The China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) formally announced the newly amended Patent Examination Guidelines (“Guidelines”) effective on November 1, 2019. The Guidelines were amended to improve patent quality and efficient examination. Highlights 1. Examiner interviews are made more available, allowing applicants to request interviews anytime during substantive examination. 2. Applicants may request expedited examination pursuant to “Regulation on Patent Prioritized Examination.” 3. For same-day filing of invention and utility model patent applications, by default, the invention patent application is …