On 31 May, two NEFU invention patent applications were granted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration through the fast preliminaryhearingchannel of the China (Heilongjiang) Intellectual Property Protection Center. The first granted patent application was filed on 18 April 2022 and took only 31 working days from the application to grant. The other patent for invention was filed on 8 April 2022, and the granting period was 37 working dayswhichis a 92% reduction compared to the average examination period of 18.5 months for an ordinary invention patent.

In the fast preliminarypatenthearing,our universitysubmitted theapplication, submited our students' and teachers' patent applications to the Intellectual Property Protection Centerof our province, and after examination, entered the fastpreliminaryhearingchannel and submits the patent application to the China National Intellectual Property Administration,which is an important way to shorten the patent granting cycle. Within one month after our university launched the fastpreliminarypatent application service, eight caseshave been submitted, of which two have been granted, and two have been submitted to the China National Intellectual Property Administration through the fast preliminaryhearingchannel and four are pending their qualificationhearing.

The successful granting of our invention patent fastpreliminary hearingcases demonstrates the professionalcompetenceofNEFU,improved the efficiency of our intellectual property protection and highlights our professional advantages. During thepreliminary hearingprocess, the staff strictly abided by the operational procedures and strengthened the process management, providing quality IPR services for our teachers and students.

In the next step, the university will further standardize the management services, optimize the workflow, control the quality of patents from the submission side, improve the efficiency of patent preliminary hearing, and shorten the patent examinationperiod. We will closely focus on the two advantageous industriesof equipment manufacturing and biomedicine, provide quality and efficientservices for our teachers and students, and escort the high-quality development of intellectual property rights for our university.