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How to Write a Chinese Patent Application

This page translates the official Chinese requirements (CNIPA “专利申请相关事项介绍” + Implementing Regulations Arts. 20–32) into a practical drafting guide. For the legal framework (classes, criteria, exclusions, procedure), see chinese-patent-system.

Required Documents per Class (Art. 26, 27; CNIPA 2020 guidance)

ClassRequired documents
Invention (发明专利)Request (请求书), specification (说明书) — incl. sequence listing where relevant, abstract (说明书摘要) (abstract figure only if needed), claims (权利要求书), drawings (说明书附图) if needed; genetic-resource source disclosure where applicable
Utility model (实用新型)Request, specification, abstract + abstract figure (摘要附图), claims, drawings — drawings mandatory (shape/structure must be shown); same-day invention/UM declaration if applicable (Art. 9 + Regs. 47)
Design (外观设计)Request, pictures or photographs (colour pictures if colour protection sought), brief description (简要说明)

CNIPA mandates its own standard forms (downloadable from cnipa.gov.cn/col/col192), one form per application. Official drafting-example .doc templates exist for utility model and design applications.1

Formal Requirements (CNIPA 2020 guidance)

  • All text in Chinese; standard technical terms per national standards; foreign names/terms keep the original. All documents in A4 (210×297 mm), single-sided, portrait; margins 25 mm left/top, 15 mm right/bottom; text left-to-right.
  • Type/print in 宋体/仿宋/楷体 (Song/FangSong/Kai), black ink, character height 3.5–4.5 mm, line spacing 2.5–3.5 mm; page numbers in Arabic numerals per part.
  • Drawings: uniform, clear lines, no alterations, no engineering blueprints.
  • Order of invention/UM documents: request → abstract → abstract figure → claims → specification → drawings. Design: request → pictures/photos → brief description.1

Specification (说明书) — Art. 26.3 + Regs. Art. 20

The specification must describe the invention clearly and completely so that a person skilled in the art can carry it out (enablement). Named parts (translated):

  1. Title (发明名称) — identical to the request; well within 25 Chinese characters (Guidelines).
  2. Technical field (技术领域) — the field of the claimed technical solution.
  3. Background (背景技术) — prior art useful for understanding/retrieval; cite reference documents where possible.
  4. Contents of the invention (发明内容) — the technical problem to be solved, the technical solution, and the beneficial effects compared with the prior art.
  5. Description of drawings (附图说明) — short description of each figure.
  6. Detailed description / embodiments (具体实施方式) — the implementation details, usually with working examples.

The 2025 Guidelines amendment tightens enablement for AI/algorithm inventions: for model-based claims the spec should describe the model’s modules, layers or connections, the concrete training steps and parameters; for domain applications, how the model/algorithm combines with the specific field, and how inputs/outputs are set (Guidelines Part II Ch. 9 §6.3.1). Negative example (Ex. 21): a face+blood-test cancer-prediction model was rejected under Art. 26.3 because the spec never established the causal link or validation data.2

Claims (权利要求书) — Arts. 26.4, 31 + Regs. Arts. 22–25

  • Claims state the technical features (Regs. Art. 22); Arabic-numbered; terminology consistent with the specification; no illustrations; no “as described in … part of the specification” or “as shown in Fig. …” unless absolutely necessary; reference signs allowed in parentheses and never limit the claim (Regs. Art. 22).
  • Independent claim (Regs. Art. 23): reflects the whole technical solution, records the necessary technical features for solving the technical problem. Only one independent claim per invention in each category (Regs. Art. 23.4).
  • Two-part form of the independent claim (Regs. Art. 24) — the Chinese two-part structure:
    • Pre-characterizing part (前序部分): the subject name + features shared with the closest prior art.
    • Characterizing part (特征部分): starts with “其特征在于…” (“characterised in that…”) and states the features that distinguish it from the closest prior art.
  • Dependent claim (Regs. Art. 25): citation part (number + subject name) + limiting part (additional features). A dependent claim may only cite earlier claims; a multiple dependent claim must cite alternatives only (择一方式 — e.g. “according to claim 1 or 2”) and cannot itself be the basis of another multiple dependent claim.
  • Claims must be supported by the description and define scope clearly and concisely (Art. 26.4); one application = one general inventive concept (unity, Art. 31).
  • 2025 rule: features that contribute to inventiveness (unexpected technical effects, overcoming technical prejudice) must appear in the claims; features not contributing to solving the technical problem won’t count (Guidelines Part II Ch. 4 §6.4).2

Abstract (说明书摘要) — Regs. Art. 26 + Guidelines

  • Contents: name, technical field, technical problem, key points of the solution, main use — solution oriented.
  • ≤300 characters including punctuation; no commercial/advertising language; reference signs in parentheses.
  • If there are drawings: designate one abstract figure (in the request, or chosen by examiner) that best reflects the technical features; it must stay legible at 4×6 cm.3

Drawings (附图) — Regs. Art. 21

Figures numbered 图1, 图2, …; every reference sign in the text must appear in the drawings and vice versa; the same component keeps the same reference sign across the whole application; no annotations beyond necessary words. (The Hefei UT AR-HMD example below shows the classic numbered parts (1), (2), (3)….)

