What is the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Special Fund Management Measures? Guangzhou Intellectual Property Special Fund Management Measures Review

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 In order to implement the national intellectual property strategy and promote the comprehensive development of the intellectual property cause in our city, in accordance with the requirements of the Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the Notice of the State Intellectual Property Office on Issuing the Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Reform of "Delegation, Regulation and Service" in the Field of Intellectual Property to Create a Good Business Environment (Guozhifafuzi [2020] No. 1), the Decision of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government on Accelerating the Implementation of the Innovation-Driven Development Strategy (Suizi [2015] No. 4), and the Notice of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government on Issuing the Implementation Plan for Strengthening the Use and Protection of Intellectual Property to Promote Innovation-Driven Development in Guangzhou (Suifu [2017] No. 4), and in light of the actual situation of our city, a special fund for intellectual property work is established. These Measures are formulated to standardize the management of special funds.

Article 2 The special funds for intellectual property work (hereinafter referred to as special funds) mentioned in these Measures refer to the special funds arranged in the municipal fiscal budget to promote the creation, application, protection, management and service of intellectual property rights in our city and to promote the implementation of the intellectual property strategy, which are divided into funding and development funds. The budget for special funds shall be compiled together with the department budget of Guangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration (Intellectual Property Office) (hereinafter referred to as Municipal Intellectual Property Office).

Article 3 These Measures apply to the budget preparation, application review, fund allocation, mid-term inspection, project acceptance, supervision and management, performance evaluation and other work of special funds.

Article 4 The use and management of special funds shall adhere to the principles of "compliance with laws and regulations, openness and fairness, scientific allocation, standardized management, focus on performance, and strengthened supervision" to give full play to the guiding and driving role of financial funds.

Article 5 The performance target of the special funds is to implement the national intellectual property strategy in depth, promote innovation-driven development, and build a strong intellectual property city; to achieve comprehensive development of the city's intellectual property cause, improve the level of intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and services, and optimize the business environment.

Chapter II Division of Responsibilities

Article 6 The Municipal Finance Bureau shall review, approve and issue special fund budgets in accordance with relevant provisions of budget management, organize performance evaluations, and supervise the information disclosure of the management platform, etc.

Article 7 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office is fully responsible for the budget preparation and implementation of special funds, including: declaring special fund budgets and performance targets, and formulating detailed allocation plans; issuing application guidelines, and reviewing special fund projects; tracking and supervising project implementation, special fund execution, and the achievement of performance targets, and conducting mid-term inspections of special funds, project acceptance, special audits, performance evaluations, etc.; clearing special funds transferred to various districts; being responsible for the disclosure of special fund information; and other special fund management work.

Article 8 The District Finance Bureau is responsible for incorporating special funds from municipal transfer payments into the district budget's full-process standardized management and doing a good job of transfer and allocation; and accepting municipal supervision, inspection and performance evaluation.

Article 9 The District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau (Intellectual Property Bureau) and the Guangzhou Development Zone Intellectual Property Bureau (collectively referred to as the District Intellectual Property Bureau) are responsible for the budget implementation, project acceptance, recommendation and review, information disclosure, etc. of special funds; cooperate with the Municipal Intellectual Property Bureau to carry out mid-term inspections of special fund projects, project acceptance, special audits, performance evaluations, etc.; strengthen the management of special funds, and accept municipal-level supervision and inspection and performance evaluations.

Article 10 The entities and individuals that receive the funding, or the entities that undertake development fund projects, are responsible for the use of funds and project implementation, including strictly implementing the special fund budget, organizing project implementation, strengthening financial management, and accepting acceptance assessment, supervision and inspection, and performance evaluation.

Chapter III Funding

Article 11 The funding is mainly used to support entities and individuals that have obtained domestic and foreign invention patents, international registered trademarks, submitted PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) international applications, and paid annual invention patent fees in the previous year.

Article 12 Applicants for funding should meet one of the following conditions:

(1) Enterprises, institutions, social groups or other organizations within the administrative area of ​​Guangzhou;

(2) Individuals who have a household registration in Guangzhou or hold a "Guangdong Province Residence Permit" with a residence address in Guangzhou;

(3) Students studying in full-time schools in our city.

