Patent Amendments ©(Part II of II)

The Greater China IP Updates ĄV June 2025

By Lyndon

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CNIPA Holds Open Day

On April 25th, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) held its Open Day event for the 20th consecutive year. CNIPA Commissioner Shen Changyu highlighted the marked improvement in the quality and quantity of IP creation, stricter protection, accelerated benefits from IP application, and deeper international cooperation. The number of valid domestic invention patents reached 4.756 million, and the number of valid registered trademarks hit 47.62 million. Public satisfaction with IP protection rose to 82.36 points, setting a new record. For the first time, a comprehensive review and value analysis of 1.349 million existing patents from over 2,700 universities and research institutions across the country were completed, with precise connections established with 450,000 enterprises. In the 2024 Global Innovation Index report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China’s ranking rose to 11th, with 26 of the world’s top 100 technology clusters being based in China, maintaining the top spot for two consecutive years.

Use of Generative AI in Drafting Patent Application Documents Submitted for Pre-Examination Banned by China

On June 4, 2025, Nanjing’s Intellectual Property Protection Center (NIPPC) announced it would ban the use of AI in drafting patent application documents submitted for pre-examination. In China, the pre-examination system enables applicants to submit patent applications to a regional office for an initial examination and potentially receive expedited examination at China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) if certain conditions are met. The NIPPC stated that it was determined that relevant content of some patent applications was directly generated by artificial intelligence. The NIPPC stated that it is strictly prohibited to use AI generated content directly in patent application documents. Such documents must be manually written, drawn, edited, and organized by the applicant or the authorized patent agency based on real inventions, research results and related materials. Furthermore, using AI to generate research and development evidentiary materials, including experimental data reports, technical research and development documents, scientific research achievement explanations are strictly prohibited. R & D certification materials should be generated by real R & D activities and have verifiability and traceability. The NIPPC said that they will use various methods to verify the application documents and research and development certification materials, including but not limited to: using professional text detection tools to analyze the originality of the content; organizing review experts to evaluate the rationality, logic, and professionalism of the documents; requiring the applicant to explain, clarify or provide further supporting materials for the key content in the document.

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