On 12 September 2024, a Letter of Intent for Cooperation was signed between the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) with the aim of accelerating patent examinations. In line with this letter of intent, under the pilot program implemented within the framework of the Belt and Road Intellectual Property Cooperation (BRIPC), CNIPA will provide an accelerated examination service for files entering the Chinese national phase—including applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)—for which TÜRKPATENT is the office of first filing.
The main purpose of the pilot program is to enable an applicant, where TÜRKPATENT has determined one or more claims in an application to be patentable/allowable, to request accelerated examination from CNIPA for the corresponding application in China. Such applications will be processed on a priority basis before CNIPA. Under the program, a maximum of 100 applications per year will be accepted from TÜRKPATENT. The pilot will end on 19 January 2027, after which the continuation or termination of the program will be reassessed.
Requirements
Applicants may request accelerated examination by meeting the following conditions. No additional official fee is required for this request:
– All claims in the Chinese application must sufficiently correspond to one or more of the claims found patentable or allowable in Turkey.
– After the accelerated examination request is accepted, all amendments and additions made before CNIPA issues its first office action must be consistent with the claims found patentable in Turkey.
– The applicant must have received a publication notice for the Chinese file.
– The Chinese application must have entered the substantive examination stage.
– No office action must yet have been issued for the Chinese file.
– The application must have been filed electronically.
Documents to Be Submitted
The following documents must be submitted together with the accelerated examination request:
– Copies and translations of all substantive examination office actions issued by TÜRKPATENT.
– Copies and translations of the claims determined to be patentable by TÜRKPATENT.
– Copies of the prior-art documents cited by TÜRKPATENT.
Accelerated Examination Request Procedure
CNIPA reviews the request file and its annexes to assess whether the application is eligible for accelerated processing. If a deficiency is identified in the request, the applicant is given a one-time opportunity to remedy it. If the deficiencies cannot be remedied, the request is rejected; however, the applicant may submit a new request once more. If the second request is also rejected, the file is placed in the normal processing queue and becomes subject to standard procedures.