With the continued growth of the number of invention patent applications, National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has greatly shortened the examination term of invention patent application in China. In first half of 2020, the average examination term for invention patents is 20.3 months, and the average examination term for high-value invention patents is 15.2 months.

China will further shorten the process of patent examination, and by the end of 2020, the processing time for an invention patent application will be cut to about 16.5 months and for a high-value patent 13.8 months, according to the Director of CNIPA. But even so, the examination term for invention patent is still relatively long for applicants who want to get fast authorization.
There are some paths the applicant may adopt for Expediting Patent Prosecution in China, such as PPH, prioritized examination and rapid pre-examination.

I. Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
 
 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is an agreement reached among patent administrative authorities of different countries or regions to accelerate patent prosecution procedures. In particular, when one or more claims are allowed in one of the countries and regions that have entered into PPH agreement, an applicant could, on the basis of the allowed claims, ask other such countries or regions to accelerate the patent examination procedures. Through PPH, patent examination term will be greatly shortened, the number of OAs will be significantly reduced, and the protection scopes of claims will be close among different countries.

China has signed PPH bilateral agreements with more than 20 countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Russia, Austria, Poland, Portugal, UK, Sweden, Hungary, US, Canada and Mexico, Norway, Malaysia, etc... China also reached IP5-PPH multi-lateral agreements with patent offices of US, Japan, South Korea and EPO. If a patent application meets any of the above-mentioned agreements and has been approved of filing through PPH, its examination process will be accelerated.

Situations of patent application for which the request for PPH procedure can be applied:
(1) Invention application which has been published;
(2) Has entered into substantive examination, but before receiving any OA; albeit one exception—if substantive examination request for the application is still to be filed, an applicant could file for PPH request when filing substantive examination request after receiving publication notice for invention patent from CNIPA;
(3) Correspondence of claims refers to the scope of the claims seeking accelerated examination in CNIPA shall be the same with or narrower than that is allowed by other offices of PPH agreement (if not, the applicant may file initial amendments within three months after entering into substantive examination).

To request prioritized examination, the applicant must submit:
(1) Request form;
(2) Examination result from the OFF (Office of First Filling);
(3) Patentable claims;
(4) Prior art;
(5) Explanation of correspondence of claims.
Duration:
The average time needed from filing PPH request to grant of an invention patent application is about three to seven months, which is significantly shortened.
 
Filing through PPH will cut down prosecution costs as the number of OAs will be reduced. The examiner normally would not conduct further search and may only point out some formal defects in the first office action, so the granting rates are higher.

II. Prioritized Examination

Prioritized examination of patents is an effective way in shortening examination cycle, benefits patent applicants, and may contribute to economic development.

Since the CNIPA issued an "Administrative Regulations of Prioritized Examination of Patents" (hereafter referred to as "Regulations") which took effect as of August 1, 2017, more and more patent applicants are taking advantage of this prioritized patent examination system.

Situations of patent application for which the prioritized patent examination can be applied:
(1) Chinese patent application for invention during the substantial examination procedures;
(2) Chinese patent applications for utility model and design;
(3) Chinese patent applications for invention, utility model and design during the Re-examination procedures;
(4) Chinese patents for invention, utility model and design during the Invalidation procedures.

According to the Regulations, patent applications are entitled to prioritized examination if they:
(1) Relate to industries whose development is prioritized by the State, such as energy conservation and environmental protection, new-generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, alternative fuel vehicles, smart manufacturing, etc.;
(2) Relate to industries that are encouraged by local governments; or
(3) Relate to technologies or products that rapidly become obsolete, such as the Internet, big data, cloud computing etc.;
(4) The patent applicant is ready to implement or has already begun implementing the claimed invention, or has evidence that others are implementing their claimed inventions;
(5) The patent applicant filed a patent application(s) on the same subject matter in other countries or regions after filing a patent application for the first time in China; or
(6) Where prioritized examination is otherwise necessary due to great significance to the national interest or public interest.

For pure foreign applicants (which intends to mean that all the applicants are outside China), the most probable way for a foreign application is Option (5). Namely, for the first-filing Chinese patent applications, the foreign entities would feel free to request the prioritized examination, given that they have their creation-invention or designs firstly filed in China and claim the first-filing Chinese patent application to other countries or regions.

Documents requested for filing a request for prioritized examination:
(1) A request form for prioritized examination;
(2) Prior art or Prior design;
(3) Other relevant supporting documents, which refers to the documents that would prove that the case falls into one of the related industries or technologies, such as a declaration by the requester declaring that the technology claimed by the application falls into relevant technical field included in Strategic Emerging Industry Key Products and Services Guidance Catalog; and
(4) A recommendation from the relevant department of the State Council or the relevant local intellectual property office except if based on foreign filing. 

Duration:
For a Chinese patent application for invention: the first office action will be issued within 45 days from date of acceptance of the request for prioritized examination, and the final decision on grant or rejection will be made within a year;
 
For a Chinese patent application for utility model or design, the final decision on grant or rejection will be made within two months from the date of acceptance of the request for prioritized examination.

III. Rapid Pre-examination

Each local intellectual property protection center provides pre-examination of patent applications for the recorded local entities, and the CNIPA will accelerate the examination of patents applications that have passed the pre-examination in each local intellectual property protection center, thereby significantly shorten the patent examination term.

The pre-examination requirements in the industrial technology field are different in each local intellectual property protection center. There are more than 30 intellectual property protection centers nationwide, covering intellectual manufacturing equipment, energy saving and environmental protection, new generation information technology, new materials, biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, internet technology, optoelectronic information industry, batteries, medical equipment, mechanical equipment manufacturing, robots and intelligent hardware, etc..

The pre-examination of patents will significantly shorten the patent application examination term. At the same time, through the pre-examination, the local intellectual property protection centers will conduct professional examinations on the patent applications and provide revision guidance, thereby helping to improve the quality of patent applications and granting rates.

Patent rapid pre-examination process:
(1) Entity recording: entity in the area where the Intellectual Property Protection Center locates, and belong to the designated technical field should be recorded;
(2) Patent pre-examination: prepare and submit documents through the registered platform;
(3) Formally submit the application documents: after the preliminary examination, the patent application is formally submitted to the CNIPA, and the patent enters the fast-track examination channel.

Situations of patent application for which the rapid pre-examination can be applied:
(1) Chinese patent application for invention during the substantial examination procedures;
(2) Chinese patent applications for utility model and design;
(3) Should not be one of the following situations: i) International patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT); ii) Chinese national phase entry application of the PCT international applications; iii) The utility model patents and invention patents applied by the same applicant for the same invention-creation on the same day; iv) Applications that require confidentiality examination; v) Divisional application; vi) Low quality application; vii) Involving national security or major interests; viii) Other circumstances stipulated by laws and regulations.

The requirements for rapid pre-examination:
(1) The entities should be the recorded entity which was recorded within the prescribed time limit;
(2) The application filed should belong to the field approved by the CNIPA.
As according to the regulations of each local intellectual property protection center, the recorded entities normally should be the enterprises and institutions registered within the corresponding administrative region, the rapid pre-examination procedure is not applicable to the foreign applicants outside of China.

Duration:
The time from the receipt of a request for rapid pre-examination to make a final decision for invention application is within about three to six months, for utility model application is within about two months and for design application is within about one month.

In summary, the Prioritized Examination, Rapid pre-examination and PPH request are effective ways for applicants to obtain a patent in a significantly shortened period. The applicants may choose the best way according to the actual situation of their cases.

References:
http://www.cnipa.gov.cn/zcfg/zcfgflfg/flfgzl/zlbmgz/1020137.htm