The new guidelines of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will enter into force on January 1, 2026. The stated principle is clear: only genuine human inventors may be designated as such in applications for invention patents, utility models, and Chinese design patents. Legal entities, such as companies or institutions, as well as artificial intelligence systems, are expressly excluded.
In order to definitively exclude any inventor who is not a natural person and to ensure the authenticity of the declared inventors, the CNIPA requires their identification to be established at the time of filing the application. Accordingly, for each inventor, it is planned to make it mandatory to provide a name, a nationality, and a valid identification number, such as a passport number, identity card number, social security number, or driver’s license number.
Should AI be completely excluded from drafting patents intended to be filed in China? No. The explicit exclusion of AI systems from the category of inventors does not, however, mean that AI is, in principle, incompatible with filing a patent application in China. The issue is therefore less about its use than about the role assigned to it in the inventive process. A priori, where AI is used by a human inventor as a support tool, comparable to advanced software or an engineering tool, this should not call into question the human nature of the invention within the meaning of CNIPA requirements. Patent protection therefore remains conceivable, including under the new Chinese regime.
It should be noted that China’s position on inventorship is comparable to that of Europe, since as early as 2022 the European Patent Office expressly recognized that artificial intelligence could not be designated as an inventor in a patent application (case J 8/20). To date, China is the first country to require identification data as evidence of the human nature of the inventor.
From a practical standpoint, these requirements raise several significant issues, particularly regarding the processing of sensitive personal data, such as official identification numbers. It should be recalled that the provisions of the GDPR strictly govern the collection and processing of personal data. With our support, additional security measures will need to be immediately implemented by all parties involved in filing a patent application in China, including applicants and their service providers (for example, establishing a data processing register, implementing strict handling protocols, encrypting emails containing sensitive information, collecting consents, etc.). Although data protection is ensured within Chinese territory by GDPR provisions, the systematic transfer of identification data naturally increases the risk of cyberattacks for foreign inventors. As for the free consent of the natural persons designated as inventors, it is uncertain whether this will be practically achievable, given that refusal to provide an identity card or passport number will directly prevent the patent holder from seeking patent protection in China. It will be crucial for applicants in China to anticipate these new inventor-related formalities.
Hautier IP is currently monitoring, together with its network of agents in China, the practical implementation of these new provisions, and discussions are currently underway with the CNIPA with a view to not applying the obligation to provide an identification number to inventors of foreign nationality.
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