To further ease the social burden and promote the patent protection, The State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China discontinue and adjust part of the patent cost from August 1st, 2018, in accordance with the spirit of Notification of discontinuing, exempting and adjusting administrative payment policy in The Ministry of Finance State Development and Reformation Commission (Treasury and Taxation (2018) No.37). Below is the specific information:

1. Discontinue patent cost (the domestic part) of the patent registration fee, printing fee for notification, switching cost for bibliographic data (change for the trust relationship between patent agency association and patent attorney), transfer fee of the PCT (Property Cooperation Treaty) Patent application fee (the international stage part). For the payment before July 31, 2018 (including) that is related to the above information, the cost should be paid in accordance with the original rule.

2. The patent applicant or patentee who accords with the condition of reducing patent fee method (Treasury and Taxation (2016) No.78), the deadline of reducing patent annual fee will be extended from within 6 years to within 10 years starting from the year of grant. For the patent for reducing fee before July 31, 2018 (including), process as follows: The deadline for reducing patent annual fee will be extended to within 10 years for the patent within less than 6 years from the date of grant; the deadline for reducing patent annual fee will be continuously extended to within 10 years for the patent within 7 to 9 years from the date of grant; the patent annual fee will not be reduced for the patent within 10 or more years from the date of grant.

3. For the patent application which has entered the substantive examination stage, the applicant can request the 50 percent of the patent application substantive examination refund, if the applicant requests for withdrawal spontaneously before the deadline of the first office action (except the response have been submitted).