On June 15, 2018, SIPO issued its No. 272 Announcement to announce that certain patent fees are to be terminated and adjusted as of August 1, 2018. For details, please refer to the following:
1. Fees to be terminated:
For domestic filings:
- patent registration fee
- patent publication and printing fee
- fee for recording the change of patent agency and/or patent agent(s)
For PCT International filings:
- the transmission fee for a PCT patent application
Note: any fees mentioned above that will be due before or on July 31, 2018 shall be paid according to the current rules.
2. Fees can be refunded
For invention patent application enters into the substantive examination procedure, the applicant could request SIPO to refund 50% of the substantive examination fee where the applicant apply to withdraw the patent application before the deadline for responding to the First Office Action and have not yet filed a response.
3. Annuity reduction extends to 10 years
For patentees who are qualified according to the Measures for the Reduction of Patent Fees, the period for annuity reduction extends from 6 years to 10 years, from granting.
For those have been or are to be approved before or on July 31, 2018:
- if the patent is in the 1st-6th year since being granted, the period of annuity reduction will be automatically extended to the 10th year reckoned from the year of being granted;
- if the patent is in the 7th to 9th year since being granted, the reduction will start to apply from the next annuity until the 10th year reckoned from the year of being granted; and
- if the patent has been granted for 10 or more years, no reduction is to be offered to the following annuities.
(Source：SIPO）
