On April 10, 2026, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the 2026 Intellectual Property Administrative Protection Work Plan (2026年知识产权行政保护工作方案). The Work Plan lists 12 points to accomplish in 2026. Of particular interest to foreigners is CNIPA’s plan to “strengthen coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and strictly manage the transfer of intellectual property rights abroad in technology exports in accordance with the law.” This may be in reaction to Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Singaporean company with Chinese routes. China has now banned the founders from leaving China presumably due to an ongoing investigation by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Other highlights of the Work Plan include accelerating the comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law; intensifying efforts to address patent applications and agency practices that violate the principle of good faith; and cracking down on malicious trademark registration and hoarding.
To thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on intellectual property work, continuously strengthen administrative protection of intellectual property rights, vigorously improve the level of intellectual property protection, and create a better innovation and business environment, this work plan is formulated.
I. Improve the Intellectual Property System and Rules. Accelerate the comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law and the “Regulations on the Protection of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs” and its implementing rules; research and formulate regulations on administrative adjudication and mediation of disputes involving standard-essential patents, and guidelines for administrative adjudication and mediation of patent disputes. Formulate and implement the “15th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Utilization of Geographical Indications,” and improve relevant local geographical indication systems. Focus on emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, and strengthen research on intellectual property protection needs and institutional rules.
II. Strengthen the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights at the Source. Strengthen the “dual penalty” system for both applicants and agents, and intensify efforts to address patent applications and agency practices that violate the principle of good faith. Fully utilize mechanisms such as expedited patent examination, priority examination, and centralized examination to enhance precise service and support for national strategic scientific and technological capabilities. Severely crack down on malicious trademark registration and hoarding, further increase the reporting and transfer of leads, solidify local responsibility, and strengthen case handling. Give full play to the role of the expedited trademark examination mechanism to support regional economic development. Continue to promote the transformation of original agricultural product geographical indications, and support the coordination of protection requirements for products with the same name as geographical indications with the rules for the use and management of collective trademarks and certification marks registered as geographical indications.
III. Strengthen Administrative Adjudication of Patent Disputes. Enhance the promotion and dissemination of the system, guiding more enterprises to choose administrative adjudication as a channel for efficient dispute resolution. Improve and optimize the three-tiered administrative adjudication system at the national, provincial, and municipal levels, ensuring the accountability of provincial and municipal authorities, and strengthening the acceptance and handling of administrative adjudication cases in accordance with the law. For cases meeting the criteria for filing administrative adjudication of major patent infringement disputes, promptly issue supporting documents and submit requests for processing according to procedures. Support local pilot programs for administrative adjudication of disputes involving standard-essential patents. Conduct cross-regional joint hearings of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes in the photovoltaic industry, guiding photovoltaic enterprises to establish intellectual property compliance management systems. Strengthen joint handling of administrative adjudication and administrative confirmation of rights cases. Support qualified intellectual property protection centers to leverage their professional advantages and conduct administrative adjudication work in accordance with laws and regulations.
IV. Strengthen Trademark Use Management. Strictly regulate acts that deceive or mislead the public through trademarks, such as false descriptions. Increase supervision and governance of the use of unregistered trademarks that are deceptive or have adverse effects, focusing on areas such as food and pharmaceuticals, children’s toys, and household appliances, particularly addressing situations where registered trademarks are used in conjunction with product names, advertising language, and product packaging, leading to confusion. Innovate regulatory methods and improve work effectiveness. Improve the division of labor and cooperation mechanism with market supervision departments, refine the reporting and handling mechanism, promptly report illegal clues to market supervision departments for investigation and prosecution according to law, and handle a number of typical cases. Strengthen publicity and training on trademark use for production and sales enterprises, reminding them to use trademarks reasonably and in a standardized manner, ensure the quality of goods and services, maintain trademark reputation, and abandon speculative mentality.
V. Strengthen Geographical Indication Protection. We will conscientiously carry out the creation and acceptance work for the new batch of national geographical indication protection demonstration zones, and continuously strengthen policy guidance, business guidance, resource allocation, and follow-up management. We will thoroughly implement the geographical indication protection project and strengthen its connection and linkage with national geographical indication protection demonstration zones. We will accelerate the supply of standards for geographical indication products, comprehensively improve the testing and inspection capabilities of geographical indication products, and strictly adhere to the distinctive quality of geographical indication products. We will strengthen the daily supervision of the use of special geographical indication logos and promote dynamic management of the “entry and exit” of entities using special geographical indication logos.
VI. Strengthen the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Involving Foreign Transactions. Further strengthen central-local government collaboration and enhance the coordinated handling of major foreign-related intellectual property cases. Give full play to the role of local work platforms for guiding responses to overseas intellectual property disputes, enhance the capacity building of professional personnel, strengthen communication and exchanges with domestic and foreign-invested enterprises, respond promptly to enterprise demands, and increase guidance on responding to overseas intellectual property disputes in key industries and regions. Improve the overseas risk early warning mechanism, strengthen early warning and monitoring of disputes involving standard-essential patents, Section 337 investigations, cross-border e-commerce litigation, and malicious trademark squatting, and improve the timeliness and proactiveness of services. Strengthen coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and strictly manage the transfer of intellectual property rights abroad in technology exports in accordance with the law. Better leverage the role of overseas intellectual property infringement liability insurance and rights protection assistance programs.
