Your letter on soliciting opinions on assisting in the enforcement of the ruling on property preservation of patent application rights has been received. After study, the answers to the relevant questions are as follows:
1. The right to apply for a patent belongs to a property right of the patent applicant and can be used as the object of property preservation of the people's court. If the people's court takes property preservation measures in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Civil Procedure Law and needs to preserve the right to apply for a patent, it shall send a notice of assistance in execution to China National Intellectual Property Administration, stating the name, applicant, application number, duration of preservation and the contents of assistance in execution of preservation, including prohibiting changes in the description and suspending the examination and approval procedures, and attach a civil ruling on property preservation made by the people's court.
Two, the preservation period of the right to apply for a patent shall not exceed 6 months at a time, counting from the date when China National Intellectual Property Administration receives the notice of assistance in execution. If it is necessary to continue to take preservation measures for the patent application right at the expiration of the time limit, the people's court shall re-issue a notice of assistance in execution to China National Intellectual Property Administration before the expiration of the preservation period, requesting to continue the preservation. Otherwise, the property preservation deemed as the right to apply for a patent will be automatically lifted.
3. Your bureau shall ensure that the legal status of the right to apply for a patent will not change during the property preservation period after receiving the Notice of Assisting in the Implementation of Property Preservation Measures for the Right to Apply for a Patent issued by the people's court. Therefore, the relevant procedures of the preserved patent application should be suspended. We agree to your suggestion and handle it according to the provisions of Article 87 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law.
The above opinions are for reference.