Beijing has set an ambitious deadline of 2030 to build what it describes as a world-class intellectual property examination institution capable of leading global capacity.
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration released a sweeping five-year roadmap on November 3, 2026, covering every major dimension of patent and trademark examination through the end of the decade.
The plan places artificial intelligence at the centre of operational reform, committing CNIPA to applying AI tools systematically across examination processes rather than selectively.
Quality rather than volume is the stated priority, with the administration signalling a deliberate shift in how examination performance will be measured and managed over the next four years.
The roadmap also takes direct aim at bad-faith trademark and patent filings, a persistent problem that has drawn criticism from foreign companies operating in the Chinese market.
International ambition runs throughout the document, with CNIPA committing to deeper participation in global governance and to helping shape the international rules that govern patent and trademark examination.
The plan specifically calls for leveraging the IP5 grouping, which brings together the five largest patent offices in China, the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea, as well as BRICS cooperation mechanisms.
Coverage extends to emerging and contested technical areas, including standard-essential patents, graphical user interfaces, and other digital subject matter within the design patent framework.
Trademark examination is addressed separately, with a stated goal of reorienting assessment work to actively support the development of strong Chinese brands rather than acting purely as a gatekeeping function.
The five guiding principles underpinning the plan are quality prioritisation, reform and innovation in examination rules, alignment of examination policy with industrial development, coordination across patent and trademark systems, and broad AI deployment.
CNIPA framed the plan as sitting within a longer arc of national policy, drawing its mandate from both the Outline for Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Nation covering 2021 to 2035 and the IP Protection and Utilization 15th Five-Year Plan.
Systemic coordination features prominently in the document, with CNIPA pledging to strengthen the joint advancement mechanism that links patent and trademark examination and to improve consistency in management across both functions.