VII. Promote Rapid and Collaborative Protection. Strengthen the operation and management of intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers, focusing on cutting-edge areas and future industries such as the digital economy, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, quantum technology, and brain-computer interfaces. Increase service efforts, comprehensively carry out rapid handling of intellectual property disputes, and quickly and properly resolve disputes to provide service support for the implementation of major national strategies and regional development strategies. Strengthen pre-examination quality management and optimize the linkage mechanism between patent examination and pre-examination quality management. Promote the establishment of trademark acceptance windows in qualified intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers to conduct identification, consultation, and dispute mediation services in areas such as integrated circuit layout design, new plant varieties, and intangible cultural heritage. Support cross-regional intellectual property protection cooperation between intellectual property protection centers and rapid rights protection centers in similar industry sectors.
VIII. Promote diversified dispute resolution. Strengthen the professionalization of intellectual property people’s mediation organizations by establishing an expert database and other means, enhancing the professionalism and credibility of mediation, and improving the selection of intellectual property dispute mediation cases. Support qualified arbitration institutions in establishing internal intellectual property arbitration departments, creating a roster of intellectual property arbitrators, concentrating service resources, and providing professional arbitration services. Strengthen the construction of a credit system in the field of intellectual property, and intensify penalties for dishonest acts such as trademark and patent infringement, malicious trademark squatting, and patent applications that violate the principle of good faith. Encourage regions with the necessary conditions to utilize big data technology to achieve real-time monitoring of clues to infringement and illegal activities on e-commerce platforms, guide e-commerce platforms to promptly handle infringement and illegal activities, and strengthen platform responsibility.
IX. Strengthen Intellectual Property Protection in Key Areas and During Important Time Periods. Focusing on areas such as seed industry, food and pharmaceuticals, rehabilitation aids, and green and low-carbon technologies, we will intensify daily supervision and enforcement guidance for intellectual property protection. We will strengthen the protection of well-known trademarks and time-honored brands, and give priority to the protection of geographical indications such as “Xuan paper” listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list. We will ensure the effective protection of intellectual property rights for major events and competitions such as the 2026 APEC Summit, the 48th WorldSkills Competition, and the 6th Asian Beach Games. We will strengthen pre-exhibition investigations, in-exhibition inspections, and post-exhibition follow-up work for large-scale exhibitions such as the China Import and Export Fair. We will ensure the effective protection of intellectual property rights during important holidays and strengthen the supervision of e-commerce platforms, supermarkets, and professional markets. We will conduct risk assessments and special rectification campaigns related to geographical indication protection during the peak season for seasonal geographical indication products.
X. Strengthen cooperation in intellectual property protection. Deepen cooperation with people’s courts, people’s procuratorates, public security, and market supervision departments; strengthen the connection between administrative and judicial protection; and ensure information sharing with departments such as industry and information technology, state-owned assets supervision and management, and customs in key industries such as photovoltaics, forming an efficient linkage for dispute resolution. Focusing on the needs of building international science and technology innovation centers such as Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei), Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as regional science and technology innovation centers such as Chengdu-Chongqing, Wuhan, and Xi’an, effectively leverage the role of cross-regional law enforcement cooperation mechanisms, crack down on infringement and counterfeiting, increase cross-regional administrative protection cooperation, strengthen the tracking of transferred leads, and implement information sharing, joint evidence collection, and mutual recognition of results in a thorough and meticulous manner. Strengthen the full-chain tracking and handling of infringement in all aspects of production, warehousing, transportation, and sales.
XI. Strengthen Professional Capacity Building. Increase the follow-up and handling of approved patent and trademark infringement cases to improve the quality and efficiency of case handling. Enhance business exchange and interaction, actively conduct cross-departmental and cross-regional business training, case studies, skills competitions, and other activities to strengthen the talent pool for intellectual property administrative protection. Fully leverage the professional resources of the Patent Examination Cooperation Center, Trademark Examination Cooperation Center, Intellectual Property Protection Center, Rapid Rights Protection Center, and intellectual property appraisal institutions to provide basic support for administrative protection. Strengthen infringement determination capabilities; for complex and difficult infringement disputes, professional departments can provide technical support by issuing infringement consultation opinions. Conduct reviews of intellectual property enforcement case files and strengthen the selection and submission of guiding and typical cases. Release relevant typical cases publicly in a timely manner to explain the law through cases and guide the improvement of case-handling capabilities. Promote the use of the National Intellectual Property Public Service Platform; regions with the necessary conditions should accelerate the construction of intellectual property information service platforms and independently controllable specialized databases to strengthen data sharing and business collaboration.
XII. Strengthen Organizational Support. Each provincial-level intellectual property office should, in accordance with the 2025 central government assessment results on quality, food safety, and intellectual property protection, meticulously organize and implement the assigned tasks, clarify responsibilities, refine work measures, and ensure thorough implementation. Strengthen guidance and support, fully leverage the leading role of building intellectual property protection hubs, and drive overall improvement. Utilize integrated media platforms to enhance publicity through multiple channels, publicly commend units and individuals with outstanding achievements, and promptly urge improvement for those with poor performance or ineffective results.
Please submit a summary of your 2026 intellectual property administrative protection work to the Intellectual Property Protection Department of the CNIPA by January 5, 2027. Please report any major events, new situations, or new problems promptly according to established procedures.
