CNIPA Issues 15th Five-Year Plan for Patent and Trademark Examination
CNIPA released its 15th Five-Year Plan, aiming for world-class examination standards by 2030 with focus on quality, AI integration, and international cooperation.
WISECODE Take
China's National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the '15th Five-Year Plan for Patent and Trademark Examination' on November 3, 2026. This signals a strategic shift from examination speed to strict quality control. With goals set for 2030 and the launch of the 'AI+' examination project, AI-assisted screening will significantly raise rejection rates for low-quality patents and bad-faith trademark registrations that relied on information asymmetry. Taiwanese companies with no operations in mainland China remain unaffected. However, for those expanding into China, rejection risks will rise. ZhiDian recommends utilizing patent portfolio health checks to evaluate specification quality early. To navigate stricter examinations, businesses should take two steps: first, audit existing Chinese patents to prune low-value cases; second, conduct thorough prior art searches before filing to prevent search vulnerabilities from being flagged by automated systems. While higher standards increase initial filing difficulty, they effectively eliminate malicious squatting, fostering a healthier IP environment for genuinely innovative enterprises.
Original sources
Compiled automatically by WISECODE IP Radar. Summaries are short source excerpts; commentary is AI-generated. See the source links for full text.
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