Legal analysis: the protection period of a design patent is ten years, counting from the date of application. According to the provisions of the patent law, all patent rights shall take effect from the date of authorization announcement. Since the patent application can only be granted after it has been examined by the Patent Office, it will take some time from the date of application to the date of authorization announced by the Patent Office, so the effective period for the design patentee to actually obtain legal protection must be within ten years.
Legal basis: Article 42 of People's Republic of China (PRC) Patent Law: The term of invention patent is 20 years, and the term of utility model patent and design patent is 10 years, counting from the date of filing.