What are the Beijing Intellectual Property Funding Management Measures? Beijing Intellectual Property Funding Management Measures Review

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 These Measures are formulated in accordance with the laws, regulations and relevant documents to implement the spirit of the Several Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Powerful Intellectual Property Nation under the New Situation and other relevant documents, accelerate the construction of an international science and technology innovation center, assist Beijing in high-quality development, encourage inventions and creations, play a leading role in brands, and improve the management level and utilization efficiency of our city's intellectual property grants (hereinafter referred to as "grants").

Article 2 The grants referred to in these Measures refer to funds arranged from the municipal fiscal budget and mainly used to support the city's patent and trademark related activities.

Article 3 The use of grants shall adhere to the principles of "quality first, key support, total quantity control, and partial funding".

Chapter II Institutional Responsibilities

Article 4 The Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter referred to as the “Municipal Intellectual Property Office”) is the competent authority for grants and is responsible for the implementation of these Measures, organizing the review and evaluation of grant applications, and conducting annual performance appraisals on the implementation of grants.

Article 5 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall formulate and publish application guidelines for the implementation of these Measures every year to guide relevant units in the application, review and issuance of grants.

Chapter III Funding Scope and Standards

Article 6 The scope of funding for the grant includes:

(1) Domestic invention patents;

(ii) Invention (standard) patents in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan;

(3) foreign invention patents;

(iv) foreign registered trademarks;

(5) Others in need of funding.

Article 7 The applicant for grants refers to an entity registered or registered in this city. For patents and trademarks involving multiple rights holders, the first patentee or the representative of the common trademark shall be the applicant for grants; for foreign patents that do not distinguish the order of rights holders, the first applicant at the time of patent application shall be the applicant for grants.

Article 8 Priority funding will be given to those who meet any of the following conditions:

(1) Patents in the technical field of the city's top ten high-tech industries;

(2) Patents and registered trademarks of national intellectual property demonstration and advantageous enterprises, Beijing intellectual property demonstration and pilot units, specialized, refined, special and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, small and micro-sized enterprises, and other units that need key support.

Article 9 After a domestic invention patent application is authorized, the funding for each application shall not exceed RMB 1,000.

After an invention (standard) patent application is submitted to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and is authorized (registered), the funding for each application shall not exceed RMB 1,000.

The first ten years of annual fees for domestic invention patents of specialized, sophisticated, innovative and new small and medium-sized enterprises will be subsidized according to the actual amount payable after enjoying the national reduction policy, and the subsidy amount shall not exceed 30% of the annual fee standard value. Specialized, sophisticated, innovative and new small and medium-sized enterprises are identified in accordance with the list of relevant national departments.

The annual amount of funding received by an applicant as stipulated in this article shall not exceed RMB 2 million.

Article 10 Applicants who obtain foreign invention patents shall be funded according to the following standards:

(1) For invention patents applied for through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and authorized by the United States, Japan or the European Patent Office, the funding for each country (region) shall not exceed RMB 50,000; for invention patents authorized in other countries (regions), the funding for each country (region) shall not exceed RMB 30,000.

For invention patents applied for through channels other than PCT and authorized by the United States, Japan or the European Patent Office, the funding for each country (region) shall not exceed RMB 40,000 per application; for invention patents authorized in other countries (regions), the funding for each application shall not exceed RMB 20,000 per application.

If a Chinese patent application is authorized after substantive examination in multiple countries (regions), each country (region) will only be funded once, with a maximum of 5 countries (regions) funded. Foreign invention patents that have not been substantively examined by the intellectual property department of the authorized country (region) will not be funded. The total amount of the above-mentioned funding received by the applicant per year shall not exceed RMB 20 million.

(2) Applicants who meet any of the following conditions may be granted additional financial assistance in addition to the financial assistance provided in Paragraph 1 of this Article:

1. For an enterprise with 2,000 PCT patent applications in the previous year and 1,000 invention patents authorized abroad in the current year, the funding shall not exceed RMB 5 million;

2. For an applicant who has applied for 500 PCT patents in the previous year and obtained 200 invention patents authorized abroad in the current year, the funding shall not exceed RMB 1 million;

3. For applicants with 100 PCT patent applications in the previous year and 50 invention patents authorized abroad in the current year, the funding shall not exceed RMB 500,000;

4. For applicants who applied for 50 PCT patents in the previous year and obtained 10 invention patents authorized abroad in the current year, the subsidy shall not exceed RMB 100,000;

5. For the first time to obtain invention patent authorization abroad through the PCT route, a one-time funding of "zero breakthrough" expenses shall not exceed RMB 50,000.