If a patent or trademark is jointly owned by multiple parties, the application shall be submitted by the designated representative of the jointly owned patent or trademark, and the applicant shall meet one of the above conditions.

Unless otherwise stated, the applicant's relevant information shall be based on the information contained in the invention patent certificate (application form) and trademark registration certificate.

Article 13 The projects and standards for patent funding are as follows:

(I) Authorization of domestic invention patents (including invention patents in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). For work invention patents, a subsidy of RMB 3,000 per item is provided; for non-work invention patents, a subsidy of RMB 2,000 per item is provided; for invention patents that have been granted fee reduction by the State Intellectual Property Office, a subsidy of RMB 500 per item is provided; for patents entrusted to patent agencies, an additional subsidy of RMB 2,000 per item is provided.

(II) Foreign invention patent authorization: For invention patents authorized by the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries or regions, a subsidy of RMB 20,000 per item will be provided; for invention patents authorized by other countries or regions, a subsidy of RMB 10,000 per item will be provided.

(III) PCT international application: For patent applications filed through the PCT route and entering the national phase (abroad), if the applicant is a job applicant, the funding is RMB 10,000 per application; if the applicant is a non-job applicant, the funding is RMB 5,000 per application.

(IV) Annual fee for invention patents. For invention patents that are in the patent maintenance status when applying for funding, if they have been maintained for 6 years from the date of application, they will receive a subsidy of RMB 1,800 per patent; or if they have been maintained for 8 years or more, they will receive a subsidy of RMB 4,800 per patent. For those who have obtained fee reduction from the State Intellectual Property Office, if they have been maintained for 6 years from the date of application, they will receive a subsidy of RMB 700 per patent; or if they have been maintained for 8 years or more, they will receive a subsidy of RMB 2,800 per patent. An invention patent can only receive annual fee funding once.

The total amount of patent funding at all levels received by the funding units and individuals shall not exceed the total amount of official fees and patent agency service fees paid by them, and the total amount of municipal-level patent funding received by the funding units per year shall not exceed RMB 6 million; the total amount of municipal-level patent funding received by individuals per year shall not exceed RMB 200,000.

Article 14 The projects and standards for trademark funding are as follows:

(1) For trademark registration certificates obtained through the Madrid System and approved for registration by designated countries, subsidies will be provided based on the number of designated countries or regions, with a subsidy of RMB 1,000 for each designated country or region, and a maximum subsidy of RMB 10,000 for each trademark.

(ii) For trademark registration certificates obtained from the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) and the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO), a subsidy of RMB 3,000 will be provided for each application. The number of applications funded by the same applicant per year shall not exceed 3.

(III) For each foreign trademark registration certificate obtained in a single country, a subsidy of RMB 1,000 will be provided, and the number of funded cases per year for the same applicant shall not exceed 3.

No funding will be provided for trademark renewal, change, assignment, transfer, etc.

The total amount of trademark funding at all levels obtained by the funding units and individuals shall not be higher than the total amount of official fees and trademark agency service fees paid by them, and the total amount of municipal-level trademark funding obtained annually shall not exceed RMB 200,000.

Chapter 4 Development Funds

Article 15 The development funds are mainly used to promote projects such as the use, protection, management and services of intellectual property rights in our city, in the form of pre-subsidy and post-subsidy.

Pre-subsidy refers to a financial support method in which the Municipal Intellectual Property Office and the project undertaking unit agree on the work content, performance goals, completion time limit, capital investment, acceptance method, etc. through a contract, and invest financial funds before the project is implemented, and then conduct inspection, acceptance and performance appraisal of the project after the contract expires.

Post-subsidy refers to a form of financial assistance in which the project undertaking unit first invests funds and achieves corresponding performance, and is then reviewed by the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or the District Intellectual Property Office in accordance with the prescribed procedures and given corresponding subsidies.

Article 16 Applicants for development funds shall meet the following conditions:

(1) Enterprises, institutions, social groups or other organizations within the administrative area of ​​Guangzhou;

(2) Having the working foundation and implementation conditions to complete the development fund project, and having intellectual property management system and financial management system;

If the development fund project has special provisions on the applicant's conditions, they shall be followed.

