Pursuant to the Notice on Further Promoting the Use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Format for Submitting Electronic Patent Application Documents issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) starting from October 1, 2025, the CNIPA will actively promote the use of XML format when submitting patent application documents, with the goal of improving the efficiency of both application processing and substantive examination. The key points are as follows:

(1) For patent applications with a filing date on or after October 1, 2025, if the applicant requests prioritized examination, accelerated examination, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), deferred examination, or centralized examination, the application must be submitted electronically in XML format.

In 2026, the CNIPA’s systems will be gradually upgraded to accept patent electronic application documents only in XML format.

(2) The aforementioned electronic patent application documents include include, for invention patents, utility models, and design patents: the request form, claims, description, drawings accompanying the description, abstract, design drawings, brief description, and any modified or replacement documents. This also applies to Chinese national phase entry of PCT applications, as well as requests for reexamination and invalidation.

(3) If an applicant fails to submit electronic patent application documents in XML format, or submits amended/substituted documents in a non-XML format afterward, it shall be deemed that the applicant has voluntarily waived the right to enjoy the relevant examination policies. Supporting documents, amendment comparison pages, sequence listings, and other documents submitted together with the application documents (which are not specified in Article 2 of this Notice) may continue to be submitted in electronic file formats acceptable to CNIPA.

(4) To facilitate compliance, the “Tools Download” section of the CNIPA Patent E-filing System provides the data standard specifications for patent e-filing, XML format conversion tools, and user manuals.

Applicants and agencies may create XML format files using the CNIPA’s provided conversion tool or the file editing function within the E-filing System, or use third-party software that generates XML files conforming to the CNIPA’s data standards.

(5) Applicants and agencies shall fulfill their necessary obligation of proofreading to ensure the accuracy of the content of the submitted patent application documents.

Recommendation:

Given the above, and in order to ensure that applicants can continue to enjoy the right to "request priority examination, accelerated examination, Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), deferred examination, and centralized examination" for patents, we recommend that for patent applications filed on or after October 1, 2025, electronic patent application documents should be submitted in XML format by default. Meanwhile, the XML format may increase the number of pages of application documents; to save on any excess page fees, we also recommend that applicants submit as many finalized Chinese applications as possible before October 1, 2025.

Important note:

Due to possible uncertainties and additional workload caused by the conversion process in the official system, there are certain unknown risks associated with XML submissions. Therefore, we strongly recommend filing as many patent electronic applications as possible before October 1, 2025, to ensure file stability while still securing the rights mentioned in Item (1) above.

Should you have any questions or require further clarification, please feel free to contact the Patent workflow Team of Chang Tsi & Partners.