As of July, Chinese patent documentation was officially incorporated in PCT minimum documentation and became part of the documentation that must be retrieved by PCT member countries in examining international patent applications. China becomes the 11th country whose patent documentation was included in PCT minimum documentation.
Due to the rapid increase of filing of Chinese application, by June 2012, there was already about 3,500,000 publications of invention patent. This has become one of the important parts of the global patent documentation. In addition, China improved its ability in processing the patent documentation and enhanced its services relating to patent information.
The fact that Chinese patent documentation officially became PCT minimum documentation will certainly promote the use of Chinese patent system, the implementation of national IPR strategy and national patent development strategy and eventually boost China’s development in science and technology and economy.
The request for incorporating into minimum PCT documentation was first raised in January 2011 by SIPO, and was approved at the PCT Union of the 49th Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO on September 29, 2011.