1. The term of patent protection refers to the term of patent protection after the patent is granted the right. After the patent right for invention and utility model is granted, except as otherwise provided in the Patent Law, no unit or individual may exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, it may not manufacture, use, promise to sell, sell or import its patented products for production and business purposes, or use its patented methods and use, promise to sell, sell or import products directly obtained according to the patented methods.
1. Duration of protection of the invention patent: 20 years from the date of authorizing the application for the invention patent.
2. Term of protection of utility model patent: authorized utility model patent, from the date of filing 10 year.
3. Protection period of design patent: authorized design patent, from the date of application 10 year.
It should be noted that after the patent is granted, the protection period is calculated from the application date, which is generally the date when the application is submitted to the Patent Office (specifically, the time determined by the acceptance notice issued by the Patent Office).
The protection of the patent law is that after the patent right of design is granted, no unit or individual may exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, it may not manufacture, promise to sell, sell or import the patented product of design for the purpose of production and operation.
Two. Reasons for termination before the expiration of the patent right:
(1) unpaid annual fee
(2) A written waiver
In fact, the real protection start date is from the authorization date; So that is to say, the real protection date is not ten or twenty years, but less than this time.
Third, the judgment of the scope of patent protection
1. The scope of protection of the patent right for invention or utility model shall be subject to the content of the claim, which may be explained by the specification or attached drawings. How to determine the content of patent protection shall be subject to the scope determined by the claims. The scope of protection of the patent right of design shall be subject to the patented product of design shown in pictures or photographs. The patent protection right granted by a country or region is only valid within the scope of that country or region, and other countries and regions have no legal effect, so the patent protection right is not recognized.
2. Term of patent protection: 20 years for invention patents, and 10 year for utility model patents and designs from the date of application. If the patent protection period expires, the annual fee is not paid or the patent is voluntarily abandoned, the patent right will no longer be protected. The independent claim includes a preamble part and a characteristic part. The preface shall indicate the name of the technical scheme of the invention or utility model, the necessary technical features of the existing technology closest to the theme of the invention or utility model, and the technical features different from the closest existing technology shall be indicated in the feature part. The technical features of the characteristic part are combined with the technical features of the preamble part to define the scope of protection required by the invention or utility model.
For example, in a technical claim, a product consists of A and B, and is characterized by C and D. The technical scheme required to be protected in the claim includes complete A, B, C and D, not just technical features C and D. If someone else's product only contains technical features, examples A, B, C or A, B and D are not infringement, only when all technical features of A, B, C and D are covered.
3. The scope of protection of the patent right of design shall be subject to the patented product of design shown in pictures or photographs. The application for design does not need to submit written documents such as claims and specifications, but it needs to submit pictures or photographs. The criteria for judging whether there is infringement are: using the same or similar design on the same or similar product as the patented product is regarded as infringement, and the same product means the same use and function; Similar products refer to products with the same purpose but different specific functions.
When determining the scope of patent protection, the technical content recorded in the patent claim should be regarded as a complete technical scheme, that is, the technical scheme expressed by all technical features recorded in the independent claim should be regarded as a whole, and the technical features recorded in the preface and the technical features recorded in the feature part should be combined to determine the scope of patent protection. The technical features of the preface and the feature part have the same effect on limiting the scope of patent protection.
Legal basis:
patent law of the people's republic of china
Article 42 The term of patent right for invention is 20 years, and the term of patent right for utility model and patent right for design is 10 years, counting from the date of application.