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Announcement on the Suspended Collection and Adjustment of Some Patent Charges
To further ease the social burden and promote patent invention and protection, according to the “Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Policies Related to Suspension, Exemption and Adjustment of Some Administrative Service Charges” (Document Caishui [2018] No. 37), the State Intellectual Property Office will suspend and adjust some patent charges from August 1, 2018. The announcement is as follows:
1. Suspended are the registration fee for granting patent right, the printing fee for the announcement of the grant, the fee for a change in the bibliographic data (changes of patent agency and agent entrustment relationship) in the patent charges (in China), and the transfer fee in the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent application fee (in the international stage). The above fees, of which the time limit for payment expires before July 31, 2018 (inclusive), shall be paid in accordance with the current regulations.
2. For patent applicants or patentees eligible for the “Measures for the Reduction of the Payment of Patent Fees” (Document Caishui [2016] No. 78), the time limit for reduction of the annual patent fees shall be extended from 6 years to 10 years from the year when the patent was granted. Patents approved to be reduced in fees before July 31, 2018 (inclusive) shall obey the following: regarding a patent within 6 years since the year when it was granted, the time limit for reducing annual fees shall be extended to 10 years; regarding a patent for 7-9 years since the year it was granted, the annual fee is continued to be reduced from the next year until 10 years; regarding a patent within 10 years or more since the year it was granted, no annual fee is reduced.
3. As to a patent application for invention entering the substantive examination stage, if it is initiatively required to be withdrawn before the expiration of the time limit for response to the first Office Action (except for the situation that opinions of statement have been submitted), 50% of the substantive examination fee for the patent application may be refunded.
In accordance with the above adjustment, the State Intellectual Property Office has revised the request forms such as the fee reduction request and the opinions of statement (about fees). New forms will be put into formal use on August 1, 2018 (Table 1, Table 2), while the old versions are disabled.
Hereby notice.
The State Intellectual Property Office
June 15, 2018
