Once an enterprise decides to apply for a patent, it must analyze which countries to apply for it. Generally, the "market-oriented" application strategy is adopted, that is, the country with the largest market or the largest population is given priority to apply for patents. However, if the invention belongs to the high-tech category and only a few enterprises can produce such products, we should consider the "production-oriented" application strategy, that is, apply for patents in countries where competitors are engaged in production and operation. In case of infringement, the patentee can take legal measures to confiscate the infringing product in the country of origin, regardless of which country the product will be sold. For countries with highly developed industries and broad markets, these two strategies can be used at the same time. In short, enterprises should consider applying for patents in countries with potential markets or potential competitors to protect their market interests and competitive advantages in these countries. (1) Entrusting a patent agency An applicant who files an international application must entrust a foreign-related patent agency designated by the state. And submit application documents, pay fees and go through various procedures to the Chinese Patent Office. Dalian Oriental Patent Agency Co., Ltd. is the only foreign-related patent agency in Dalian, which has applied for more than 80 foreign-related patents for enterprises and individuals. (2) Selection of protection types in international applications At present, the number of PCT member countries has reached 139. These countries include the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia and other industrialized countries, all parties to the European Patent Convention, and developing countries such as South Korea and Brazil, covering almost all the important countries in the world that have implemented the patent system. When applying for an international application through the PCT channel, China applicants can choose one, several or even all member countries as designated countries and request them to grant patent rights. China applicants can obtain the following main benefits through the PCT project: 1. Applicants can apply in Chinese; 2. The applicant may file an application with the Chinese Patent Office to request foreign countries to grant patent protection; 3. The applicant only needs to submit a set of Chinese (or English) application documents to the Chinese Patent Office to determine the application date of the application, which is regarded as an application filed in each designated country on the same day; 4. Before entering the national phase of each country, the applicant has obtained the international search report and the international preliminary examination report. Through these two reports, the applicant can preliminarily judge the prospect of the application being granted a patent right in patent offices in various countries, so as to decide whether it is necessary to continue the national phase; 5. Postpone the entry into the national phase, so that the applicant can decide whether it is necessary to enter the scheduled designated country according to the market prospect and technological progress. Delaying the entry into the national phase generally does not affect the time for granting the patent right.
Legal objectivity:
An international patent is a patent application filed by an applicant with the Patent Office of a State Party in accordance with the prescribed procedures when an invention-creation is granted patent protection in the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). First of all, there is no international patent, and the exact name should be "International Patent Application". Secondly, the above sentence means that when a national of a State party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) wants to apply for patent protection for a certain technology in one or more States parties to the PCT, he can submit the application documents in the specified language to the accepting entity or the international bureau specified in the PCT according to the procedures specified in the PCT, and this submission procedure is deemed to have been completed. The Patent Office in China National Intellectual Property Administration, China is the accepting unit for the formulation of this Treaty, and Chinese is also the language specified in this Treaty. Therefore, China people can file an "international patent application" in Chinese in China National Intellectual Property Administration, China. Which countries and languages have been designated, you need to pay attention to the latest designated list at any time. In the past, in order to obtain patent protection from several countries, it was necessary to apply for patents from each country one by one, and the procedures and formalities were very cumbersome. In order to solve this problem, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and other countries held a diplomatic conference in Washington, USA, and signed the Patent Cooperation Treaty. As of May this year, its member countries have reached 85. In other words, the international application submitted by the applicant is valid in 85 countries. The purpose of PCT is to strengthen the legal protection of inventions and promote international scientific and technological progress and economic development by simplifying the procedures and formalities of international patent application. It should be noted that this procedure only simplifies the application stage and does not include the review and authorization stage. In other words, it is wrong for some people to establish the concept of "international patent", and patent protection can be obtained in all countries by submitting an application once. International application is divided into two stages: international and domestic. The international stage includes the acceptance, disclosure, retrieval and preliminary examination of international applications. The domestic stage mainly includes the review of international applications for authorization by designated countries or selected countries and the handling of other related affairs. I. Under what circumstances is it appropriate to file an international application? An application submitted in the manner specified in PCT is called an international application. Generally speaking, an international application is a patent application filed by a resident or national of a PCT Contracting State to protect several Contracting States. Before China joined the PCT, according to the principles of the Paris Convention, applicants could only file patent applications with foreign countries. After China joined the PCT, the applicant can also use the PCT to file an international application. When the applicant wants an invention to be protected by more than five countries (generally more than five countries), it is appropriate to use the PCT approach. Because only one international application needs to be submitted to the Chinese Patent Office through PCT, the trouble of submitting national applications to each country is avoided. It is worth pointing out that after China joined the PCT, individuals and units in China can still apply to foreign countries according to the principles of the Paris Convention. Especially when the applicant only needs to apply for a patent in one country or several countries, it is appropriate to use the Paris Convention. How to file an international application 1. First apply for a patent in China. Under normal circumstances, an individual or unit in China may file a national application with the Chinese Patent Office after making an invention. Then, an international application is filed within the priority period of 12 months, requesting priority. In this way, the applicant has 12 months to consider whether it is necessary to apply for a patent in a foreign country, how to apply, and make necessary preparations for filing an application. According to relevant regulations, individuals or units in China may also directly file international applications after making inventions and creations. However, in the application, China must be designated as a foreign country. 