The State Intellectual Property Office ("SIPO") has recently issued the Announcement on Suspending the Collection of and Adjusting Some Patent Charges (the "Announcement").
According to the Announcement, the authority will stop the collection of the patent registration fee, the fee for printing announcements and the fee for alterations to bibliographic items (alterations in patent agents and entrustment to agents) among patent-related charges (domestic), as well as the transfer charges among PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent application fees (in the international phase). Meanwhile, the Announcement expressly states that where a patent applicant or a patent owner meets relevant criteria set out in the Measures for the Reduction of Patent Charges, the reduced payment of annual patent fees will apply for a period of ten years, prolonged from the previous six years, from the year the patent right is granted. Patents, for which it has been approved to make the reduced payment of patent fees on or before July 31, 2018, will be dealt with differently as follows. If the patent right has been granted for less than six years, the said period for reduced annual patent fees should be prolonged to the tenth year; if the patent right has been granted for a period ranging from seven to nine years, the reduced annual patent fees may continue to apply from the next year till the end of the tenth year; if it has been ten years or longer from the year in which the patent is granted, the annual patent fees will not be reduced any longer.