Patent registration in China runs through the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) under the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China, last amended in 2020. A business in Nepal must file through a Chinese patent agency. Nepal is not in the PCT, so you file directly, usually within 12 months of a Nepal filing.
Key takeaways
- China grants invention patents (20 years), utility models (10 years) and design patents (15 years), from filing.
- An applicant with no residence or business office in China must use a legally established Chinese patent agency (Article 18).
- Nepal is not in the PCT, so you file at CNIPA directly, often under the Paris Convention.
- Priority lasts 12 months for inventions and utility models, but only 6 months for designs.
- Invention applications publish at 18 months, and you must request examination within three years.
- A Chinese patent does not protect you in Nepal; that needs a Department of Industry filing.
Who grants patents in China, and under which law?
CNIPA examines and grants patents for the whole country. The Law calls it "the patent administration department under the State Council" (Article 3).
The Patent Law dates from 12 March 1984 and has been amended four times. The fourth amendment was adopted on 17 October 2020 and came into force on 1 June 2021. The English text is on WIPO Lex's page for the Chinese Patent Law.
Procedure sits in the Implementing Regulations, last amended in December 2023 and in force from 20 January 2024.
Which kind of Chinese patent fits your invention?
Article 2 defines three "invention-creations". An invention is a new technical solution for a product or a process. A utility model is a new technical solution for a product's shape or structure. A design covers the shape, pattern or colour combination of a whole or partial product.
| Type | What it covers | CNIPA examination | Term from filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invention patent | Products, processes and methods | Preliminary, then substantive on request | 20 years |
| Utility model | A product's shape or structure | Preliminary only | 10 years |
| Design patent | Appearance of a whole or partial product | Preliminary only | 15 years |
Nepal's Act has no utility model at all. Our page on patents and utility models explains the difference.
Article 9 allows a useful combination. The same applicant may file a utility model and an invention for the same thing on the same day, then give up the utility model when the invention patent is granted.
What does CNIPA test before it grants a patent?
Under Article 22, an invention or utility model must show novelty, inventiveness and practical use. Prior art means anything known to the public in China or abroad before the filing date, so a sale or brochure in Kathmandu counts against you.
An invention needs "prominent substantive features" and an "obvious progress"; a utility model needs only substantive features and "a progress". Article 25 excludes discoveries, diagnosis and treatment methods, and plant and animal varieties.
Nepal words it differently. Sec. 5 of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 asks whether an invention is new and useful to the general public.
Can a Nepali company file at CNIPA without a Chinese agent?
No. Article 18 says a foreigner or foreign company "without a habitual residence or business office in China" shall entrust a legally established patent agency with the application and other patent matters.
The Implementing Regulations let the applicant send its priority copy and pay fees itself. Everything else goes through the agency.
IP Sewa files patents in Nepal only. Our patent registration team prepares the Nepal application your Chinese agency can claim priority from.
Why can't you use the PCT from Nepal?
China has been in the Patent Cooperation Treaty since 1 January 1994, and many foreign owners reach it through a PCT national phase. Nepal is not among the 159 PCT members listed on WIPO Lex's PCT membership table, read on 18 October 2026.
So a Nepali applicant files at CNIPA directly. Our explainer on the PCT and what Nepal applicants can do covers the wider picture.
How does the 12-month Paris route to China work?
China has been a Paris Convention member since 19 March 1985, and Nepal since 22 June 2001. Under Article 29, a first application in Nepal gives you 12 months to file an invention or utility model in China and keep the Nepal date. For a design, the window is 6 months.
Article 30 sets the paperwork. You declare priority when you file in China, then send a copy of the first application within 16 months of it (three months for a design). Miss either step and the priority claim counts as never made.
Priority covers only what the Nepal filing disclosed. Our page on the Paris Convention in Nepal explains the home side.
What documents does a Chinese patent application need?
Article 26 lists the core set for an invention or utility model:
- a request naming the invention, the inventor and the applicant's name and address;
- a description clear enough for a skilled person to carry out the invention, with drawings where needed;
- an abstract of the main technical points;
- claims that define the protection sought, based on the description.
A design application needs a request, drawings or photographs, and a brief description (Article 27). Your agency will also ask for a power of attorney, and a priority copy where you claim one.
Rule 3 of the Implementing Regulations requires every document in Chinese. CNIPA examines the translated claims, so have someone who knows the technology check them.
What are the steps to an invention patent in China?
- Keep it confidential. No demos, samples or full drawings before your first filing.
- File first in Nepal if Nepal matters. That fixes your priority date.
- File at CNIPA through an agency, in Chinese, within 12 months.
- Preliminary examination. CNIPA checks the formalities.
- Publication. The application is published after 18 months from filing, or earlier on request (Article 34).
- Request substantive examination within three years of filing, or, without good reason, the application is treated as withdrawn (Article 35).
- Answer the examiner. Reply or amend within the time CNIPA sets (Article 37).
- Grant. CNIPA issues the certificate, and the right takes effect on the announcement (Article 39).