Article 17: Subsidy is provided to high-value patents and trademarks that have won designated awards or met specific conditions in the previous year. This is a post-subsidy project. The funding standards are as follows:

(1) A one-time grant of no more than RMB 1 million for each gold award, no more than RMB 500,000 for each silver award, and no more than RMB 200,000 for each excellence award will be given to those who win the China Patent Award;

(ii) A one-time grant of no more than RMB 500,000 for a gold award, RMB 200,000 for a silver award, and RMB 100,000 for an excellent award will be given to those who have won the Guangdong Patent Award;

(III) A one-time grant of no more than RMB 1 million will be given to winners of the China Trademark Gold Award;

(IV) A one-time grant of no more than RMB 500,000 will be granted to trademarks recognized as well-known trademarks by the State Intellectual Property Office.

Article 18: Subsidy is provided to demonstration units or intellectual property service institutions that have won designated awards in the previous year. This is a post-subsidy project. The funding standards are as follows:

(1) A one-time grant of no more than RMB 200,000 will be granted to a national intellectual property demonstration unit;

(II) Institutions that are awarded as national-level intellectual property service brand institutions will be given a one-time grant of no more than RMB 200,000.

(III) For those who are awarded other national or higher intellectual property honorary titles, a one-time grant of no more than RMB 200,000 will be given based on the application guidelines for that year.

Article 19: Subsidy is provided to intellectual property service institutions that facilitate intellectual property transactions reaching a specified amount. This is a post-subsidy project. Subsidy is provided at a rate not exceeding 1% of the transaction amount, and the maximum subsidy for the same unit is no more than 500,000 yuan.

Article 20: The implementation of intellectual property financial assistance is a post-subsidy project. The funding projects and standards are as follows:

(I) Intellectual property pledge loan projects: Based on the actual loan amount obtained for the pledged patents, trademarks, and geographical indications, a subsidy of no more than 2% will be provided, and the maximum subsidy for the same unit shall not exceed RMB 800,000.

(II) Intellectual Property Insurance Project: Provide subsidies to enterprises and institutions at a rate not exceeding 50% of the intellectual property insurance premium, with the maximum subsidy for the same unit not exceeding RMB 200,000.

Article 21: The implementation of the project funding for the implementation of the intellectual property management norms is a post-subsidy project. For enterprises and institutions that have passed the national standard certification of "Enterprise Intellectual Property Management Norms", "Scientific Research Organization Intellectual Property Management Norms" and "Institutions of Higher Education Intellectual Property Management Norms" for the first time, and the number of patents meets the conditions stipulated in the application guidelines for that year, a subsidy of 20,000 yuan will be given; if the first certification cycle is completed and re-certified, an additional subsidy of 30,000 yuan will be given.

Article 22 The intellectual property rights protection subsidy for enterprises and institutions is a post-subsidy project. The subsidy standards are as follows:

(1) For domestic invention patents that are successfully defended, the maximum amount of funding shall not exceed RMB 300,000; for utility model patents, design patents, trademarks and geographical indications that are successfully defended, the maximum amount of funding shall not exceed RMB 200,000.

(II) For successful foreign-related intellectual property rights protection, the maximum funding amount for invention patents shall not exceed RMB 800,000; the maximum funding amount for utility model patents, design patents, trademarks and geographical indications shall not exceed RMB 500,000. For successful investigations of intellectual property infringement disputes conducted by foreign authorities, the maximum funding amount shall not exceed RMB 1 million.

Article 23: Implementing the construction of intellectual property protection system and mechanism is a pre-subsidy project. The funding projects and standards are as follows:

(I) Support the establishment of intellectual property protection or rights protection assistance mechanisms in key industries, new fields, and new business formats, with support for no more than four directions each year, no more than five projects in each direction, and no more than RMB 200,000 in funding for each project.

(II) Supporting judicial appraisal, judicial guarantee, notary service, legal service and other units to provide technical support and professional services for intellectual property protection, with a maximum of 10 projects established each year and a funding of no more than RMB 500,000 for each project.

Article 24: The implementation of intellectual property information analysis and utilization is a pre-subsidy project. The funding projects and standards are as follows:

(I) Key field intellectual property analysis and evaluation projects: Carry out intellectual property analysis and evaluation in key fields, industries or major projects, with no more than 5 projects selected each year and no more than RMB 200,000 in funding for each project.

