Amendments to patent examination guidelines finalised

After six months of drafting and revisions, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the finalised version of the Guidelines for Patent Examination on 13 November 2025. These revisions will take effect on 1 January 2026.

The revised Guidelines include significant changes that will affect various aspects of patent prosecutions and patent enforcement going forward. We have already written specifically about the <changes to dual filing and those affecting AI & bitstream innovations. Below we cover the rest of the changes.

Changes related to procedural matters

1. Inventor identity information and patent agency responsibilities

• Identity information of all inventors instead of the first inventor as previously required shall be provided in the request form at the time of filing an application, including name, nationality, and ID card number if they are Chinese nationals. An inventor should be a natural person.