Design Application — Regs. Arts. 30–32

  • Submit views/photographs for each product needing protection; partial design (局部外观设计) protection on whole-product views with dashed + solid lines marking the protected part (a 2020-amendment innovation); colour pictures if colour protection is sought.
  • Brief description (简要说明): product name, purpose, design key points (设计要点), and one designated view best showing those points; state omitted views or colour protection; multiple similar designs → designate a basic design; no commercial language and no product-performance claims.
  • CNIPA may require a sample/model — ≤30×30 ×30 cm and ≤15 kg.

Practical Checklist (esp. BCI / AR / vision devices)

  1. Pick the class: method-heavy → invention; product-only shape/structure → utility model (fast, cheap, but needs same-day invention plan for methods); appearance → design.
  2. Frame medical/neural claims as systems, devices, signal-processing methods, control methods, storage media — never as diagnosis/treatment methods (Art. 25(3)).
  3. For algorithm/AI claims, tie the algorithm to technical features solving a technical problem (Guidelines Ch. 9 §6); describe model architecture/training/parameters (enablement, §6.3.1).
  4. Draft the independent claim in two-part form; put the distinguishing features in the “其特征在于” part; keep one independent claim per category.
  5. Include claims for computer-readable storage medium (and transmission/storage methods for bit-stream inventions) — recognised allowable formats (Ch. 9 §7).
  6. Abstract ≤300 chars; specify the abstract figure; A4 formatting rules; use CNIPA standard forms.
  7. File invention + UM on the same day if you want fast preliminary protection (Art. 9).

Example Published Applications (BCI & AR) — PDFs in raw/patents/

These four published Chinese patent applications illustrate the drafting rules; full texts on Google Patents:

  1. CN105549743A — 一种基于脑-机接口的机器人系统及实现方法 — Tsinghua University + Institute of Biomedical Engineering, CAMS & PUMC; filed 2016-01-18. SSVEP-based BCI controlling a robot in 8 directions; method claims show the detailed classification pipeline (250 Hz downsampling, multi-band filtering 7–70 Hz etc., canonical-correlation decoding, weights) with dependent claims 7–10 adding flicker frequencies (12/15/13 Hz…) — a model of layered method claims. https://patents.google.com/patent/CN105549743A/zh
  2. CN114698389A — 脑机接口 — Snap Inc; filed 2020-07-31. Adaptive calibration of neural-response models to visual stimuli; shows system claims and a computer-readable storage medium claim 17 (the Ch. 9 §7 pattern). https://patents.google.com/patent/CN114698389A/zh
  3. CN116485929A — 增强现实系统和操作增强现实系统的方法 — Magic Leap Inc; filed 2017-03-15. AR method/system combining direct-light capture, overlap-region colour features and interference data; 20 claims with fine-grained dependent claims (pixel values, RGB vectors). https://patents.google.com/patent/CN116485929A/zh
  4. CN101661163A — 增强现实系统的立体头盔显示器 — Hefei University of Technology; filed 2009-09-27. An early Chinese academic AR patent whose claim 1 is a textbook two-part independent claim (”…，其特征在于：…”) with reference numerals (1)(2)(3)…, plus dependent claims citing it (“根据权利要求1所述的…，其特征是…”). https://patents.google.com/patent/CN101661163A/zh

References

  • CNIPA (2020-06-05): 专利申请相关事项介绍. 1
  • CNIPA (2023-12-21): Implementing Regulations (2023), Arts. 20–32. 3
  • CNIPA English translation: Patent Law (2020), Arts. 26–31. 4
  • MOJ (2025-11-10): CNIPA Guidelines amendment decision. 2
  • Google Patents pages for the four example applications (as above).

Footnotes

  1. raw/articles/cnipa-application-documents-2020.md ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. raw/articles/cnipa-guidelines-amendment-decision-nov2025.md ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. raw/articles/cnipa-implementing-regulations-2023-chinese.md ↩ ↩2

  4. raw/articles/cnipa-patent-law-english-translation.md ↩

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