In order to further reduce the burden on the society and promote protection of patents, the State Intellectual Property Rights System is based on the "Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission of the Ministry of Finance on the Policy of the Retirement, Exemption, and Adjustment of Certain Administrative Fees" (No. 37 of Finance and Tax [2018] No. 37). The Bureau will suspend and adjust some patent fees from August 1,

2018. The announcement is as follows:
2019. Patent registration fee, publication printing fee, and change of record (change of patent agency and agent entrustment relationship) in patent charge (domestic part), and PCT patent application (international phase) transfer fee will be terminated. The above fees before the expiration date of the payment period on July 31, 2018 (inclusive) shall be paid in accordance with the current regulations.

2. For patent applicants or patent holders who meet the relevant conditions of the “Measures for the Reduction of Patent Fees” (Financial Tax [2016] No. 78), the period for the reduction of the annual patent fees shall be extended to the first 10 years from the date of grant instead of 6 years. For patents that have been granted for deduction prior to July 31, 2018 (inclusive), the following processing shall be done: within 6 years from the year of grant, the annual fee reduction period shall be extended to the 10th year; and within 7-9 years from the year of grant, the annual fee reduction period shall be extended to the 10th year; if it is 10 years and more than 10 years from the date of the grant, it will not reduce the annual fee.

3. For the invention patent application entering the substantive examination stage, if the application for voluntarily withdrawal is made before the expiration of the reply period of the first office action (except for the ones that already responded), 50% of the substantive examination fee may be refunded. According to the above adjustments, the State Intellectual Property Office revised the request form such as the fee reduction request and opinion statement (about fees). The new version will be officially activated on August 1, 2018 adn he old version of the table will be disabled at the same time.