Article 11 Applicants who obtain foreign registered trademarks shall be funded according to the following standards:

For applications registered through the Madrid System in the European Union or the African Intellectual Property Organization, the funding for each application in each region shall not exceed RMB 8,000. For applications registered in other countries (regions), the funding for each application in each country (region) shall not exceed RMB 2,000 (Benelux is calculated as one country).

For registrations obtained in the European Union or the African Intellectual Property Organization through channels other than the Madrid System, the funding for each region shall not exceed RMB 10,000; for registrations obtained in other countries (regions), the funding for each country (region) shall not exceed RMB 5,000 (Benelux is calculated as one country).

If the same Chinese trademark is registered for multiple goods or service categories in multiple countries (regions), the registration in one category of one country (region) shall be regarded as one. The annual amount of funding provided for by the applicant under this article shall not exceed RMB 200,000.

Article 12 If the annual export value of intellectual property royalties exceeds RMB 50 million, the annual funding for each applicant shall not exceed RMB 200,000.

Article 13 No financial assistance will be granted to those who meet any of the following conditions:

(1) Patents that have been terminated or declared invalid, or patents or invalid trademarks that are in arrears of annual fee payment or in the process of suspension;

(2) Patents and trademarks that have received financial support from other municipal governments;

(3) Patents and trademarks involving ownership disputes;

(4) The first applicant at the time of patent application is not from this city;

(5) Applicants who have been included in the list of joint punishment for dishonesty;

(6) Other circumstances where financial assistance cannot be provided in accordance with laws and regulations.

Chapter 4: Application and Review

Article 14: Grant applications are submitted on a centralized basis each year. Applicants for grants must submit their applications in a timely manner in accordance with the application guidelines and notification requirements. Late applications will not be accepted.

Article 15 Applicants should apply for grants on their own in principle. Applicants can only apply once in each application period. Applicants who have entrusted an intellectual property service agency to apply for grants may not apply on their own again in the same application period.

Article 16 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office organizes the review of the grant application information submitted by the applicants. Applicants who are found to not meet the requirements after review should modify and correct the grant application information and materials in accordance with the relevant provisions of the application guide and resubmit them. If they fail to resubmit within the prescribed time limit or still do not meet the requirements after resubmission, they will be deemed to have waived the grant application.

Chapter V Funding Disbursement

Article 17 The list of approved grant recipients shall be published on the website of the Municipal Intellectual Property Office for a period of no less than 5 working days. After the publication period, grants will be granted based on the results of the publication without objection.

Article 18 The grants are issued through bank transfer. If the grant transfer fails due to incorrect bank account information provided by the applicant, the applicant will be deemed to have waived the grant and will be disqualified from the grant for the current application period.

Article 19 The issuance of grants is subject to special audits and performance evaluations by relevant departments to ensure that intellectual property funding work is standardized, safe and effective.

Chapter VI Management and Supervision

Article 20 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall track and manage the performance of grant projects and organize annual grant performance evaluations in accordance with relevant provisions on budget performance management.

Article 21 Applicants who have received grants should strengthen the management of the use of grants to ensure the effectiveness of the funds; at the same time, they should actively cooperate with the Municipal Intellectual Property Office to carry out special audits of grants and provide relevant materials in accordance with the audit requirements.

Article 22: If an applicant commits fraud in the process of applying for funding to obtain funds, he or she shall be required to return the allocated funds within a specified period of time and shall be disqualified from applying for funding within five years. If the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime, the case shall be transferred to judicial authorities for handling in accordance with the law.

Article 23 If an intellectual property service agency commits fraud in the process of applying for grants when being entrusted, its qualification to handle grants for the current year will be revoked; if it violates the laws and regulations on patent agency management, it will be investigated and dealt with by the municipal intellectual property administrative department; if it violates the law and should be held criminally liable, it will be transferred to the judicial authorities for handling in accordance with the law.

Article 24 The application, review and issuance of grants are subject to social supervision and public reports. If grant management personnel abuse their power, neglect their duties, practice favoritism and corruption, or commit other illegal or disciplinary violations, they shall be dealt with in accordance with relevant laws and regulations; if the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime, they shall be transferred to judicial organs for handling in accordance with the law.

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Article 25 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall be responsible for interpreting these Measures.

Article 26 This Measures shall come into force on May 1, 2021.