Announcement of China National Intellectual Property Administration No. 594 (2024-8）

According to the Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission on Adjusting and Optimizing the Patent Fees Collection Policy (Cai Shui [2024] No. 23) and the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Relevant Matters such as the Annual Fee Standards for Patent Right Compensation Period (Fa Gai Jia Ge [2024] No. 1156), the China National Intellectual Property Administration has adjusted some patent fees collection standards and reduction policies since the date of the issuance of the above-mentioned notices. The relevant matters are hereby announced as follows:

I. The patentee who requests compensation for the patent term shall pay a fee for the request for compensation for the patent term, which is 200 yuan per piece.  If the request for compensation for the patent term is examined and found to meet the conditions for compensation, an annual fee for the patent term compensation period shall be paid, with a fee standard of 8,000 yuan per year per patent, and no fee shall be charged for the portion of the year that is less than one year.

II. The annual patent fee is reduced by 15% during the implementation of the open license for patents.  If other patent fees reduction policies are applicable, the most preferential policy can be selected, but it cannot be enjoyed repeatedly.

III. For international design applications entering China through the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, the first and second installments of the designated fees can be reduced in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission on Issuing the 'Measures for Reducing Patent Fees'" (Cai Shui [2016] No. 78), the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission on Policies for Suspending, Exempting, and Adjusting Some Administrative Fees" (Cai Shui [2018] No. 37), and the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission on Policies for Reducing and Exempting Some Administrative Fees" (Cai Shui [2019] No. 45).

IV. If the name or title of the applicant (or patentee) is changed through a batch of requests for changes in bibliographic data and the change does not involve the transfer of rights, the fees for the changes of bibliographic data shall be paid according to one case.

V. The annotation section of Annex 2 of the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Re-issuing the Administrative Fees Standards of the China National Intellectual Property Administration and Other Relevant Issues (Fa Gai Jia Ge [2017] No. 270) has been revised to "International patent applications (PCT applications) accepted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration as the receiving office and subjected to international search by the same shall be exempt from payment of application fees and application surcharges at the time of entering into the Chinese national phase.  PCT applications for which the China National Intellectual Property Administration has made an international search report or a preliminary international report on patentability shall be exempt from payment of substantive examination fees when entering the Chinese national phase and filing requests for substantive examination. Other fee standards for PCT applications entering the Chinese national phase shall be implemented in accordance with domestic standards."

VI. For the fees charged by China National Intellectual Property Administration on behalf of institutions such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, as well as other countries and regions, the charging standards and reduction regulations shall be subjected to the agreement between China National Intellectual Property Administration and the above-mentioned institutions, countries and regions, or relevant international contracts.

Notice is hereby given.

China National Intellectual Property Administration

August 6, 2024