According to reports, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has announced its decision to amend the Patent Examination Guidelines, which will take effect on January 1, 2026.

It is understood that the revisions follow a demand-oriented approach, focusing on improving examination standards for new fields and new business models, and refining issues that urgently require solutions in examination practice and on which consensus has largely been reached.

(1) Improving protection systems for new fields and new business models to further stimulate industrial innovation

Clarifying the definition of plant varieties, expanding the scope of patent-eligible subject matter, ensuring effective linkage with the plant variety protection system, and strengthening intellectual property protection in the seed industry.

Adding considerations and assessments related to AI ethics, providing examples for inventive-step examination, and clarifying requirements for drafting application documents to meet the needs of AI technological development.

Introducing specific examination provisions for bitstream patent applications, clarifying circumstances under which patent rights may be granted, in response to the rapid development of the streaming media industry.

(2) Optimizing examination standards and rules to address urgent issues in practice

Improving the handling of same-day applications, allowing the grant of an invention patent only if the applicant abandons the utility model patent, thereby returning to the original legislative intent.

Clarifying that, based on the legal connotation and essential requirements of inventive step, features in a claim that do not contribute to solving the technical problem normally do not confer inventiveness on the technical solution, thus improving examination efficiency and enhancing patent application quality.

Specifying that a request for invalidation will not be accepted if it does not represent the requester’s true intent, to regulate malicious invalidation actions.

(3) Codifying mature examination practices to better serve innovation entities

Clarifying the concept of examination on demand and provisions for accelerated examination, to meet the practical needs of innovators.

Clarifying examination rules for divisional applications that do not declare priority, safeguarding the applicant’s right to claim priority.

Clarifying the requirements for submitting documents related to priority right transfer, to help applicants better understand the examination standards.

Source:https://ipr.mofcom.gov.cn/article/gnxw/zl/202511/1993914.html