Announcement of State Intellectual Property Office

No.94
No.97
No.98

Announcement of State Intellectual Property Office

No. 98

In order to facilitate the public to understand the prescriptions concerning reduction, refund and exemption of fees for international applications (PCT applications), hereby we make the announcement on the related provisions of Article 15, 16, 57, 58 of Implementing Regulations of Patent Cooperation Treaty, the related provisions of WIPO as well as provisions in Section 8.2 Chapter 1, Part 3 of Guidelines for Patent Examination as follows.

I. Provisions on reduction, refund and exemption of fees for PCT applications in the international phase

The specific provisions on reduction, refund and exemption of fees for PCT applications received by SIPO in the international phase:

1. Any fee paid mistakenly or fee exceeding the amount payable in the international phase shall be refunded;

2. Before SIPO forwards the record copy to the International Bureau, where any following events happens, the search fee and international application fee paid shall be refunded:

(1) Where the PCT application has been withdrawn or be deemed to has been withdrawn;
(2) Where the application has not been treated as PCT application;

3. The application has no been accepted for state safety reasons, all the fees paid shall be refunded;

4. Before PCT Division under the Department of Preliminary Examination & Flow Management of SIPO sends international search report to the department of substantive examination responsible for international search, if the PCT application were withdrawn or deemed to have been withdrawn, the search fee paid shall be refunded.

5. Where the prior search results stipulated by PCT have been used fully or mostly in the international search, 75% of the search fee shall be refunded.

6. Before PCT Division under the Department of Preliminary Examination & Flow Management of SIPO sends the preliminary examination report to the department of substantive examination responsible for international preliminary examination, if the PCT application or the request for international preliminary examination were withdrawn or deemed to have been withdrawn, the preliminary examination fee paid shall be refunded.

7. Before SIPO forwards the request for international preliminary examination to the International Bureau, where the request were withdrawn or deemed not to have been filed, the formalities fee paid shall be refunded;

8. Where all the applicants of international application are natural persons whom are all Chinese nationals or nationals, or nationals, residents or legal persons belong to PCT member country conforming to the requirements of fees reduction listed by the International Bureau, 75% of international application fee and formalities fee shall be exempted.

9. Reduction of fees for international application filed in electronic form:

(1) where the request for international application is made by PCT-SAFE software, 612 Yuan shall be exempted from the international application fee;
(2) Where the request for international application is made by PCT-SAFE software, but the description, claims and abstract are made by non-character coding format( based on PDF format), 1224 Yuan shall be exempted from the international application fee;
(3) Where the request for international application is made by PCT-SAFE software, but the description, claims and abstract are made by character coding format (based on XML format), 1836 Yuan shall be exempted from the international application fee.

II. Provisions on reduction, refund and exemption of fees for PCT applications entering Chinese national phase

1. Where the PCT application enters Chinese national phase with SIPO as the receiving office, the application fee and additional fee for filing application (except for printing fee for publishing the application) shall be exempted.

2. Where SIPO has conducted international search and made the international search report, when the PCT application enters Chinese national phase and files request for substantive examination, 50% of the substantive examination fee shall be exempted.

3. Where the applicant filed request for international preliminary examination according to Chapter II of PCT and SIPO made international search report and international preliminary examination report, when the PCT application enters Chinese national phase and filed the request for substantive examination, the fee for substantive examination shall be exempted.

4. Where the international search report was made by European Patent Office, Japanese Patent Office or Sweden Patent Office, the three international search authorities, when the PCT application enters Chinese national phase and files the request for substantive examination, 20% of the fee for substantive examination shall be exempted.

State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China

February 3, 2004