The China National Intellectual Property Administration ("CNIPA") recently issued the Draft Revision of the Guidelines for Patent Examination (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek comments from all walks of life by September 22, 2021.

The Draft for Comment uses a comparison chart to showcase revisions, which include regulations pertaining to the improvement of the design system, the procedural regulations relating to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the patent term compensation regulations, the open patent licensing regulations, regulations on the review of patent invalidity cases under the early resolution mechanism for drug patent disputes, and regulations on response to emergencies such as epidemics. Among them, the Draft for Comment states that, the regulations on the review of patent invalidity cases under the early resolution mechanism for drug patent disputes specify the submission of requests and certification documents, the review sequence, the review basis, the review status, and the notice of case closure. Regulations pertaining to response to emergencies such as epidemics establish grace period exceptions to lack of novelty and an ex officio extension of the period.

(Source: China National Intellectual Property Administration)