How can applicants avoid abnormal patent situations?

How can applicants avoid abnormal patent situations?

April 8, 2026 global, meritsip 0 Comments

In recent years, the China National Intellectual Property Administration has continuously upgraded its efforts to crack down on abnormal patent applications. The Regulations on Regulating Patent Applications clearly defines eight types of abnormal patent applications. Once identified, the applicant will face multiple penalties, such as no reduction of fees, rejection of applications, inclusion in the dishonest list, and restriction of subsequent applications, which will not only waste research and development and application costs, but also seriously affect the innovation reputation and qualification application of enterprises. For enterprises, research institutions, and individual applicants, avoiding abnormal risks from the source and standardizing applications based on real innovation has become the core prerequisite for patent layout.

This article combines the “Regulations on Standardizing Patent Application Behavior”, “Patent Law” and its implementation rules, and practical cases to systematically analyze the recognition standards, legal consequences, and avoidance paths of abnormal patent applications, providing professional and rigorous compliance guidance for applicants and helping them avoid legal risks.

1、 The Legal Basis and Essence of Abnormal Patent Applications

According to the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Regulations on Regulating Patent Application Behavior, the core criteria for identifying abnormal patent applications are “not aimed at protecting innovation, violating the principle of good faith and disrupting the order of patent applications”. Its essence is that the applicant evades patent examination rules or seeks illegitimate benefits through fictitious innovation, piecing together technology, malicious splitting, and other means, which contradicts the legislative purpose of the patent system to “protect inventions and creations and encourage innovation”.

Unlike conventional patent applications, abnormal patent applications lack genuine R&D support and innovative value, and belong to “formal and utilitarian” applications. Their examination and determination are based on the core criteria of “whether they have real R&D activities and whether they meet the substantive requirements of patent authorization”, and the relevant determination conclusions have clear legal binding force and traceability.

2、 Eight specific types of abnormal patent applications

In combination with the Provisions on Regulating Patent Application Behavior and the review practice of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the legal situations of abnormal patent applications can be divided into eight categories, each of which corresponds to a clear violation feature, as follows:

1. The invention and creation contents of multiple patent applications are highly similar, with only simple substitutions made in the technical application scenarios, material names, and equipment models, without reflecting substantive technical improvements (such as changing only the application field names for the same technical solution, without any changes to the core technical features);

2. The technical solution of the patent application lacks research and development support, and the experimental data and technical effects are fabricated and cannot be scientifically verified (such as forging efficacy data in the field of biomedicine and fabricating equipment operating parameters in the field of machinery);

3. The content of the patent application violates the laws of technological development, adopts deteriorated designs, or avoids examination by stacking unnecessary technical features, and has no practical application value;

4. The applicant has no actual research and development capabilities (no research and development team, no investment in research and development funds), but has submitted patent applications in batches and cannot reasonably explain the purpose of the application;

5. Malicious splitting technology scheme, splitting the same innovative achievement into multiple similar applications, submitting them separately to avoid centralized review, and artificially increasing the number of applications;

6. Transfer of patent application rights, change of inventor to false operation, without based on real research and development contributions (such as transfer of patents with nominal inventors and no actual transaction background);

7. Using computer programs to randomly generate technical solutions, without a real research and development process, the technical solutions lack feasibility and practicality;

8. Other behaviors that violate the principle of good faith and disrupt the order of patent applications (such as entrusting unqualified agencies to fabricate patent application documents).

3、 Legal consequences: Compliance risk warning for abnormal applications

According to the Regulations on Regulating Patent Application Behavior and relevant provisions of the Patent Law, the legal consequences of abnormal patent applications mainly manifest in four levels, all of which are mandatory and punitive:

1. Cost aspect: The patent fee for this abnormal patent application will not be reduced; For applicants who have repeatedly engaged in abnormal patent applications within five years and other serious circumstances, their patent applications submitted during this period will not have their patent fees reduced; Those who have already reduced their contributions are required to make up for the relevant reduced fees;
2. Application level: Non normal patent applications will be rejected, and the application number cannot be used for patent applications again. The submitted application documents will not be accepted or deemed withdrawn;
3. Credit aspect: Applicants and related agencies will be included in the credit warning list, which will affect the qualification application of enterprises (such as the recognition of high-tech enterprises and specialized and new enterprises), and individual applicants will be restricted from subsequent patent application permissions;
4. Industry level: For serious cases, patent agency qualifications will be restricted, various intellectual property related support policies will be cancelled, and even the market access and bidding qualifications of enterprises will be affected.

