China Copyright Protection Services
Hotline: 86-755-82143410, Email:info@citilinkia.com
A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent and that protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed or sold without the patent owner's consent.
Application/Registration
Foreign companies without a registered office in China must use a local patent attorney to handle the filing of a patent. The quality of the patent attorney and the quality of the application is critical for the value of the protective right. Treat your patent applications as one of your company's most valuable assets in China.
Three ways to file a patent
Directly filing a patent application in China
Filing a patent application first in a foreign country (must be a Member State of the Paris Convention, like all EU countries), and then file a second patent application in China within 12 months (6 months for designs), claiming the priority date of the first application.
Filing an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), naming China as one of the designated states. A PCT application can be filed with the European Patent Office or any national patent office within the EU. The applicant has to initiate the 'national phase', i.e. the procedure with the Chinese Patent Office, no later than 30 months from the priority date
Terms of the patent
Invention 20 years from the filing date
Utility Model 10 years from the filing date
Design 10 years from the filing date
The average duration of application/registration procedure is 3 to 5 years for invention patents while for utility/design patents it amounts to 1 year. In order to obtain enforceable protection rights as soon as possible, it is advisable to file a utility and invention patent application in parallel, and abandon the utility model patent once the invention patent has been issued.
What Cannot be Patented
According to Articles 5 and 25 of the Chinese Patent Law, no patent right is granted to any of the followings:
Invention-creations that are contrary to the laws of the State or social morality or that is detrimental to public interest;
Invention-creations which rely on genetic resources that are obtained or exploited in violation of laws and regulations;
Scientific discoveries;
Rules and methods for mental activities;
Methods for diagnosis or for treatment of diseases;
Animal and plant varieties;
Substances obtained by means of nuclear transformation;
Two dimensional designs of images, colors or combination of the two that mainly serve asindicators.
Contact us
For further queries, please do not hesitate to contact ATAHK at anytime, anywhere by simply calling China hotline at 86-755-82148419, 86-755-82143512 or emailing to info@citilinkia.com.