The Patent Examination Guidelines revised by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) in November 2025 has taken effect since January 1, 2026, bringing about several new changes to the filing of Chinese patent applications.

1. Citizenship of Inventors
At the filing of a Chinese patent application, the citizenship of all inventors shall be provided. For new applications filed through the CNIPA's e-filing system, the citizenship of all inventors is mandatory, and the application cannot be transmitted without this information.

2. ID Numbers of Chinese Inventors
If any inventor is Chinese, his Citizenship Identification Card Number (or other ID numbers, such as the passport number) will be also required. For new applications filed through the CNIPA's e-filing system, if an inventor's citizenship is entered as "China", the ID number field will become mandatory. If this info is not entered, the application cannot be transmitted; if the info is entered incorrectly, the CNIPA will issue a notification to request the applicant to make rectification.

3. Telephone Number of Chinese Applicants
Applicants with a nationality or registered place of business in China shall provide their telephone number. For new applications filed through the CNIPA's e-filing system, if the applicant's "nationality or country/region of registration" is entered as "China", the telephone number field becomes mandatory. This can be entered as a mobile phone number or in the format "area code + landline number". The application cannot be transmitted without this info.

It should be noted that the citizenship of inventors, inventors’ ID numbers, or applicants’ telephone numbers are not public information, and will not be disclosed in the publication documents or the CNIPA's online database.

4. Application Documents in XML Format
Following the upgrade of the CNIPA's e-filing system on January 1, 2026, new patent application documents filed through this system can only be submitted in XML format. Application documents in non-XML formats can no longer be submitted electronically.

Moreover, according to the "Notice on Further Promoting the Use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Format for Filing Electronic Patent Applications" issued by the CNIPA on May 20, 2025, if applicants submit application documents in paper form, they will be deemed to have automatically waived the right to benefit from special examination procedures such as prioritized examination, quick examination, Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), deferral of examination, and concentrated examination.

5. Official Fee for Excessive Specification
Because of changes in the formatting of XML documents from January 1, 2026, the number of pages occupied by the description with the same word count is generally reduced, which helps to lower the official excessive specification fee.

Furthermore, according to the newly revised Patent Examination Guidelines, for application filed on or after January 1, 2026, nucleotide or amino acid sequence listings submitted in ST. 26 format will no longer be counted in the page calculation for the excessive specification fee. In other words, applicants will no longer be required to pay excessive specification fees for sequence listings.