CNIPA further clarifies how it counts “delays” when calculating Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) in the new Draft Examination Guidelines and how it affects international applicants

At the end of October 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a new draft amendment of the Patent Examination Guidelines[1] (hereinafter referred to as the “New Draft”) to the new Chinese Patent Law that came into effect in 2021. We highlight two key amendments below. 1. The starting date for calculating PTA (the “date of requesting for substantive examination”) has been amended from the date when the CNIPA issues a “Notice of Entering the Examination Stage” after receiving the substantive examination request to the date on which the substantive examination request is filed AND the examination fee is paid in full in accordance with Rule 113 of…