Since the establishment of the National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA, established in 1980, also known as the “Chinese Patent Office” in its early days), the Patent Documentation Department has been allocated with the responsibility of the collection, management, and research of patent documentations，as well as to provide patent documentation services. The department has long carried the mission of “the Support of Examination, Service to Society, and the Promotion of Innovation,” and has played an important role in building China into an innovation-oriented country.

The Patent Documentation Department has been involved in the building of CNIPA’s information resources, and thus CNIPA became a storage and service center for patent documents. As of 2015, the department has collected patent records and abstracts from 104 countries (regions) or organizations, images from 103 countries (regions) or organizations, and texts from 33 countries (regions) or organizations. Among them, the number of documentation on Chinese patents has surpassed 15 million. Apart from patent documentation, the department is also equipped with more than a hundred of non-patent electric resources, among which online database is the primary form. The electric resources have covered areas ranging from chemical materials, biological medicine, electricity and communication, to machinery, physics, photo electricity, and law. The types of documentation include e-journals, e-books, theses, conference papers, standards, and newspapers. There are also two libraries: the Science and Technology Library and the Intellectual Property Library. They have each collected more than 20 thousand books and over a thousand journals.

The Patent Documentation Department is also responsible for providing guidance in spreading and utilizing patent information nationwide. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, 31 cities and provinces received such guidance. As of 2015, the department has established pilot units at about a hundred enterprises to conduct patent information services and to explore how patent information can benefit the operation of an enterprise. In the meantime, the department has finished more than 20 projects of patent information analysis and information mining of key enterprises, contributing to the economic and technological development. In respect to personnel, the department has recruited a total of 105 leading talents and 296 teaching talents in the field of patent information around the nation. Since 2014, in addition to the traditional off-line training activities, the department has also conducted complementary online activities for patent information utilization. 2015 alone has witnessed 46 trainings, with more than 4,700 trainees participating in them.