These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Deepening the Reform of Party and State Institutions, the Plan for Deepening the Reform of Party and State Institutions, and the Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council approved by the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), which were deliberated and adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) is a vice-ministerial-level state agency under the State Administration for Market Regulation of China.

The CNIPA shall implement the CPC Central Committee's principles, policies, decisions, and plans on work related to intellectual property, and uphold and strengthen the Party's centralized and unified leadership on work related to intellectual property when performing its duties. Its major responsibilities are as follows:

1. To formulate and implement the National Intellectual Property Strategy. The CNIPA shall formulate major principles, policies, and developmental plans on building China's intellectual property strength. It shall also formulate and implement management policies and systems to strengthen the creation, protection, and application of intellectual property rights (IPR).

2. To protect intellectual property and IPR.  The CNIPA shall formulate and organize the implementation of intellectual property systems to rigorously protect trademarks, patents, appellations of origin and geographical indications, and layout-design of integrated circuits, among others; organize the drafting of relevant laws and regulations, formulate departmental rules and regulations, and supervise the implementation; develop intellectual property protection, management and service policies that encourage innovation in new fields, new forms of business, and new models; develop and put forward programs to build an intellectual property protection system and organize its implementation for further improvement; The CNIPA is responsible for directing trademark and patent law enforcement, local intellectual property dispute handling, rights protection assistance, and dispute mediation.

3. To foster the use of intellectual property. The CNIPA shall formulate policies on the use of intellectual property and its standardized transactions to promote the transfer and commercialization of intellectual property. The CNIPA standardizes the evaluation of intangible assets of intellectual property; be responsible for work related to compulsory patent licensing; and formulates policies and measures for the development and supervision of intellectual property intermediary services.

4. Be responsible for the examination, registration, and administrative adjudication of intellectual property. The CNIPA carries out trademark registration, patent examination, and registration for layout designs of integrated circuit. It is responsible for the re-examination, invalidation, and other administrative adjudication of trademarks, patents, and layout designs of integrated circuit. It shall also formulate a unified identification system for appellations of origin and geographical indications and organize its implementation.

5. To create an intellectual property public service system. The CNIPA shall build a national public service platform for intellectual property information that is convenient for enterprises, beneficial to the people and interconnected, so as to promote the dissemination and utilization of intellectual property information such as trademarks and patents.

6. To coordinate foreign-related intellectual property affairs. The CNIPA shall formulate policies on foreign-related intellectual property work and carry out foreign-related intellectual property negotiations according to the division of labor. It also carries out international liaison, cooperation and exchange activities on work related to intellectual property.

7. To complete other tasks assigned by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

8. Functional shifts.

1). The CNIPA will further integrate resources, optimize processes, and effectively use information technology to shorten the IPR registration time, improve service facilitation, and enhance the quality and efficiency of examination.

2) The CNIPA will further relax the access to intellectual property services, expand the opening of the patent agency field, and ease the conditions for shareholders or partners of patent agencies.

3). The CNIPA will accelerate the building of a public service platform for intellectual property information to collect global intellectual property information, strengthen patent navigation in terms of industrial fields, provide convenient inquiry and consultation services for entrepreneurship and innovation, realize free or low-cost access to information, and raise the awareness of intellectual property protection and risk prevention across the whole society.

4). The CNIPA will strengthen the credit supervision of behaviors such as trademark squatting and abnormal patent application, standardize trademark registration and patent application, so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the obligee.

9. The breakdown of responsibilities.

1). The division of responsibilities with the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The CNIPA is responsible for the operational guidance of trademark and patent law enforcement, formulating and guiding the implementation of trademark rights, patent right confirmation and infringement judgment standards, formulating inspection, identification and other relevant standards for trademark and patent law enforcement, establishing mechanisms, and doing a good job in the convergence of policy standards and information notification. The SAMR is responsible for organizing and guiding the enforcement of trademarks and patents.

2). The division of responsibilities with MOFCOM. The CNIPA is responsible for coordinating foreign-related intellectual property affairs. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) is responsible for multilateral and bilateral intellectual property negotiations related to economy and trade, bilateral intellectual property cooperation consultation mechanism and coordination of domestic positions.

3). The division of responsibilities with National Copyright Administration Work related to copyright management shall be carried out in accordance with the regulations of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on copyright management functions.

The establishment, duties and staffing of institutions affiliated to the CNIPA shall be stipulated separately.

The State Commission Office of Public Sectors Reform (SCOPSR) shall be responsible for the interpretation of the Regulations, and its adjustment shall be handled by the SCOPSR in accordance with the prescribed procedures.

The Regulations shall come into force on August 1, 2018.