(II) Patent navigation projects: Carry out industrial or enterprise patent navigation, with no more than 5 projects approved each year, and no more than 500,000 yuan of funding for each industrial project and no more than 200,000 yuan of funding for each enterprise project.

Article 25: Implement the cultivation of high-value geographical indications and regional brands, support the use of geographical indications and the implementation of regional brand strategies, and provide subsidies for the projects. No more than 5 projects will be established each year, and each project will be subsidized no more than 100,000 yuan.

Article 26 Implement the cultivation of strong intellectual property enterprises and key intellectual property service institutions, support enterprises and institutions to improve their intellectual property creation, application and management capabilities, and provide subsidies for the former projects. No more than 20 projects will be established each year, and each project will be funded no more than 200,000 yuan.

Article 27 Implement the construction of intellectual property pilot schools, support pilot schools to carry out intellectual property creation, protection and application work, and provide subsidies for the projects. No more than 5 projects will be established each year, and each project will be funded no more than 200,000 yuan.

Article 28 The implementation of public service construction for intellectual property rights is a pre-subsidy project. The funding projects and standards are as follows:

(I) Intellectual property service projects for small, medium and micro enterprises. Support enterprises, institutions, social groups, etc. to provide intellectual property services for small, medium and micro enterprises, with no more than 10 projects established each year and no more than RMB 250,000 in funding for each project.

(II) Intellectual property service projects for innovation activities. Support participation in major national or international intellectual property activities, or organize and carry out intellectual property service work for city-wide scientific and technological innovation activities, etc. No more than 10 projects will be established each year, and each project will be funded no more than RMB 200,000.

Article 29: Promote the city's key intellectual property work, which is a subsidy project. According to the key tasks of the municipal party committee and government in the field of intellectual property in that year and the major intellectual property projects that the state and the province clearly require to be arranged by the local government, establish corresponding key work projects, and the number of projects and funding standards shall be approved by the Municipal Intellectual Property Office.

Article 30 Restrictions on Application for Development Fund Projects:

(1) If the same project has obtained or is applying for other municipal special financial funds, it shall not apply for development funds;

(ii) In principle, the same applicant shall apply for no more than two pre-subsidy projects of development funds in the same year;

(3) One-time funding projects that have received development funding support may not be re-submitted;

If development fund projects have special provisions on application restrictions, they shall be followed.

Chapter V Implementation and Management of Special Funds

Article 31 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall, based on the key tasks of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government and the work arrangements of the national and provincial superior departments, and in combination with the development needs of Guangzhou's intellectual property work, formulate an annual plan for the use of special funds and include it in the departmental budget of the Municipal Intellectual Property Office.

Article 32 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall arrange special funds in the department budget of the current year for project acceptance, expert review, mid-term inspection, project acceptance, special audit and performance evaluation, etc. The Intellectual Property Offices of each district may arrange working funds according to the needs of project review business.

Article 33 The District Intellectual Property Office is responsible for the acceptance and review of grant funds and development fund projects under Articles 17 to 21.

The Municipal Intellectual Property Office is responsible for the acceptance and review of development fund projects under Articles 22 to 29.

Article 34 Application and review procedures for grant funds and district-level review and development fund projects:

(I) Annual centralized application. The Municipal Intellectual Property Office is responsible for formulating application guidelines and issuing application notices regularly. The application guidelines should clearly state the conditions for applying for funds, application requirements, application time, etc.

(II) The District Intellectual Property Office shall accept and review application materials in accordance with the principle of district management. Incomplete application materials shall be supplemented within a time limit; applicants shall make supplements as required. Failure to make supplements as required shall be deemed as abandonment of the application.

(III) If the applicant meets the requirements after review, the District Intellectual Property Office will prepare a funding allocation plan for the district and make it public for no less than 5 working days. If the applicant does not meet the requirements after review, the reasons should be explained to the applicant.

(iv) If there is no objection after public announcement or the objection is not established, the District Intellectual Property Office shall report the fund allocation plan to the Municipal Intellectual Property Office within the prescribed time limit.

(V) The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall compile and prepare the draft budget for transfer payment funds and submit it to the Municipal Finance Bureau for transfer of special funds to various districts.

(VI) After receiving the special funds from transfer payments, each district should distribute them to the units and individuals using the funds within 30 days.

