Zhihai Yida
Without a fee reduction in place, filing a patent can represent a considerable cost for small enterprises and individuals; applicants who meet the patent fee reduction requirements can cut these costs substantially. Where the fee reduction applies, the application fee, the substantive examination fee and part of the annual fees can be reduced by up to 85%.
Below is a summary of the record-filing procedure: (Enterprises that meet the fee reduction requirements may go on to file for the following year’s fee reduction on or after 1 October each year)
I. Eligibility requirements for the fee reduction
| Applicant type | Requirements | Reduction rate |
| Individual | Average monthly income for the previous year < RMB 5,000 (annual income < RMB 60,000) | 85% |
| Enterprise | Taxable income for the previous year < RMB 1,000,000 (or established less than one year ago) | 85% |
| Public institution / social organisation / non-profit research institution | A legal-person certificate is sufficient | 85% |
| Two or more joint applicants | Each applicant individually meets the above requirements | 70% |
II. Types of fees eligible for reduction
- Application fee (excluding the publication printing fee of RMB 50 and application surcharges)
- Annual fees (annual fees for the first 10 years counting from the year of grant; no reduction from the 11th year onwards)
- Reexamination fee
Fees that cannot be reduced: the publication printing fee, claim surcharges, description surcharges, the priority claim fee, the fee for recording a change of bibliographic data, the request fee for restoration of rights, the request fee for invalidation, and the like.
III. Documents required for the application
| Type | Documents required |
| Employed individual | ① Photographs of the front and back of the ID card ② Proof of the previous year’s income stamped by the employer (showing the name, ID number and an average monthly income <RMB 5,000) (bearing the company seal) ③ Salary transaction records + proof of social insurance contributions (recommended as attachments) |
| Student currently enrolled | Copy of the ID card + certificate of enrolment issued by the school / online student status verification report |
| No fixed employment | Certificate of financial hardship issued by the sub-district office or the township government of the place of household registration |
| Enterprise | ① Copy of the duplicate of the business licence bearing the company seal ② The previous year’s annual corporate income tax return (Form A main sheet + cover page / Form B main sheet), with the company seal on every page; enterprises established less than one year ago must submit a copy of the business licence together with a screenshot of the taxpayer basic information page on the tax authority’s website (both bearing the company seal) |
| Public institutions, etc. | Copy of the legal-person certification documents bearing the official seal |
Templates: an enterprise as the example
Enterprise; see item 5, taxable income
Business licence + all pages of Form A of the annual corporate income tax return, to be submitted together (every page bearing the company seal)
Newly established enterprises
Business licence + a screenshot of the taxpayer information enquiry page shown below, both bearing the company seal
IV. Submission system
Log in to the website https://cponline.cnipa.gov.cn. If you do not yet have an account, you must complete registration before you can use the system. Individuals must log in as a natural person, and enterprises must log in as a legal person. The fee reduction procedure is the same in both cases; the following takes an enterprise as the example.
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