As of the 1st of January 2026, regulations in Chinese intellectual property law are shifting to impact the measure of patentability for AI-related inventions.
Key takeaways
- China has introduced stricter examination standards for AI-related patent applications, with a strong emphasis on legal compliance, ethics, inventive step and sufficiency of disclosure.
- AI inventions involving unlawful data use, algorithmic discrimination or violations of public interest will not be patentable.
- Merely applying existing AI models to new scenarios without substantive technical modification is unlikely to satisfy the inventive step requirement.
- Applicants are expected to provide more detailed technical disclosure of AI models, training processes and data relationships.
Background
On 10 November 2025, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued Order No. 84 amending the guidelines for patent examination, with effect from the 1st of January 2026. The amendments follow a public consultation process and build upon the Guidelines for Patent Applications Related to Artificial Intelligence (Trial) issued in December 2024.
AI is a major focus of the amendments, reflecting both rapid technological development and increasing regulatory attention to ethical and governance concerns.
Key changes affecting AI-related patent applications
Ethical and legal compliance as a patentability requirement
CNIPA has explicitly introduced examination standards under Article 5(1) of the Patent Law, pursuant to which inventions that violate laws, social morality or public interests are excluded from patent protection.
In practice, this means that AI inventions involving:
- unlawful collection or use of personal data (e.g. facial recognition without consent); or
- algorithmic decision-making based on discriminatory criteria (such as gender or age),
may be refused on public policy and ethics grounds, regardless of their technical merits.
Inventive step: substance over application scenario
The amended Guidelines clarify that:
- changing only the application scenario or target object of an existing AI algorithm or model, without substantive technical modification, will generally be insufficient to establish an inventive step; whereas
- meaningful changes to model structure, parameters, training methods or technical effects, even within a similar application field, may establish an inventive step.
This reinforces CNIPA’s expectation of a genuine technical contribution, rather than a repackaging of known AI techniques.
Higher disclosure threshold for AI inventions
Applicants must now pay closer attention to sufficiency of disclosure, particularly where AI models exhibit “black box” characteristics.
Specifications should generally disclose:
- model architecture (modules, layers and connections);
- training steps and key parameters; and
- the technical relationship between input and output data, especially where AI is applied to specific industrial or medical scenarios.
Refinement of the examination object for AI and big data-related applications
The first sentence of Section 6.1 “Examination Principles” has been amended from:
“Examination shall be conducted with respect to the solution for which protection is sought, namely the solution defined in the claims,”
to:
“Examination shall be conducted with respect to the solution for which protection is sought, namely the solution defined in the claims, and, where necessary, with respect to the contents of the description.”
This amendment enables a more comprehensive and thorough examination of AI- and big data–related patent applications.
Practical implications for applicants
- Early compliance review: assess data sources, training logic and decision rules for legal and ethical risks.
- Drafting strategy: emphasise technical improvements to AI models, not merely new application contexts.
- Disclosure discipline: balance protection scope with sufficient technical detail to meet CNIPA standards.
At Mathys & Squire, we have patent attorneys who specialise in AI and the patentability of AI-related inventions, as well as patent attorneys with experience filing patents in China. Please get in touch with a member of our team here if you are seeking advice.
