Chapter 1 General Provisions
Article 1. In order to protect the patent rights of inventions and creations, encourage inventions and creations, facilitate the promotion and application of inventions and creations, promote the development of science and technology, and adapt to socialist modernization This law is specially formulated to meet the needs of construction.
Article 2 The inventions and creations mentioned in this Law refer to inventions, utility models and designs.
Article 3 The Patent Office of the People’s Republic of China shall accept and examine patent applications and grant patent rights to inventions and creations that comply with the provisions of this Law.
Article 4 If the invention-creation for which a patent is applied for involves national security or major interests and needs to be kept confidential, it shall be handled in accordance with relevant national regulations.
Article 5 No patent rights will be granted for inventions and creations that violate national laws, social ethics or harm the interests of the public.
Article 6 For service inventions and creations that are performed to perform the tasks of the unit or are mainly completed by utilizing the unit’s material conditions, the right to apply for patents belongs to the unit; for non-service inventions and creations, the right to apply for patents belongs to the invention person or designer. After the application is approved, if a unit under the ownership of the whole people applies, the patent right will be held by the unit; if a unit under collective ownership or an individual applies, the patent right will belong to the unit or individual.
For service inventions and creations completed by staff of foreign-funded enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures in China, the right to apply for patents belongs to the enterprise; for non-service inventions and creations, the right to apply for patents belongs to the inventor or designer . After the application is approved, the patent right belongs to the applying enterprise or individual.
The owner and holder of a patent right are collectively referred to as the patentee.
Article 7 No unit or individual may suppress an inventor or designer’s non-service invention-creation patent application.
Article 8 For inventions and creations completed by the collaboration of two or more units or by one unit accepting research and design tasks entrusted by other units, unless otherwise agreed, the right to apply for a patent shall belong to the completion or *** The unit that completes the application together; after the application is approved, the patent right is owned or held by the unit that applied for it.
Article 9 If two or more applicants apply for patents for the same invention and creation, the patent right shall be granted to the person who applies first.
Article 10 The right to apply for a patent and the patent right may be transferred.
Any transfer of patent application rights or patent rights by a unit owned by the entire people must be approved by the superior authority.
Any transfer of patent application rights or patent rights by Chinese entities or individuals to foreigners must be approved by the relevant competent authorities of the State Council.
To transfer patent application rights or patent rights, the parties must enter into a written contract, which will take effect after being registered and announced by the Patent Office.
Article 11 After the patent right for an invention or utility model is granted, except as provided in Article 14 of this Law, no unit or individual may exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, It is not allowed to manufacture, use or sell its patented products or use its patented methods for production and business purposes.
After the design patent right is granted, no unit or individual may exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, it may not manufacture or sell its design patented products for production and business purposes.
Article 12 Any unit or individual that exploits another person’s patent, except as provided in Article 14 of this Law, must enter into a written license contract with the patentee and pay the patentee a fee for the use of the patent. fee. The licensee has no right to allow any unit or individual other than those specified in the contract to exploit the patent.
Article 13 After the invention patent application is published, the applicant may require the unit or individual who implements the invention to pay appropriate fees.
Article 14 The relevant competent departments of the State Council and the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government have the right to decide, in accordance with the national plan, the permitted designation of important invention and creation patents held by the national ownership units within the system or under their jurisdiction. If an entity implements the patent, the implementing entity shall pay royalties to the entity holding the patent right in accordance with national regulations.
If the patents of China's collective ownership units and individuals are of great significance to national interests or public interests and need to be promoted and applied, the relevant competent departments of the State Council shall report them to the State Council for approval and handle them in accordance with the provisions of the previous paragraph.
Article 15 The patentee has the right to indicate the patent mark and patent number on its patented product or the packaging of the product.
Article 16 All entities or holders of patent rights shall reward inventors or designers of service inventions; after the invention-creation patent is implemented, the award shall be based on the scope of its promotion and application and the economic benefits obtained. Benefit, reward the inventor or designer.
Article 17 The inventor or designer has the right to indicate that he or she is the inventor or designer in the patent document.
Article 18 If a foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization without a habitual residence or business office in China applies for a patent in China, he or she shall participate in the patent application in accordance with the agreement signed between the country where he belongs and China or the independent party. international treaties, or in accordance with the principle of reciprocity and in accordance with this law.
Article 19 If a foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization without a habitual residence or business office in China applies for a patent or handles other patent affairs in China, he shall entrust the State Council of the People's Republic of China and the State Council to Designated patent agency.
Chinese entities or individuals who apply for patents and handle other patent matters domestically can entrust a patent agency to handle them.
Article 20 If a Chinese entity or individual applies for a patent in a foreign country for an invention or creation completed domestically, it shall first apply for a patent to the Patent Office and, with the consent of the relevant competent authorities under the State Council, entrust a patent application designated by the State Council to Handled by patent agency.
Article 21 Before a patent application is published or announced, the staff of the Patent Office and relevant personnel shall be responsible for keeping its contents confidential.
Chapter 2 Conditions for Granting Patent Rights
Article 22 Inventions and utility models for which patent rights are granted shall possess novelty, creativity and practicality.
Novelty means that before the filing date, the same invention or utility model has not been published in domestic or foreign publications, publicly used in the country, or otherwise known to the public, nor has the same invention or utility model been published in domestic or foreign publications before the filing date. The invention or utility model has been applied for by others to the Patent Office and is recorded in the patent application documents published after the filing date.
Creativity means that compared with the existing technology before the filing date, the invention has outstanding substantive features and significant progress, and the utility model has substantive features and progress.
Practicality means that the invention or utility model can be manufactured or used and can produce positive effects.
Article 23 The design for which a patent right is granted shall be different or similar to the design that has been publicly published in domestic and foreign publications or has been publicly used domestically before the filing date.
Article 24 If an invention-creation for which a patent is applied for falls under any of the following circumstances within six months before the filing date, the novelty will not be lost:
1. In the case of the Chinese Government Exhibited for the first time at a sponsored or recognized international exhibition;
2. Published for the first time at a prescribed academic conference or technical conference;
3. Others without the applicant’s consent and leak its contents.
Article 25 No patent rights shall be granted for the following items:
1. Scientific discoveries;
2. Rules and methods of intellectual activities;
3. Diagnosis and treatment methods of diseases;
4. Food, beverages and condiments;
5. Drugs and substances obtained by chemical methods;
6. Animal and plant species;
7. Substances obtained by nuclear transformation.
Patent rights may be granted in accordance with the provisions of this Law for the production methods of the products listed in items 4 to 6 of the preceding paragraph.