Abstract: Intellectual Property Alliance(IPA) on Food Safety Testing consists of food production enterprises, food safety inspection companies, research institutes, universities and patent service agencies. By sharing resources and reducing transaction costs, all the stake-holders within the Alliance can establish a patent pool which can provide complete technological rights for promoting the development of the industry. In addition, it can bring into full play the advantages of the intra-Alliance enterprises who can work togetherwot safeguard their legitimate rights and set technical barriers for the entire industry. It is particularly important for the Alliance to formulate appropriate development strategies. In this study, first, the SWOT-AHP method is used to analyze and identify the strengths(S), weaknesses(W), opportunities(O) and threats(T) regarding the patent management, technological development and collaboration by the members of the Alliance. Then the AHP method is employed to determine the weighting of each factor. Finally, all the SWOT factors are arranged according their order of priority to obtain an optimal strategic choice. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to realize a combination of factors and choices. This represents a major methodological innovation as compared with the existing research on alliance strategy.Based on careful literature study, the present research determined the factors that need to be considered. Experts from member institutions and specialists from the food industry are invited to determine specific elements and to evaluate the relative importance of various elements. The 1-9 scale method is utilized to determine the factors on all levels and subsequently to establish the order of priority. Firstly, a judgment matrix is constructed based on the experts' evaluation of various elements. Excel method is used to calculate thejudgement matrix's maximum eigenvalue(λ_max) and normalized feature vector(W), which is the relative weight of each index. After the maximum eigenvalue is calculated, consistency check is carried out and the consistency index CI is obtained and the random consistency ratio CR is calculated. The formula is as follows:CI=λ_max-n/n-1(1) CR=CI/RI(2)In the formula,RI refers to the average consistency index, which can be obtained by checking the table. When CR<0.10, judgment matrix passes the consistency check Then, pairwise comparison matrix covering the Strengths Unit, the Weaknesses Unit, the Opportunities Unit and the Threats Unit is established while priority weight and the CR value are calculated. Based on the results within each unit, the factor with the maximum priority weight in each unit is identified to represent that particular unit. By developing new inter-unit pairwise comparison matrixes, an inter-unit order of priority is obtained. Finally, strategic choice for the Food Safety Testing Alliance is formulated, the order of priority being "advantages> disadvantages> threats> opportunities". The strategic program for the Food Safety Testing Alliance is as follows:the core strategy for the Intellectual Property Alliance is to utilizing the internal strengths while taking advantage of external opportunities. By integrating various advantages and jointly developing core patents, the Alliance should set up the core patent pool as quickly as possible and work together with relevant government departments to facilitate the formulation of the product standards as well as the testing standards within the industry itself.

Key words: food safety detection, the alliance for intellectual property, SWOT analysis, the strategy choice