Article 35 The application and review procedures for municipal-level review and development fund projects are as follows:

(I) Annual centralized application. The Municipal Intellectual Property Office is responsible for formulating project application guidelines, project evaluation standards, and regularly issuing application notices. The application guidelines should clearly state the funding application conditions, application requirements, application time, etc.

(II) The District Intellectual Property Office shall verify and recommend the application projects in accordance with the principle of district management.

(III) The Municipal Intellectual Property Office or a third-party agency entrusted by it shall accept and formally review the application. If the application materials are incomplete, they shall be supplemented within a time limit; the applicant shall make supplements as required. If the applicant fails to make supplements as required, the application shall be deemed to have been abandoned.

(IV) The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall publicize the results of the formal examination of the projects to the public for no less than 5 working days; for projects that fail the formal examination, the reasons shall be explained to the applicants.

(V) The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall review and approve the project based on the specific circumstances of the project, and shall make the review and procurement results public to the society for a period of no less than 5 working days.

(VI) If there is no objection after public announcement or the objection is not established, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office will determine the project approval result and allocate funds to the user unit in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Municipal Financial Fund Management.

Article 36 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall examine and approve projects through methods such as expert review, collective research, and government procurement.

Expert review is conducted by the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or a third-party agency entrusted by it, who will select experts in the fields of intellectual property, technology, management, finance, etc. in accordance with the principle of random sampling. The expert group will consist of an odd number of 5 or more experts, and will conduct centralized or online review of the application projects that have passed the formal review.

Collective research refers to the Municipal Intellectual Property Office's approval of post-subsidy projects and pre-subsidy projects with a single funding amount of no more than 100,000 yuan or non-competitive allocation. The collective research process includes the director's office meeting or the bureau's party group meeting for approval.

The review and approval of projects that meet the government procurement conditions shall be carried out by the Municipal Intellectual Property Office in accordance with relevant regulations.

Article 37 Applicants who meet any of the following conditions will not be granted financial assistance:

(1) Not complying with relevant laws and regulations or the requirements of these Management Measures;

(2) Being included in the list of violations and dishonesty of special financial funds of the city;

(3) Those who have been included in the dishonest punishment list of relevant state departments;

(4) The company has entered bankruptcy liquidation procedure;

(5) There are other illegal acts.

Article 38 For pre-subsidy projects that have been approved, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall sign a project contract with the project undertaking unit. Post-subsidy projects do not need to sign a project contract.

Article 39: Funding and development funds for post-subsidy projects shall be allocated in a lump sum.

The funds for the pre-development fund subsidy project can be allocated in one lump sum or in installments. If the payment is made in installments, the payment method and amount shall be implemented in accordance with the contract.

Article 40 The funds for pre-development subsidy projects shall be used by the project undertaking units in strict accordance with the contract agreement to ensure that the funds are used for their intended purposes. The scope of use shall include direct and indirect expenses incurred during the implementation of the project, mainly including conference fees, intellectual property affairs fees, personnel fees, labor fees, expert consultation fees, management fees and other reasonable expenses.

The funds for post-subsidy projects from grants and development funds should be used in a coordinated manner by the units and individuals using the funds in accordance with the relevant national, provincial and municipal fiscal policy regulations.

Article 41 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office is responsible for organizing the mid-term inspection of the implementation of the pre-subsidy projects, and the District Intellectual Property Office is responsible for assisting in the implementation of the mid-term inspection. The mid-term inspection is mainly in the form of the project undertaking unit submitting a mid-term report, and the Municipal Intellectual Property Office may organize on-site inspections according to work needs.

The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall promptly inform the project undertaking unit of the conclusion of the mid-term inspection. If the project passes the mid-term inspection, the project contract shall continue to be implemented; if the project fails the mid-term inspection, it shall be rectified within a time limit, and the project funds that have not yet been allocated shall be temporarily suspended; if the project still fails to meet the standards after rectification, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office may terminate the project contract.

Article 42 After the expiration of the contract for the pre-subsidy project, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or a third-party agency entrusted by it shall organize the project acceptance. The acceptance shall be based on the project contract and shall be conducted through material review, on-site inspection and expert review.

