BREAKING: CNIPA Calls for Comments on Patent Examination Guidelines，Opposes Excessive Licensing in Video Codec

BEIJING, April 30, 2025 — The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) today released the "Draft Amendments to the Patent Examination Guidelines (Comment Draft)", including a comparison table of the revisions and an explanation of the revisions.

In my opinion, the three most noteworthy revisions are as follows:

First, further improvements to the examination rules for artificial intelligence patents; Second, new provisions for the examination of video codec and streaming media patents; Third, adjustments to the qualifications of patent invalidation requesters and the scope of adjudication.

Among these three points, the most significant change lies in the revised explanations regarding video codec and streaming media patents.

CNIPA explicitly states that it does not support patent holders claiming patent rights across multiple levels of the industrial chain to obtain licensing royalties disproportionate to their technical contributions.

CNIPA stated in the explanation of the revisions that:

Unlike the relatively centralized supply chain in traditional communications industries, the streaming media industry features a more fragmented ecosystem involving multiple levels and entities such as content generation, storage, and transmission. Therefore, these revised provisions aim to adapt to new developments in the streaming media sector by allowing patent holders to assert claims at specific levels of the industrial chain, thereby balancing the interests of patent holders, implementers, and the public to ensure sustainable industry development, rather than permitting excessive claims across multiple levels.

This marks the first time China's patent office has taken a position indicating that practices similar to Access Advance's HEVC patent pool - which previously primarily charged hardware manufacturers and now seeks to extend licensing to streaming platforms - will face strict scrutiny during the Chinese patent application process. Nokia, Ericsson, InterDigital, and others also face the same issues.

However, whether this provision will ultimately be included in the finalized guidelines remains uncertain at this stage.

The public comment period will remain open until June 15, 2025, and comments can be submitted via email to zhinan@cnipa.gov.cn.