China Backs Off Foreign Inventor ID Requirement: What U.S. Applicants Need to Know for 2026 Filings
On the eve of the new Chinese Guidelines for Patent Examination taking effect January 1, 2026, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has quietly, but significantly, softened its position on identity numbers for non-Chinese inventors.
Until very recently, the working assumption (based on the text of Decision No. 84 and CNIPA seminar guidance) was that identity numbers would be required for all inventors, with PRC national ID numbers for Chinese inventors and passport or equivalent national identifiers for foreign inventors. Many readers have already updated inventor forms, HR processes, and privacy frameworks accordingly.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. on December 31, CNIPA’s e-filing department issued updated guidance that changes the landscape:
ID numbers will be mandatory only for inventors of Chinese nationality, and
ID numbers will not be mandatory for non-Chinese inventors, including inventors from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
This revised e‑filing position has been confirmed by a local Chinese firm directly with CNIPA’s consultation desk, which has expressly stated that the ID number field for foreign inventors may now be left blank.
For U.S. applicants and multinational R&D teams—particularly in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors—this is a very welcome development. It preserves CNIPA’s objective of authenticating Chinese inventors’ identities while eliminating the most problematic aspect of the earlier interpretation: forced collection and transmission of foreign passport or national ID numbers in a way that conflicted with data‑privacy norms in many jurisdictions.
What follows is a concise, updated summary of where things now stand and what you actually need to do as of January 1, 2026.
What Has Not Changed: The Guidelines Themselves
It is essential to separate the black‑letter amended Guidelines for Patent Examination (Guidelines) from how the e‑filing system will implement them.
Decision No. 84 and the amended Guidelines still provide that:
Inventors must be natural persons – no institutions, research groups, or AI systems may be listed as inventors.
“The identity information of all inventors shall be entered in the request, and the authenticity of the information shall be ensured.”
Patent agencies have a duty to verify the authenticity of identity information and contact details supplied for applicants, and in practice are expected to exercise similar care for inventors.
Those provisions remain in force as of January 1, 2026. In other words:
You must still list real human inventors, and
You must still provide accurate, truthful identity information for each inventor.
The breaking news is about how much identity information CNIPA will insist upon, and for whom, at the e‑filing stage.
The Breaking Development: ID Numbers Now Required Only for Chinese Inventors
According to CNIPA’s latest e‑filing guidance, as relayed today:
For filing Chinese patent applications or PCT national phase entries in China, ID numbers will be mandatory for inventors whose nationality is Chinese, and no longer be mandatory for inventors whose nationality is not Chinese.
A subsequent telephone confirmation with CNIPA’s consultation desk further clarified that:
The ID number field for foreign inventors, including those from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, may now be left blank; and
This represents a revision of the stance communicated in the past weeks, which had led many to believe that identity numbers would be required for all inventors, regardless of nationality.
This is more than a subtle tweak. Practically, it means that CNIPA is drawing a clear nationality-based line in how it operationalizes the “identity information” requirement:
For Chinese nationals, CNIPA will insist on a Chinese national ID number (PRC Resident Identity Card number) at filing.
For non‑Chinese nationals, including U.S., EU, UK, and also Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan inventors, CNIPA will not require a government‑issued ID number in the e‑filing fields.
CNIPA has also asked that any prior communications premised on the broader “all inventors” ID‑number requirement—including newsletters issued earlier this week—be treated as reflecting a now‑superseded position.
Practical Impact for U.S. Applicants
Chinese citizen inventors: obligation unchanged—and still strict
For inventors of Chinese nationality, nothing in today’s development loosens the requirement:
Expect Chinese associates to continue requiring PRC Resident ID numbers for every Chinese inventor listed on a Chinese application (direct filing, PCT national phase, or divisional).
Those numbers should be treated as highly sensitive personal information under PRC’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), and transferred and stored accordingly.
From a U.S. applicant’s perspective, prior recommendations on Chinese inventors still hold:
Ensure HR/onboarding processes for China‑based staff and Chinese nationals abroad can securely collect and make available PRC ID numbers for IP use.
Make clear in internal disclosures that such data may be used for patent filings in China.
Non‑Chinese inventors (including U.S., EU, and HK/Macau/Taiwan): ID numbers now optional
The major change is for inventors who are not of Chinese nationality, namely:
U.S., European, Japanese, Korean, and other foreign inventors; and
Inventors from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (whom CNIPA has now explicitly grouped with “foreign inventors” for this e‑filing purpose).
For these inventors:
An ID number (such as a passport number or local ID) is no longer mandatory.
The ID number field may be left blank when completing CNIPA’s electronic filing form.
This should come as significant relief to:
U.S. companies concerned that collecting passport numbers for all inventors would conflict with internal privacy practices and external regulatory regimes;
European applicants sensitive to GDPR constraints around the collection and processing of unique identifiers; and
Multinationals with R&D hubs in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, where local ID numbers are also treated as sensitive personal data.
You may, of course, still choose to collect and provide foreign passport or national ID numbers—for example, to maintain a harmonized “inventor identity pack” across jurisdictions—but this will be a business and counseling decision, not a CNIPA-imposed obligation.
What “identity information” for foreign inventors should now include
Even without a mandatory ID number, the underlying requirement to provide authentic identity information for each inventor remains. In practice, for non‑Chinese inventors, that typically means:
Full name (preferably matching the inventor’s passport or other official document), and
Nationality (e.g., “United States”, “Germany”, “Japan”).
How to Adjust Your Practice Going Forward
For many readers, the last week has involved hurried efforts to re-engineer inventor intake processes to capture passport numbers and local IDs worldwide. In light of today’s developments, it is appropriate to recalibrate:
Do not expend scarce compliance capital on forcing non‑Chinese inventors to provide passport or other national ID numbers solely for Chinese filings.
Do maintain and reinforce processes for obtaining and safeguarding PRC ID numbers for Chinese citizen inventors, which remain mandatory.
Do continue to ensure that inventors are correctly identified as natural persons and that the inventorship is accurate—particularly for AI‑assisted R&D projects—even though the foreign ID‑number pressure has been lifted.
Key Takeaways
CNIPA has narrowed the ID‑number requirement to Chinese nationals only. For filings on or after January 1, 2026, PRC national ID numbers are mandatory for inventors of Chinese nationality, but not required for non‑Chinese inventors, including those from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
The underlying Guidelines still require authentic identity information for all inventors, and still prohibit non‑human and institutional inventors. You must continue to name real individual inventors and ensure accurate attribution, particularly in AI‑assisted projects.
For U.S. applicants, the most burdensome part of the earlier interpretation has been removed. There is no longer a need to systematically collect and transmit passport numbers or other government ID numbers for non‑Chinese inventors solely to satisfy CNIPA’s e‑filing requirements.
Chinese inventors remain a special case. You should maintain robust processes to collect, protect, and provide PRC Resident ID numbers for all Chinese-citizen inventors listed on applications filed in China, in compliance with PRC data‑protection law.
Prior guidance premised on mandatory ID numbers for all inventors is now outdated. Any internal or external memoranda that reflect the earlier CNIPA stance should be updated to reflect the current, narrower requirement.
In short, China’s 2026 inventor‑identity regime remains significant, but its most controversial extraterritorial element was rolled back at the last moment. For U.S. and other foreign applicants, the focus can now return to what has always been the core issue in both patent and regulatory practice: getting inventorship right, and documenting it well.
This post was written by Lisa Mueller.