What is the longest protection period of China's invention patent?

1. What is the longest protection period of an invention patent in China? Applying for a patent means that the protection period of an invention is limited. According to China's patent law, inventions include three categories, namely inventions, utility models and designs. Among them, the protection period of invention patent right is 20 years, and the protection period of utility model patent right and design patent right is 10 year. This shows that once an invention is patented, it can only be protected by law for 20 years at most. After this period of time, your inventions and technological innovations will be placed in the public domain and contributed to society for free. After applying for a patent, it means that your invention will be made public and anyone can easily obtain your technology. Although it can be protected by law, this protection is strictly limited by legal provisions. In China, a vast country, there are bound to be great obstacles in protecting patent rights nationwide. For example, if you are an enterprise in Heilongjiang and get a patent right, an enterprise in Yunnan infringes your patent right, and the cost of compensating economic losses through law will be great, and enterprises often lose more than they gain. After the invention is announced, many people will develop new inventions based on your technology. Although this marks the progress of social productive forces for the whole society, losses are inevitable for a single enterprise. Because your invention is still protected by law, but it is already at a disadvantage compared with the newer technology, your economic interests will be difficult to guarantee. This is the case at the beginning of the article. It takes a certain fee to apply for a patent right, and an annual fee will be paid after obtaining the patent right. Although these expenses are not high, they can't be squandered by small and medium-sized enterprises. Especially those inventions that have no market value, it is meaningless to spend these time, energy and expenses to obtain the so-called patent right. Second, how to calculate the protection time of invention patent right 1, patent right has timeliness, which is one of the characteristics that patent right is different from tangible property ownership as intellectual property. As for the ownership of tangible property, if the property itself is not destroyed, the ownership of the property owner will always exist. The patent right is not like this. The patent term prescribed by law expires or terminates ahead of schedule. Although the invented technology itself still exists, the patent right does not exist. In other words, the exclusive right to use this technology no longer exists. Inventions have created social wealth and anyone can use it for free. When the law stipulates the term of the patent right, the interests of the patentee should be fully and properly protected, and the prescribed term of protection should not be too short, otherwise it will not be conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of invention and creation; At the same time, the interests of the state and the public should be considered, and the protection period of patent right should not be too long, otherwise it is not conducive to the promotion and application of advanced technology. China's Patent Law promulgated in 1984 stipulates that the term of invention patent is 15 years, and the term of utility model and design patent is 5 years, which can be extended for 3 years. When the Patent Law was first amended in 1992, the duration of invention patents was extended to 20 years, and that of utility model and design patents was extended to 15 years, which was consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and longer than the legal provisions of other countries in the world on the duration of patents, which fully reflected China's emphasis on intellectual property protection. Of course, for the patentee, during the legal patent protection period, the patentee can decide the actual protection period by not paying the annual fee or giving up the patent right according to the development cycle of the professional technology and the implementation of the patented technology. 2. According to the provisions of this article, the term of the patent right shall be calculated from the date of application, that is, from the date when the patent applicant actually submits a patent application to the patent administration department of China. The filing date mentioned here does not include the priority date. What is stipulated here is only the calculation of the start date of the patent term. With regard to the entry into force of the patent right, according to the provisions of Articles 39 and 40 of this Law, it shall come into effect as of the date when the patent administrative department of the State Council issues the patent certificate and makes an announcement. Like invention patents, utility model patents and design patents also have a certain protection period. According to the requirements in the patent law, the protection period of invention patents in China is the longest, that is, 20 years. If it is the other two patents, then the longest protection period is 10 year. Of course, this also needs to be based on the continuous payment of annual patent fees by the patentee as required during the protection period.