Article 19 If a foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization without a habitual residence or business office in China applies for a patent and handles other patent affairs in China, it shall entrust a patent agency designated by the patent administration department in the State Council to handle it.
The reason for this provision is that patent agency is different from ordinary civil agency, and the agency behavior of patent agency is not a civil behavior, but an application behavior in administrative law. Due to this kind of agency behavior, the client and China National Intellectual Property Administration have formed a legal relationship of administrative procedure. In this legal relationship, China National Intellectual Property Administration needs to serve documents to the client, that is, the applicant. If the applicant has no domicile or business premises in China, it will take a long time or even be difficult to deliver the documents directly to the applicant in China National Intellectual Property Administration. Therefore, foreigners, foreign enterprises or other organizations that have no habitual residence or business office in China shall entrust agents to apply for patents and handle other patent affairs. In addition, compulsory agency is also conducive to protecting the interests of the applicants concerned. First of all, according to the principle of national sovereignty, foreigners and foreign organizations should use Chinese when applying for patents in China. Foreigners and foreign organizations who have no habitual residence or business office in China often don't know Chinese. Patent agencies in China can provide good professional translators for applicants. Secondly, foreign applicants, even foreign patent agents, are often not familiar with the various forms and substantive requirements of patent applications in China, so they need the help of patent agencies in China.