2008, acquired 11 patent qualifications in six years. Liang had one year and three months taken off his sentence in 2011, reported the Beijing Youth Daily.


""Offering abatement for inmates who have inventions is a positive way to encourage prisoners to fulfill their potential and make contributions to society,"" Xu Xinming, a lawyer with the cnipr, an intellectual property rights website, told the Global Times.


Records on the SIPO website also show that a Beijing intellectual rights agency helped Nan apply for patents for his inventions.


However, the policy also offers some agencies a chance to gain large profits by conspiring with prisoners to obtain remissions illegally.


Underground business


Several intellectual property agencies contacted by the Global Times said they can help prisoners buy patents and bring them one step closer to freedom.


An intellectual rights agency in Hefei, Anhui Province, told the Global Times that they provide professional, customized services for prisoners looking to exploit this loophole, allowing prisoners to buy original inventions and helping them obtain patents at different prices.


An employee surnamed Wang at the agency said that the patents they sell can be divided into three types: patents for inventions, for utility models and for designs. Utility model patents are often used as one can acquire such patents within six months due to their looser verification process.


""If you only need to apply for a patent [for something you have invented], the price will be 1,970 yuan, but if you need services including purchasing an original invention, that will be 4,070 yuan,"" said Wang, adding that some agencies charge 10,000 yuan for the full set of services.


""We once had a client who managed to deduct several years from his sentence after getting patents,"" said Wang.


Wang said that intellectual property agencies must first know the requirements of the prison's patent application process as policies vary in different prisons. These agencies ask the prisons what kind of patents are required for an abatement, what kind of records are necessary to make an application, what kinds of inventions are acceptable and whether or not prisoners are allowed to entrust agencies with applying for their patents.


He also suggested that ""one could send some 'gifts' to the staff working in the prison for their help delivering documents to the prisoner.""