2. Preparation fee We know that applying for a patent abroad requires paying a considerable fee to foreign patent offices and patent agents, and it is settled in US dollars. According to the practice of patent agencies, it costs an average of $4,000 to $5,000 to apply for a patent in a country. If you calculate by five countries, you need to prepare about 20,000 to 25,000 US dollars. Applicants who submit international applications also need to pay the above fees (but the payment time can be delayed by 8 months to 18 months). In addition, the fees for the international phase of PCT should be paid, including the transmission fee, retrieval fee and international preliminary examination fee of about 265,438+000 yuan charged by China Patent Office and the basic fee, designation fee and handling fee of about 65,438+065,438+050 yuan charged by the International Bureau. If it is an international application filed by an individual from China; The fees charged by the International Bureau can be reduced by 75%. 3. Entrust a patent agency The applicant must entrust a prescribed patent agency to file an international application. Patent agencies will help applicants fill in various forms and modify the application documents. The agencies will submit the application documents to the China Patent Office, pay the fees and go through various formalities. Iii. Selection of protection types in international applications At present, the number of PCT member countries has reached 1 14. These countries include the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia and other industrialized countries, all parties to the European Patent Convention, and developing countries such as South Korea and Brazil, covering almost all the important countries in the world that have implemented the patent system. When applying for an international application through the PCT channel, China applicants can choose one, several or even all member countries as designated countries and request them to grant patent rights. PCT member countries give other forms of protection to national applications except invention patents, and also to international applications, such as some national utility models, small patents in Australia, and continued or partial applications in the United States. Therefore, applicants for international applications can choose different forms of protection in different designated countries according to their needs. Four. The examination and approval procedures for international applications include two stages: the international stage and the national stage. 1. International Stage The international stage is the first stage of the international application approval process. It includes the necessary procedures of international application acceptance, formal examination, international retrieval and international publication, as well as optional international preliminary examination procedures. In the international stage, the international application filed by individuals or units in China to the China Patent Office is handled by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and all other procedures are carried out in the China Patent Office. International retrieval means that the Chinese Patent Office searches the theme of international application according to the provisions of the treaty, finds out relevant documents and indicates their relevance. Usually, the Chinese Patent Office makes an international search report within 4 months from the date of international application. International preliminary examination means that the Chinese Patent Office examines the international application at the request of the applicant and puts forward preliminary and non-binding opinions on whether the invention requested for protection is novel, creative and industrial. Under normal circumstances, China Patent Office will make an international preliminary examination report within 9 months from the date of receiving the international preliminary examination request. 2. National Stage The national stage is the second stage of the international application approval process. The national phase is held in the patent office of the country where the applicant wishes to obtain the patent right (called the designated bureau or the selected bureau). Including the procedures for entering the national phase and the examination and approval procedures at each designated bureau or selected bureau. In the international stage, if the international application fails to request international preliminary examination within 0/9 months from the priority date, the time limit for entering the national stage (designated bureau) is 20 months from the priority date; For international applications that request international preliminary examination within 19 months from the priority date, the time limit for them to enter the national phase (selected bureau) is 30 months from the priority date. The main procedure for an international application to enter the national phase is to submit the translation of the international application documents and pay the prescribed national fees according to the regulations of various countries. After the international application enters the national stage, the patent offices of various countries will examine it according to the provisions of their own patent laws and regulations and decide whether to grant the patent right. 5. What benefits can China applicants get from the PCT project? China applicants can obtain the following main benefits through the PCT project: 1. Applicants can apply in Chinese; 2. The applicant may file an application with the Chinese Patent Office to request foreign countries to grant patent protection; 3. The applicant only needs to submit a set of Chinese (or English) application documents to the Chinese Patent Office to determine the application date of the application, which is regarded as an application filed in each designated country on the same day; 4. Before entering the national phase of each country, the applicant has obtained the international search report and the international preliminary examination report. Through these two reports, the applicant can preliminarily judge the prospect of the application being granted a patent right in patent offices in various countries, so as to decide whether it is necessary to continue the national phase; 5. Delay the entry into the national phase, so that the applicant can decide whether it is necessary to enter the scheduled designated country according to the market prospect and technological progress. Delaying the entry into the national phase generally does not affect the time for granting the patent right. International stage fee for intransitive verb PCT-(1) transfer fee CHY500 (2) search fee CNY 1500, additional search fee CNY 1500 (3) priority document transfer fee CNY 150 (4) preliminary examination fee CNY/. Copy fee CNY2 (7) basic fee per page 1. CHF6502, the international application shall not exceed 30 pages. 650 Swiss francs plus15 for an international application exceeding 30 pages (8) Operation fee 140 Swiss francs for each operation (no operation fee is required for more than 6 operations) (9) The designated confirmation fee is 50% of the total designated fee paid according to item 9 above140 for each assignment (140). (1 1) The handling fee CHF233 (12) will be charged at 50% of the payable fee. Below the delivery fee, according to the delivery fee. Higher than the basic fee, according to the basic fee. Note: Items 1 and 7- 12 are the fees charged by China National Intellectual Property Administration on behalf of the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. If the international application is submitted in paper form with an electronic copy in accordance with the provisions of administrative regulations, all fees paid in accordance with (7) and (8) shall be reduced by 200 Swiss francs. The cost of entering the national phase in China-(1) the grace period cost is 65,438+0,000; (2) Translation revision fee (primary stage) 300; (3) Translation revision fee (final stage) 65,438+0,200; (4) Singularity recovery fee of 900; (5) Request fee for correcting the priority claim is 300 Note: Other fees for entering the domestic stage shall be implemented according to domestic standards. (CNY refers to RMB; CHF means Swiss franc (Friendly Statement: The website sincerely disseminates intellectual property knowledge and information. If your copyright or related rights and interests are involved, please contact us in time and we will deal with it as soon as possible. The content contained in this website is for reference only. (2) Fee reduction: 75% of the fee can be reduced if the applicant is a natural person.