Hong Kong applicants can now request expedited review

Hong Kong applicants can now request expedited review

Hong Kong permanent residents, companies and other legal entities and organizations can now apply to the Guangzhou or Shenzhen representative offices of the China National Intellectual Property Office for expedited review of eligible patent applications filed in China. To qualify for expedited examination, a patent application must:

• Invention patent applications under substantive examination;
• Technical fields include: energy conservation and environmental protection, new generation IT, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing and other national key industries; as well as fields involving the Internet, big data, cloud computing and related technologies.

In 2021, the average review time for invention patent applications in China is 18.5 months. Expedited examination helps shorten the examination time by approximately 6 months and promotes faster protection of inventions.