China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published the “Patent and Trademark Examination 15th Five-Year Plan” (专利和商标审查“十五五”规划) on November 3, 2026. The plan sets out goals, tasks, and specific projects for patent and trademark examination work covering the 2026-2030 period, and it was issued pursuant to two earlier policy documents: the Outline for Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Nation (2021-2035) and the IP Protection and Utilization 15th Five-Year Plan.
The plan states five guiding principles for examination work during this period: prioritizing quality, pursuing reform and innovation in examination rules and management, aligning examination policy with industrial development, coordinating patent and trademark examination systems, and applying artificial intelligence across examination processes. It sets a target that by 2030, CNIPA will have established an examination institution it describes as world-class, with improved examination quality, stronger support for development, deeper international cooperation, and leading examination capacity globally.
On patents, the plan calls for research into revisions to the Patent Law, its implementing regulations, and the Patent Examination Guidelines, including study of priority rights, grace periods for novelty, and deferred examination procedures, with reference to aligning with international agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a multilateral free trade agreement among eleven Pacific Rim economies that includes an intellectual property chapter. It calls for updated examination standards in emerging technology areas including artificial intelligence, big data, and gene technology, as well as standards for biobreeding, green and low-carbon technology, and traditional Chinese medicine. A dedicated section on emerging-field examination rules raises several specific AI-related questions for study: how to define the person skilled in the art and the scope of prior art for AI-assisted inventions, how to treat inventorship and patentability for AI-generated inventions, and whether to require disclosure of AI use in patent applications. The plan also references work on standard-essential patent examination and on protection of graphical user interfaces and other digital subject matter in design patents.
Under the section on examination management, the plan states that CNIPA will strengthen guidance from post-grant procedures such as reexamination back to initial examination, and will research providing pre-search reports for invention patent applications as a way to optimize the examination procedure. No further detail, timeline, or scope is given for this item in the text. The plan also calls for building what it terms “AI+” examination management mechanisms and for closer coordination between examination and industrial policy, including a mechanism for joint examination of major patent cases.
The plan addresses patent application quality, calling for enforcement of good-faith filing principles, continued identification and handling of applications found to violate that principle, and research into a pre-filing evaluation system centered on the commercialization prospects of an application. It also addresses quality management for reexamination and invalidation proceedings, utility model examination, and design patent examination under the Hague system, and calls for maintaining patent examination pendency at a level the plan describes as leading among major patent offices operating under comparable examination systems.
On trademarks, the plan calls for implementation of the revised Trademark Law and continued work on revising its implementing regulations. It calls for study of standards for new trademark types, reform of the internal examination sign-off process to improve consistency, expansion of fast-track and applicant-requested deferred examination options, and a pilot “AI plus big data” examination model. Several sections address bad-faith trademark registration, including monitoring of trademark agencies that represent applicants engaged in bad-faith filing, use of business registration data to identify such filings, and coordination between invalidation procedures and administrative enforcement. The plan also addresses examination standards for collective and certification trademarks based on geographical indications, including verification of historical records and standardization of geographical indication names and protected areas.
On international cooperation, the plan references continued participation in processes under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency based in Geneva that administers international IP treaties and systems including the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid System for trademarks. The plan also references the IP5, a cooperation framework among the five largest patent offices by filing volume, namely CNIPA, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), as well as cooperation under BRICS, an intergovernmental grouping originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa that has since expanded to include additional member states. The plan also references exchanges with Belt and Road partner countries, continued expansion of the Patent Prosecution Highway network, and support for Chinese applicants pursuing overseas patent and trademark protection.
The final sections of the plan address workforce development, including tiered training programs and the development of an AI technology and applications training system for examiners, and institutional safeguards including data security infrastructure and risk prevention mechanisms applicable to existing trademark registrations.
A translation of the plan follows. The original text is available here (Chinese only).
OK, please now provide an English translation of the Plan.
Patent and Trademark Examination 15th Five-Year Plan
To promote the high-quality development of patent and trademark examination work, this Plan is formulated in accordance with the “Outline for Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Nation (2021-2035)” and the “Intellectual Property Protection and Utilization 15th Five-Year Plan.”
I. General Requirements
Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and the plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on intellectual property work, firmly grasp the positioning as a political organ, economic department, and professional department, continue to deepen reform in the field of intellectual property, and use high-quality examination to better incentivize high-level scientific and technological innovation, better promote the building of a high-standard market system, and better serve high-level opening to the outside world, providing strong support for realizing Chinese-style modernization.
Quality must be treated as the top priority, with mechanism reform, technological change, and process transformation used to drive quality improvement, promoting effective quality improvement and reasonable quantity growth in patent and trademark examination work. Reform and innovation must be pursued, with examination systems, rules, and management systems improved to adapt to high-quality development. Service to development must be emphasized, strengthening coordination between examination policy and industrial development, supporting breakthroughs in core technologies, and helping to create a favorable business environment. Systemic coordination must be strengthened, reinforcing the coordinated advancement mechanism for patent and trademark examination, optimizing the patent and trademark examination policy system, and strengthening consistency in patent and trademark examination management. Technology empowerment must be emphasized, deepening the application of artificial intelligence technology, promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence with every stage of examination, and building a new model of human-machine collaborative intelligent examination.
By 2030, a first-class patent and trademark examination institution with Chinese characteristics and world standards will be basically established, the examination system will be increasingly refined, examination quality will be significantly improved, support for development will be more robust, international cooperation will continue to deepen, and examination capability will be globally leading.
