Legal basis: Article 36 of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC). When requesting substantive examination, the applicant for a patent for invention shall submit reference materials related to his invention before the filing date.
Where an application for a patent for invention is filed in a foreign country, the patent administration department of the State Council may require the applicant to submit the information retrieved during the examination of his application in that country or the information on the examination results within a specified time limit; If the application is not submitted within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.