The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued a notice on August 6, 2024, regarding the adjustment of certain patent fee standards and reduction policies. The notice includes the following six relevant provisions:

1. A patent holder requesting a patent term extension must pay a patent term extension request fee, which is set at 200 RMB per application. If a patent term extension request is found to meet the conditions for compensation after examination, the patent holder must pay an annual fee for the compensated term. The fee is set at 8000 RMB per year per patent, with no charge for any period less than a full year.

2. During the implementation period of a patent open license, the annual patent fee is reduced by 15%. If other patent fee reduction policies also apply, the patent holder may choose to apply the most favorable policy, but cannot benefit from multiple reductions simultaneously.

3. For international design applications entering China through the Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs, the first and second individual designation fees may be reduced in accordance with the relevant provisions of the following documents: the "Notice on the Implementation of the Patent Fee Reduction Measures", the "Notice on the Exemption, Suspension, and Adjustment of Certain Administrative Fees," and the "Notice on the Reduction and Exemption of Certain Administrative Fees" issued by the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.

4. When changing the name or title of the applicant (or patent holder) through a bulk recordation change request, and if no transfer of rights is involved, the recordation change fee should be paid as for a single change.

5. For PCT applications accepted and internationally searched by the CNIPA, the application fee and additional application fee are waived when entering the national phase in China. For PCT applications for which CNIPA has prepared the International Search Report or the International Preliminary Report on Patentability, the substantive examination fee is waived when entering the national phase and requesting substantive examination. Other fee standards for PCT applications entering the national phase in China follow domestic regulations.

The notable change is the cancellation of the benefit of having a search report from one of the international searching authorities, namely the European Patent Office, the Japanese Patent Office, or the Swedish Patent Office, which results in the substantive examination fee being restored to 2,500 CNY from 2,000 CNY.

6. Fees collected by the CNIPA on behalf of the WIPO and other institutions, as well as other countries and regions, are subject to the fee standards and reduction regulations specified in agreements between CNIPA and the aforementioned institutions, countries, or regions, or in relevant international treaties.