Patent Applicant:

Pursuant to Article 18 of the Chinese Patent Law, any foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization having no habitual residence or business office in China files an application for a patent in China, the application shall be treated under this Law in accordance with any agreement concluded between the country to which the applicant belongs and China, or in accordance with any international treaty to which both countries are party, or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity.

Appointment of Patent Agency:

Pursuant to Article 19 of the Chinese Patent Law, any foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization having no habitual residence or business office in China applies for a patent, or has other patent matters to attend to, in China, it or he shall appoint a legally incorporated patent agency to act as its or his agent.

Patent Application Documents:

(1) for invention, the request, the claims, the description, with accompanied drawings if appropriate, the abstract, and the drawing accompanying the abstract if appropriate; and

(2) for utility model, the request, the claims, the description, with accompanied drawings, the abstract, and the drawing accompanying the abstract;

(3) for design, the request, the pictures or photographs of the design, and brief explanation of the design.

Applicable Language:

Except for certificates or evidence materials provided by foreign government departments or created in foreign countries, the patent application documents and other documents shall be in Chinese. Application documents which are written in foreign language shall be translated into Chinese.

The Chinese text of the patent application submitted by the applicant shall be taken as the basis of examination. The foreign language text of the application submitted by the applicant at the time of filling the application shall have no legal effect.

Filing Fees and Payment:

In accordance with Rule 95, the applicant shall pay the filing fee, the printing fee for the publication of the application and the necessary additional fee for filing an application within two months from the filing date or fifteen days from the date of receipt of the notification of acceptance of the application from the patent administration department under the State Council. Where the applicant claims priority, he or it shall pay the fee for claiming priority at the same time with the payment of the filing fee.

The fees may be paid directly to the patent administration department under the State Council or paid by way of bank or postal remittance, or paid by way of online as electronic application user.