How to calculate the patent term?

The term of patent right refers to the termination time of the legal term of patent right. If the patent right has not been terminated for other reasons since the announcement of the patent authorization, the patent right shall be terminated on the expiration of the patent authorization. According to the provisions of the patent law, the term of invention patent is 20 years; The term of utility model patent and design patent is 10 year, counting from the date of application. Although the patent term stipulated in the patent law is calculated from the date of application, this is only the starting point for calculating the patent term, which does not mean that the patent right will take effect from the date of application. Since the patent application must be examined by the Patent Office to obtain the patent right, it will take some time from the date of application to the announcement of authorization made by the Patent Office. In this way, the term of validity of the patentee of invention patent must be less than 20 years, and the term of validity of the patentee of utility model and design patent must be less than 10 years.

Legal basis:

The date of Article 41 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) (referring to the date of filing; Where there is priority, it refers to the priority date), where an application for a patent for the same invention-creation is filed, the applicant shall be determined through consultation after receiving the notice from the patent administration department of the State Council. Where the same applicant applies for a patent for utility model and a patent for invention on the same day (the date of filing), it shall separately state that he has applied for another patent for the same invention-creation; If there is no explanation, it shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 9 of the Patent Law that only one patent right can be granted to the same invention-creation. When the patent administration department of the State Council announces the grant of the patent right for utility model, it shall also announce that the applicant has applied for a patent for invention in accordance with the provisions of the second paragraph of this article. If the application for a patent for invention is not rejected after examination, the administrative department for patent in the State Council shall notify the applicant to give up the patent right for utility model within the prescribed time limit. If the applicant gives up, the patent administration department in the State Council shall make a decision to grant the patent right for invention, and announce the statement of the applicant giving up the patent right for utility model together with the announcement of granting the patent right for invention. If the applicant does not agree to give up, the patent administration department of the State Council shall reject the application for a patent for invention; If the applicant fails to reply within the time limit, it shall be deemed to have withdrawn the application for a patent for invention. The patent right for utility model shall terminate as of the date of announcement of the patent right for invention.