Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced adjustments to some patent fee standards and payment reduction policies, and the announcement reads as follows:

I. When a patentee files a request for patent term compensation, payment of a patent term compensation request fee is required, which is set at 200 yuan per case. If the request for patent term compensation meets the term compensation conditions after review, the patentee shall pay the annual fee for the patent term compensation, which is set at 8,000 yuan per case per year. No fee will be charged for periods of less than a year.

II. During the implementation period of open-licensing for patents, the annual maintenance fee for the patent will be reduced by 15 percent. If other patent fee reduction policies also apply, the patentee may choose the most favorable policy but cannot benefit from multiple reductions simultaneously.

III. For international design applications entering China through the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registrations of Industrial Designs, the fees paid for the first and second phases of designations may be reduced in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China.

IV. If the name or title of the applicant (or the patentee) is changed through the batch requests of change of bibliographic data, and no transfer of rights is involved, the fee shall be paid for one change.

V. International patent applications (PCT applications), received and subjected to international searches by the CNIPA (as the Receiving Office), are exempted from the application fees and additional fees for application when entering the national phase in China. For PCT applications where the CNIPA has issued the international search reports or the international preliminary reports on patentability, the fees for substantive examination shall be exempted when entering the national phase in China and requesting substantive examination. Other fee standards for PCT applications entering the national phase in China shall follow the domestic fee standards.

VI. Fees collected by the CNIPA on behalf of institutions such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other countries and regions will be charged and reduced in accordance with the agreements between the CNIPA and the above institutions, countries and regions or the relevant international treaties.

(Source: website of the CNIPA)