According to the relevant provisions of China's patent law, the protection of patent validity period has a certain number of years, of which the protection period of invention patent is 20 years, and that of design and utility model patent is 10 year. It should be noted that after the patent is granted, the protection period is from the date of application, usually the date of submitting the application to the Patent Office (specifically, the time determined by the acceptance notice issued by the Patent Office).
Different countries have different protection scopes for patent objects.
In China, the objects of patent protection include inventions, utility models and designs. Obviously, the creativity of invention is far higher than utility model and design. Especially in China, many new designs and real designs are junk patents, so the protection period of inventions is naturally longer than the latter.
Regarding the provisions of 20 years and 10 years, the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights clearly stipulates the minimum period, and the European patent convention also stipulates similar protection periods. So China is basically the same as other countries in the world.