"Regulations on Regulating the Behavior of Applying for Patents"

Article 1 In order to regulate the behavior of patent applications and maintain the normal order of patent work, these regulations are formulated in accordance with the "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China", "Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China" , "Patent Agency Regulations" and other relevant laws and regulations.

Article 2 Anyone who submits or submits a patent application on behalf of an agent shall abide by the relevant provisions of laws, administrative regulations and departmental rules, follow the legislative purposes of the Patent Law, adhere to the principle of good faith, and be based on true invention and creation activities. No fraud or violation of the "China Article 11 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China is used to implement abnormal patent applications.

Article 3 Abnormal patent applications as mentioned in these regulations include:

(1) The inventions and creations in the multiple patent applications submitted are obviously the same, or are essentially formed by a simple combination of different inventions and creations’ features and elements;
(2) The patent application submitted contains fabrication, forgery, or alteration of the invention, experimental data, or technical effects, or plagiarism, simple substitution, patchwork of existing technology or existing designs, or other similar circumstances;
(3) The invention-creation content of the proposed patent application is mainly randomly generated using computer technology;
(4) The invention-creation of the proposed patent application is obviously inconsistent with technical improvement and design common sense, or has been deteriorated, piled up, or the scope of protection is unnecessarily narrowed;
(5) The applicant has submitted multiple patent applications without actual R&D activities and cannot provide a reasonable explanation;
(6) Maliciously scattering multiple patent applications that are essentially related to a specific unit, individual or address, filing them one after another or in different places;
(7) Transferring or assigning patent application rights for improper purposes, or falsely changing the inventor or designer;
(8) Other abnormal patent application behaviors that violate the principle of good faith and disrupt the normal order of patent work.

Article 4 No unit or individual may act as an agent, induce, instigate or help others to carry out various abnormal patent application behaviors.

Article 5 The patent administration department of the State Council shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China and the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China , discover during the acceptance, preliminary examination, substantive examination, reexamination procedures of patent applications or the international phase procedures of international applications. Or if it is learned based on the reporting clues and it is preliminarily determined that there is abnormal patent application behavior, a special examination working group can be formed or the examiner can be authorized to start a special examination procedure, and the applicant can be notified to state his opinions and submit supporting materials within a specified time limit, or take the initiative to Withdraw relevant patent applications and legal formalities requests.

Article 6 If the applicant fails to respond within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the relevant patent application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn, and the request for relevant legal procedures shall be deemed to have not been filed.

Article 7 If, after the applicant states its opinions, the patent administration department of the State Council still considers the application for patent to be abnormal, it shall reject the relevant patent application in accordance with the law, or disapprove the request for relevant legal procedures.

If the applicant is dissatisfied with the decision to reject the patent application, he or she may file a request for patent review in accordance with the law; if the applicant is dissatisfied with the request for disapproval of the relevant legal procedures, he or she may file an administrative review application or initiate an administrative lawsuit in accordance with the law.

Article 8 Administrative penalties shall be imposed on units or individuals that implement abnormal patent applications in accordance with the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China and the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China .

Administrative penalties shall be imposed on patent agencies that implement abnormal patent application behaviors stipulated in Article 4 of these Regulations, as well as institutions or individuals that carry out patent agency business without authorization, in accordance with the Patent Agency Regulations and relevant regulations.

Anyone who violates these regulations and is suspected of committing a crime will be transferred to judicial authorities for investigation of criminal liability in accordance with the law.

Article 9 The following measures may be taken against abnormal patent applications:

(1) The patent fee will not be reduced for the abnormal patent application; for applicants who have carried out abnormal patent application behavior multiple times within five years and other serious circumstances, the patent application submitted during that period will not be reduced. Fees; if the payment has been reduced, the person is required to pay the relevant reduced payment fees;
(2) Announce it on the government website of the Patent Administration Department of the State Council and relevant media, and include relevant information into the national credit information sharing platform;
(3) Anyone who carries out abnormal patent application behavior that harms social public interests and is subject to relatively severe administrative penalties by market supervision and management and other departments shall be included in the list of serious illegal and untrustworthy persons in market supervision and management in accordance with relevant national regulations;
(4) Deduct the number of patent applications related to abnormal patent application behavior from the statistics on the number of patent applications of the Patent Administration Department of the State Council;
(5) No funding or rewards will be provided to applicants and relevant agencies; if funding or rewards have been provided, all or part of the funding or rewards will be refunded.

Article 10 Before taking the handling measures listed in Article 9 of these Regulations, the parties concerned shall be allowed to state their opinions when necessary.

Article 11 The department managing patent work shall guide the public and patent agencies to file patent applications in accordance with the law, and strengthen the management of abnormal patent applications.

If local patent management departments and patent agencies discover or learn of clues to abnormal patent application behavior based on reports, they shall report it to the patent administration department of the State Council in a timely manner. When the patent administration department of the State Council handles irregular patent applications in accordance with the law, the local patent administrative departments shall cooperate.

Article 12 When filing a patent application abroad or on behalf of an agent, the laws and regulations of China and relevant countries and regions shall be observed. You must not violate the principle of good faith, file a patent application in a fraudulent manner, or seek illegitimate benefits without basing it on real inventions and creations.

Article 13 These regulations will come into effect on January 20, 2024. The "Several Provisions on Regulating Patent Application Behavior" promulgated by the State Intellectual Property Office Order No. 45 on August 27, 2007, and the "National Intellectual Property Law" promulgated by the State Intellectual Property Office Order No. 75 on February 28, 2017 The Decision of the Intellectual Property Office on Amending the "Several Provisions on Regulating the Behavior of Patent Applications" and the "Measures on Regulating the Behavior of Patent Applications" published in the State Intellectual Property Office Announcement No. 411 on March 11, 2021 are abolished at the same time.

Click here to visit relevant links of the State Intellectual Property Office

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