Utility models and designs are granted after the preliminary check alone (Article 40). A refused applicant may ask for reexamination within three months (Article 41).
How long does a Chinese patent take?
The Law fixes only the milestones: publication at 18 months and the three-year window to ask for examination. In January 2026, CNIPA reported that the time to review an invention application had fallen to an average of 15 months, from 20 months at the end of 2020.
That is review time, not the whole journey: the total depends on when you request examination and how many objections you answer. CNIPA publishes no matching figure for utility models or designs.
If an invention patent is granted more than four years after filing and three years after the examination request, Article 42 lets you ask for a term extension for delay you did not cause.
Who owns an invention made with a Chinese manufacturer?
Read Article 8 before you hand a factory your drawings. For a commissioned invention, the right to apply for a patent belongs to whoever made it, "unless otherwise agreed upon". Without a written agreement, the factory you paid may be the one entitled to file.
Article 6 gives an employer the right to apply for its staff's service inventions. Article 19 adds a trap: an invention or utility model completed in China must pass a confidentiality examination before anyone files for it abroad, and one filed abroad in breach of that rule cannot then be patented in China.
A transfer of an application or patent must be in writing and registered with CNIPA, and takes effect only on registration (Article 10). Our page on patent registration strategy covers sequencing.
How long does a Chinese patent last, and what keeps it alive?
Article 42 sets 20 years for an invention, 10 for a utility model and 15 for a design, all from the filing date. The 2020 amendment raised the design term from 10 years. New medicines can get up to five extra years.
Annual fees start in the year of grant (Article 43), and an unpaid fee ends the patent early (Article 44). The Law sets no opposition window; instead, from the grant announcement, anyone may ask CNIPA to declare the patent invalid (Article 45).
What does IP Sewa's bulletin data show about Chinese firms in Nepal?
IP Sewa's archive of the Department of Industry's bulletins holds 123 issues and 71,842 published trademarks, from 22 January 2006 to 16 October 2026. Of these, 3,869 list an owner address in China, the fourth most common owner country after Nepal, India and the United States.
Grouping address variants, they belong to 1,387 owners, led by companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei and BYD. Class 9 (electronic apparatus and software) holds 718 of them and Class 12 (vehicles) 433. China-address marks were about 2% of marks published in 2006–2010, 8.8% in 2025 and 10.9% (688 marks) so far in 2026.
These are trademark counts only; our search indexes no patents. Look up a company's published marks with the owner and applicant search, and our guide to trademark registration in China covers your brand there.
Does a Chinese patent protect your invention in Nepal?
No. Sec. 21B of the Act says a patent registered abroad is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here. Sec. 21C lets the Department of Industry register a foreign-registered patent without enquiries when the foreign certificate is enclosed, and gives Paris Convention facilities.
In Nepal, the Department issues a registration certificate once it registers a patent (Sec. 7(1)), then publishes it in the Nepal Gazette (Sec. 7A(1)). An objector has 35 days from seeing or copying the patent (Sec. 7A(3)). Under Sec. 8 the patent lasts seven years from registration and is renewable twice, so 21 years at most.
Because the first-to-file principle generally applies, file before any public disclosure. The Law Commission's consolidated Act holds these sections, and the Department of Industry receives filings. Our Nepal patent guide has the detail.
What does a China patent cost from Nepal?
Costs arrive in stages: drafting, Chinese translation, agency work, CNIPA fees, examination replies and annual fees. Claims, drawings and objections drive the total.
Budget Nepal separately. Our page on patent cost factors in Nepal explains the home side, and our team quotes the Nepal work through our contact page.
Common mistakes Nepali applicants make
- Showing the product first. China's six-month grace period (Article 24) covers narrow cases, such as an exhibition the Chinese government sponsors or recognises.
- Letting a factory develop it without a contract. Article 8 may give them the right to apply.
- Missing month 6 for a design. Design priority is half the patent window.
- Forgetting the examination request. Miss year three and the application is withdrawn.
- Confusing a patent with a design. Appearance in Nepal belongs to design registration.
What could a Nepal-to-China filing plan look like?
Imagine "Himal Filter Works", a Pokhara manufacturer with a compact water filter built around a new internal valve. This is an illustration, not a real case.
It signs an agreement giving it the right to apply before its Shenzhen tooling partner starts work, then files a full specification at the Department of Industry in March. The next February, its Chinese agency files an invention and a utility model at CNIPA on the same day, both claiming the Nepal date.
The utility model, granted after the preliminary check, protects the valve early. To receive the invention patent, the company then gives up the utility model, as Article 9 requires.
In short
Settle ownership, file in Nepal first if Nepal matters, then file at CNIPA through a Chinese agency within 12 months (6 for a design). Request examination on time and pay annual fees.
Comparing markets? See our guides to patents in India, the USA and the European Union.
People also search for
- International patent filing from Nepal
- Patent renewal in Nepal
- How to search existing patents before filing
Planning a China filing that starts in Nepal? Talk to our patent team or contact IP Sewa for a plan that protects your priority date.
Comments (0)
Leave a comment
Replying to —