The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall promptly inform the project undertaking unit of the project acceptance results. If the project fails the first acceptance, it shall be rectified within a time limit, which shall not exceed 1 year in principle. After completing the rectification, the project undertaking unit shall apply for a second acceptance and bear the acceptance fee.

If the acceptance needs to be postponed due to force majeure, the project undertaking unit must submit a written application. With the approval of the Municipal Intellectual Property Office, the project undertaking unit may postpone the acceptance at its discretion without bearing the acceptance fee.

Article 43 For projects whose contracts are terminated, the project undertaking unit shall hand over the financial funds that have not been used or have not been used in accordance with regulations.

Article 44 Any unit or individual who has objections to the results of the public announcement of funds and projects may submit written objections to the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or the District Intellectual Property Office in accordance with the review authority during the public announcement period. The objection application shall clearly state the content and reasons of the objection and submit supporting materials. The unit or individual applying for objection can only submit one application for the same project and the same result.

After receiving an objection application, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or District Intellectual Property Office shall review it within 5 working days and decide whether to accept it and notify the applicant in writing; if it decides to accept it, it shall also notify the respondent at the same time.

The municipal intellectual property office or district intellectual property office shall make a decision on the objection within 15 working days from the date of acceptance of the objection application and notify the objection applicant and the respondent in writing.

Projects where the objection handling decision is inconsistent with the public announcement results shall be announced separately in accordance with the procedures.

Chapter VI Performance Evaluation and Supervision and Management of Special Funds

Article 45 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall strengthen the tracking and monitoring of the implementation progress of special funds, the achievement of performance targets and financial management, and regularly compile dynamic monitoring and analysis of funds. For projects with slow implementation progress and deviation from performance targets, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall promptly order the relevant units to take effective measures to correct them in written form; if the situation is serious, it shall be adjusted, suspended or stopped in accordance with regulations.

Article 46 At the end of the budget year or after the budget is implemented, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall organize the district intellectual property offices, funding units and individuals to conduct performance evaluations in accordance with the requirements for project expenditure evaluation management in the "Guangzhou Budget Performance Management Measures". The performance evaluation results serve as an important reference for special fund budget arrangements, policy adjustments, and fund allocations.

Article 47 The Municipal Intellectual Property Office and the District Intellectual Property Office shall strengthen the investigation and prevention of corruption risks in key positions and key links in the management of special funds, and improve the internal control mechanism.

Article 48 If the applicants, entities and individuals using funds for special funds commit illegal and irregular acts such as false reporting, misappropriation and embezzlement during the declaration, management and use of special funds, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office or the District Intellectual Property Office shall deal with them seriously in accordance with the law and regulations, recover the special funds, suspend their eligibility to apply for special funds for three years, incorporate their information on dishonesty into the social credit system for joint punishment, and disclose it to the public; if the circumstances are serious, in principle, their eligibility to apply for special funds will be suspended for five years; if a crime is constituted, criminal liability will be pursued in accordance with the law.

Article 49 If the relevant administrative departments and their staff violate the provisions of these Measures and fail to perform their duties in accordance with the law, the competent authorities shall order them to correct the violations and impose sanctions on the responsible leaders and directly responsible persons in accordance with the law; if a crime is constituted, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Article 50 Except for special fund information that is not disclosed due to confidentiality requirements or major sensitive matters, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office shall disclose to the public the special fund management methods, application guidelines, application status, allocation procedures and methods, allocation results, performance evaluation, supervision and inspection, audit, complaint handling and other related information on the portal website, the municipal fiscal special fund information unified management platform and the "Doing Business in Guangzhou" column of the government portal website. District Intellectual Property Offices and funding units shall disclose to the public through the portal websites of the governments at the same level or units.

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Article 51 Before the entry into force of these Measures, patents that have received annual fee funding for any year from the 7th to the 9th year or PCT international application funding in accordance with Document No. 22 of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Rights [2015] and Document No. 4 of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Rights [2017] shall not be subsidized again.

Article 52 These Measures shall enter into force on the date of publication and shall be valid for five years. The original "Measures for the Management of Special Funds for Patent Work in Guangzhou" (Sui Shi Jian Gui Zi [2019] No. 1) shall be repealed at the same time.

References

• 1. Suizhiguizi [2020] No. 2: Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation