In late 2025, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) joined forces with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation to launch a rectification campaign targeting illegal and irregular practices across the patent and trademark agency industry. At a March 23, 2026 press conference, CNIPA Deputy Director Hu Wenhui outlined the campaign’s results after its first three months.
Authorities took action against seven categories of illegal and irregular activities, including forging patent applicants and renting or lending professional qualifications. Over 170 penalties were issued, including suspension or revocation of licenses for 61 patent and trademark agencies and 22 patent attorneys. Several of these penalties were described as “first-time penalties” for newly identified types of misconduct.
Working with the State Administration for Market Regulation, CNIPA targeted illegal online business solicitation by patent and trademark agencies. Internet platforms were guided to intercept and remove over 100,000 pieces of illegal information and advertisements, and more than 2,200 platform user accounts were shut down. Public security organs investigated dozens of cases involving suspected forgery of official seals, misuse of information, and fraudulent acquisition of government subsidies through IP rights, with many cases referred for prosecution.
A comprehensive self-inspection and rectification exercise covered more than 50,000 patent and trademark agencies. Investigations focused on practices such as patent attorneys “hanging their certificates” at firms where they do not actually practice, and unqualified agencies or individuals providing patent application services.
The results:
- 187 patent agencies cleaned up
- 1,279 branch offices closed
- Over 6,000 practicing patent agents removed
- Nearly 10,000 trademark agencies restricted from handling business after failing identity verification
- 1.736 million abnormal electronic patent application accounts cleaned up
Authorities also organized self-inspections at more than 180 IP trading and operation platforms to prevent patent sales for improper purposes, and held talks with universities, research institutions, hospitals, and enterprises that had large numbers of abnormal patent applications, urging them to strengthen internal controls.
Beyond enforcement, the campaign addressed upstream factors contributing to low-quality and fraudulent patent activity. CNIPA intensified scrutiny of abnormal patent applications and application behaviors that violate good-faith principles. Verification of application information — including inventor identities — was strengthened, along with review of fee reduction and exemption claims. The campaign also promoted the optimization of regional patent policies that had previously incentivized quantity over quality.
Separately, CNIPA reported broader efforts to improve agency service quality, including working with the Ministry of Finance to issue government procurement demand standards that guide bidding away from price-based competition and toward quality-based evaluation of agency services.
A full transcript is available here (Chinese only).