II. Main Tasks for Patent Examination
(1) Continuously Improve Patent Examination Systems and Rules
Special Column 1: Emerging Field Patent Examination Rule Improvement Project
In response to development needs in emerging fields, continuously improve relevant patent examination rules. Research the definition of the person skilled in the art and the scope of prior art for AI-assisted inventions, the inventorship and patentability of AI-generated inventions, and a system of declarations regarding AI use in patent applications; revise the Patent Examination Guidelines and the (Trial) Guidelines for AI-Related Invention Patent Applications as appropriate. Improve examination policy for standard-essential patents, explore establishing examination mechanisms for standard-essential patents and other fields, and carry out pilot work in relevant fields. Research the construction of a specialized database of patents involving standards. Research design protection subject matter in digital fields such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and adjust graphical user interface submission rules as appropriate.
(2) Strengthen the Patent Examination Management System
(3) Comprehensively Improve Patent Examination Quality
Special Column 2: Patent Quality Coordinated Improvement Project
Strengthen coordinated development between patent examination and application agency, pre-examination protection, and transformation and utilization. Strengthen business exchange and case discussion with patent agencies to improve the professional competence of patent agents. Strengthen pre-examination quality management, standardize pre-examination standards, and establish a quality coordination and guarantee system; provide pre-examination business guidance and capability improvement, and support capacity building at national-level IP protection centers and rapid rights-protection centers. Increase punishment for patent filing behavior that violates the principle of good faith.
Special Column 3: Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Quality and Efficiency Improvement Project
Strengthen the business guidance and quality feedback from post-grant examination to first-instance examination, improve the guidance mechanism for typical reexamination and invalidation cases, fully leverage the key role of reexamination and invalidation business in the construction of examination standards, and improve the mechanism by which post-grant examination guides first-instance examination within the same field. Continue to strengthen regulation of behavior that abuses patent invalidation procedures. Do well in linking infringement determination business with patent validity confirmation. Improve the coordination mechanism between invalidation procedures and administrative rulings for early resolution of pharmaceutical patent disputes, as well as administrative rulings for major patent infringement disputes. Strengthen communication with judicial authorities. Deepen international exchange and cooperation in reexamination and invalidation business.
(4) Serve the Needs of Economic and Social Innovation and Development
III. Main Tasks for Trademark Examination
(5) Continuously Improve Trademark Examination Systems and Rules
(6) Strengthen Trademark Examination System Construction
(7) Improve the Quality and Efficiency of Trademark Examination
Special Column 4: Collective and Certification Trademark Examination Quality and Efficiency Improvement Project
Continuously improve examination standards for collective and certification trademarks, leverage the role of the collective and certification trademark systems, and build distinctive, competitive, and reputable industrial cluster brands and regional brands. Strictly examine geographical indications filed for registration as collective or certification trademarks, strengthen verification of historical records for geographical indications, standardize elements such as geographical indication names and the delineation of protected geographic areas, and promote coordination and unification with examination standards for geographical indication products.
Special Column 5: Trademark Examination Quality Improvement Project
Strengthen publicity on trademark legal knowledge and examination policy to guide high-quality trademark filing. Continuously optimize the full-business-process quality management mechanism, and promote the application of intelligent technology in quality management. Improve the examination quality supervision and evaluation system, and improve quality evaluation indicators. Further standardize the handling of examination quality complaints. Strengthen business interaction, quality feedback, and statistical analysis between front-end and back-end examination.
(8) Serve High-Quality Economic and Social Development
Special Column 6: Systemic Governance Project for Bad-Faith Trademark Registration Behavior
Explore coordinated governance paths between non-use-intent trademark applications and cancellation procedures. Improve the registration-application-intent commitment mechanism. Implement list-based monitoring and full-process attention for trademark agencies that know or should know that a trademark filing is in bad faith but continue to represent the applicant. Explore using business registration data to identify bad-faith filing actors. Increase regulation of behaviors such as bad-faith registration of trademarks with significant adverse effects, registration applications that clearly exceed normal business needs and are not intended for use, and use of registered trademarks in a misleading manner toward the public. Explore new governance paths for abuse of trademark rights and abuse of trademark examination procedures.
IV. International Cooperation in Patent and Trademark Examination Business
V. Patent and Trademark Examination Capacity Building
(9) Accelerate Talent Team and Examination Culture Development
(10) Systematically Improve Examination Support Capability
Special Column 7: “AI+” Examination Project
Establish a research mechanism for AI-assisted examination applications. Continuously track trends in AI technology development, promptly trial, verify, apply, and iterate new technologies, and standardize the guidance and encouragement of new technology implementation in the patent and trademark examination field. Strengthen AI talent team building, and promote deep collaboration between examination business experts and AI technology personnel.
VI. Safeguard Measures
Strengthen a work system of unified leadership, departmental coordination, and top-to-bottom linkage, clarify the primary responsibility of examination institutions at all levels, formulate annual work plans, and coordinate implementation of goals and tasks. Strengthen resource guarantees, and conduct regular evaluation and exchange. Establish a sound risk prevention and control mechanism, and strengthen risk prevention and control for existing trademark registrations. Build a solid information and data security defense, and strengthen the construction of a secure and reliable system and disaster-recovery capability. Strengthen interpretation of patent and trademark policy and legal education publicity, to raise public awareness and trust in examination work.
