Under paragraph one of Article 2 of the Measures for Regulating Patent Application Acts (i.e. the CNIPA Announcement No. 411), "the abnormal patent application acts referred to in these Measures shall refer to acts by any entity or individual filing various types of patent applications alone or in collusion, representing others in applying for patents, and transferring patent applications or patents, not for the purpose of protecting innovation, not on the basis of real invention and creation activities, and to obtain improper interests, or to fabricate innovation performance and service performance records".

The promulgated Guidelines for Determination of Abnormal Patent Application Acts and Post-Determination Procedures, which are meant to standardize the circumstances of abnormal patent application acts determination, to set forth the procedures for investigating and handling such acts, and to lay out the operating procedures, have provided the legal bases and operational guidelines for determining and handling abnormal patent application acts.