4、 Avoiding the full process strategy of abnormal patents

Based on the “Regulations on Standardizing Patent Application Behavior” and examination practices, applicants need to construct a compliance system from the four dimensions of “cognition, research and development, application, and management” to achieve full process risk prevention and control. The specific operations are as follows:

（1） R&D end:

The core premise of patent application is “real research and development, real innovation”. Applicants need to establish a sound research and development tracking system to ensure that each patent application has corresponding research and development activities support:

1. Establish a management system for R&D archives, retain complete records of the R&D process, clarify R&D personnel, R&D time, and R&D investment;

2. Develop differentiated marking standards for different technical fields:

In the field of mechanical and equipment manufacturing: retain structural design drawings, assembly process documents, prototype trial production and processing records, fixture design schemes, strength/life/accuracy testing reports, comparative experimental data, clearly reflecting the driving forces, paths, and actual effects of technological improvements;

In the field of biomedicine and medical devices: complete retention of experimental protocols, ethical approval documents, raw data from cell/animal experiments, preclinical evaluation materials, sample preparation records, impurity detection reports, stability research data, data should reflect the normal fluctuation range, and forgery, fabrication, and idealized modification are strictly prohibited;

In the fields of semiconductors, chips, and high-end manufacturing: retain circuit design drawings, layout design files, chip testing records, process parameter optimization records, reliability verification reports, reflecting the process of breaking through technical difficulties;

In the field of software and artificial intelligence: retain requirement specifications, algorithm design documents, code iteration logs, interface documents, system testing reports, performance stress testing data, model training records, to demonstrate the feasibility and non obviousness of technical solutions;

In the field of chemical engineering and materials, records of formula ratios, reaction condition control, product characterization data, and repeatability verification reports should be retained to exclude situations of simple assembly and random combination.

3. Strictly regulate the qualifications of inventors, ensure that the number of inventors, professional backgrounds, and research and development content match, and avoid a large number of applications from the same inventor in a short period of time.

（2） Application end

1. Strict search and patentability evaluation should be carried out before application. Before submitting each patent application, novelty search, comparative document analysis, and creativity evaluation should be carried out. The National Intellectual Property Administration’s patent search system, incoPat, Incopro, DWPI and other professional databases should be used for comprehensive search, covering patent literature, non patent literature, public product information, etc., to ensure that the technical solution has novelty and creativity, and to avoid simple duplication, assembly and combination with existing technologies or obvious technical contributions. We will resolutely refuse to submit proposals that do not have authorization prospects, have no actual protection value, and are only piled up in quantity.

2. Prudently select regular agencies and strengthen the process control of entrustment. Applicants should entrust patent agencies and patent agents with legal records in the China National Intellectual Property Administration, good practice standards and good credit, and reject unqualified “black agency” and illegal institutions with the gimmick of “package authorization” and “low price mass writing”.

3. Standardize the writing of application documents and eliminate abnormal typical representation. The writing of application documents should strictly follow the requirements of the Patent Examination Guidelines, achieve full disclosure, rigorous logic, and reasonable protection scope:

The instruction manual should fully disclose the technical field, background technology, invention content, specific implementation methods, and effect verification. The technical effects should be supported by experimental data and should not be exaggerated or fabricated;

The claims should be based on the specification, reasonably defining the scope of protection, without unnecessary limitations, meaningless stacking, or deteriorating design, and without using obviously unreasonable technical limitations;

The appearance design application should be based on real product design and should not submit design schemes randomly generated by computers without actual usage scenarios;

Multiple related applications should reflect substantive differences and avoid simply replacing names, parameters, and scenarios.

4. Reasonably control the pace of patent applications and avoid submitting a large number of highly similar applications in a short period of time; The same technical concept cannot be split into multiple similar applications to inflate the quantity.

（3） Management end

1. Enterprise applicants need to establish a patent management system, clarify the approval process for patent applications, conduct compliance audits for each patent application, and eliminate the layout mode of “quantity over quality”;

2. Regularly conduct internal self inspection and risk assessment, timely clean up low value applications, and conduct compliance self inspection on submitted, under review, and authorized patents every quarter or half a year, with a focus on checking whether there are situations such as content similarity, simple assembly, lack of research and development support, unreasonable cross disciplinary layout, and obvious abnormalities in claims.

3. Standardize the transfer of patent application rights and ownership changes, and eliminate false transactions. The transfer of patent application rights/patent rights should be based on real commercial transactions or technical cooperation, with reasonable consideration, and complete materials such as transfer contracts, payment vouchers, technology delivery records, shareholder/board resolutions should be retained. It is strictly prohibited to engage in false transfers for improper purposes such as evading supervision, obtaining subsidies, and piecing together quantities. Before and after the transfer, it should be ensured that the technology source, research and development subject, and application scenarios can be explained coherently to avoid scrutiny and questioning due to frequent abnormal changes in ownership.

4. Strengthen collaborative management with agency agencies, adhere to compliance bottom lines, establish long-term stable and compliance oriented cooperative relationships with patent agencies, and explicitly prohibit any form of fabrication, ghostwriting, or bulk contract application services.

（4） Application end

If the applicant has objections to the determination of abnormal applications, they may submit a “Statement of Opinion (Regarding Abnormal Applications)” within the specified period, accompanied by evidence such as research and development records, experimental data, technical specifications, etc., to prove the authenticity and legality of the application; The appeal materials should be complete and standardized, with a focus on explaining the research and development process, technological innovation points, refuting the basis for determining “abnormal”, and maximizing the recovery of losses.

5. Summary
Patents, as the core manifestation of a company’s innovation strength, are essentially valuable for genuine innovation and compliance protection, rather than simply pursuing quantity and fictitious performance. Currently, the country’s supervision of patent applications continues to increase, and the consequences of abnormal applications, such as credit penalties and qualification restrictions, will directly affect the long-term development of enterprises. For applicants, only by adhering to the core principles of “genuine innovation and compliant application” and standardizing the entire process of research and development, application, and management, can the protection and incentive effects of patents be truly exerted, and the effective implementation of innovative value be achieved.

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