On May 31, 2012, the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China released the Notice NO.147, announcing the adoption of Administration Measures on Providing Subsidies to Domestic Applicant for Patent Application in Foreign Countries ('Measures').

The central government will establish a special fund to provide subsidies to qualified domestic applicants applying for patents in foreign countries. And the total subsidy for one patent applications will not exceed 100,000 RMB (about 16,000 USD); the subsidy will be used to refund the application fee, official fees and service fees paid to the patent agents. Qualified domestic applicants include medium and small enterprises, entities, and research institutions. These measures also include qualified Sino-foreign joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises.

In accordance with these Measures, if an applicant chooses a foreign patent agent for patent application in foreign countries, the applicant will not be qualified for subsidies. So if qualified enterprise intends to be refunded, the enterprise should choose domestic patent agent for handling patent application issues.

Although these Measures were adopted on May 31, 2012, they came into effect on April 14, 2012.