The past week has seen the State Intellectual Property Office commence their process of amendment of the Regulation on Electronic Applications for Patents. They have both produced and disseminated draft copies of the Electronic Applications and taken aboard advice from the public. Liang Xie, Patent Attorney at Lehman, Lee and Xu, has suggested that these amendments have resulted in a number of important changes. Firstly, in the case of there being more than two people as applicants and where a patent agency has not been appointed, the main representative shall be the one who initially submitted the electronic application. Secondly, where an initial application has been made in paper and been processed, the applicant may apply to switch the paper applications to electronic applications for patents, unless the application must be kept confidential such as in cases concerning national security or vital interests. Mr Xie also disclosed that requirements regarding online payment methods have been agreed.