Beijing Issues Working Guidelines for Patent Pre-Examination and PPH Applications to Support Overseas Portfolio Development

On September 9, 2026, the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office released the Working Guidelines of Beijing Municipality for Patent Pre-Examination and Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Applications (the “Guidelines”).

The Guidelines clarify that, at the patent pre-examination stage, the Beijing Intellectual Property Protection Center and the Zhongguancun Intellectual Property Protection Center will provide key support to innovation entities with needs for overseas patent portfolio development, conduct comprehensive patent searches, and issue pre-examination conclusions and reference opinions on patentability. After obtaining expedited examination by the China National Intellectual Property Administration for patents that have undergone pre-examination, the average examination period for invention patents is shortened to three to six months. On the basis of examination results such as opinions on the grant of Chinese patents, innovation entities may file PPH acceleration requests overseas and, upon approval, enter the overseas expedited examination channel.