Recently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) have jointly issued the Circular on Fully Implementing Paperless Processing for Intellectual Property Rights Pledge Registration in Banking and Financial Institutions (the "Circular").
The Circular outlines the initiative of fully implementing paperless processing for intellectual property rights (IPR) pledge registration across all banking and financial institutions nationwide. According to the Circular, banking and financial institutions are supported to go through patent pledge registration formalities online via the patent business processing system. For those meeting the registration requirements and making a commitment to consistency between the electronic documents and the original paper documents submitted for pledge registration, after the CNIPA issues the Notice of Patent Pledge Registration, the submission of the original paper documents are no longer required. For banking and financial institutions that are not yet capable of implementing paperless processing for patent pledge registration, they shall undergo the pledge registration formalities in accordance with the Measures for the Registration of Pledging of Patent Rights.