At the thirteenth meeting of China-European Commissions held by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the European Patent Office (EPO), the two parties reached a consensus on designating EPO as international searching authority for the international applications filed with CNIPA under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two offices under the PCT framework. The cooperation is expected to be implemented in 2020, and the international application filed in English will be piloted for two years.
At present, the applicant’s PCT case filed with CNIPA as the receiving office, whether it is filed in Chinese or English, the international search can only be performed by CNIPA.
This cooperation provides another option for applicants from China who intend to strengthen their international patent strategy. For applicants interested in accelerating PCT international applications, choosing the European Patent Office as the international searching authority will enable PCT applications to enter the European stage early, and can be directly examined without going through the European supplementary search, which can save nearly a year of time.
Released by TIPO
