1978 in July, the central government made a decision that "China should establish a patent system". According to this decision, the former State Science and Technology Commission began to prepare for the establishment of China's patent system, and began to formulate the patent law from March 1979.
1984 March 12, the fourth session of the 6th the NPC Standing Committee passed the People's Republic of China (PRC) patent law. 1 985 April1day, the first day of the implementation of China's patent law, the former China Patent Office received a total of 3455 patent applications from home and abroad, which was praised by the World Intellectual Property Organization as creating a new record in the world patent history. China's patent law protects inventions, utility models and designs. In most countries, the patent law only protects inventions, while the protection of utility models and designs is legislated separately. China has stipulated the protection of inventions, utility models and designs in a law, all of which are called patents, which is one of the characteristics of China's patent law legislative system.
After the promulgation of the patent law, it has undergone two revisions. 1992 In September, China amended the patent law for the first time in order to better fulfill the commitments made by the China administration in the memorandum of understanding on intellectual property rights reached between China and the United States. In August, 2000, in order to meet the needs of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the Patent Law was revised for the second time.
In April 2005, China National Intellectual Property Administration initiated the preparation for the third revision of the Patent Law. In June 2008, the third revision of the Patent Law was included in the legislative work plan of the State Council in 2008. On February 27th, 65438, China's Patent Law was revised for the third time (hereinafter referred to as the 2008 Patent Law). The revised patent law will come into force on June 1 2009. Compared with the previous two revisions, this revision of the patent law is mainly a reflection of the country's own development needs, which is highlighted in strengthening the important role of the patent law in promoting China's independent innovation and building an innovative country.
The third revision of the Patent Law involves a lot of contents, but its overall style is to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of domestic and foreign patentees and give consideration to the balance of social interests on the basis of summing up the experience of China's patent legal system, so as to promote the patent system to better play its functions and roles in China. From the specific revision content, this revision pays special attention to strengthening the role of the patent law in improving China's independent innovation ability and strengthening patent protection on the basis of safeguarding public interests. After the adoption of the amendment to the patent law, public opinion generally believes that encouraging the improvement of innovation ability and strengthening the protection of patent rights are the main theme of this amendment to the patent law, which runs through the whole process of the patent law. So this can also be regarded as the main feature of the third revision of the patent law.