CNIPA this week issued the Annual Work Guide for the Demonstration Programme on Building China into an IP Powerhouse (2026). The policy signal is fairly direct: assessment should move further towards patent quality and industrialisation, rather than simple filing-count targets. The guide calls for patent quality and patent commercialisation to be emphasised in project reviews, institutional evaluation, enterprise recognition and talent assessment, while avoiding the use of patent numbers as a stand-alone benchmark. For local authorities, parks, universities and demonstration enterprises, filing volume alone will carry less weight; pre-filing assessment, conversion potential and claim stability will matter more in practice.
The overseas risk agenda is also becoming more concrete. The guide refers to monitoring and early-warning work in high-risk areas such as cross-border e-commerce and trademark squatting, and asks demonstration enterprises and relevant participants to conduct overseas IP compliance self-checks for export products. Exporters and online sellers should not wait until a platform complaint, customs detention or foreign lawyer’s letter appears. Target-market trademark searches, design and patent clearance, and watch services for bad-faith brand filings now need to sit much earlier in the go-to-market checklist.
