The invalidation procedure shall start at any time from the date when the patent administrative department of the State Council grants the patent right, and may last until the patent right is terminated. Because the decision to examine the request for invalidation can affect some matters before the termination of the patent right, it is allowed to make the request for invalidation after the termination of the patent right.
Second, the review of the request for invalidation. ?
After the Patent Reexamination Board accepts the request for invalidation through formal examination and starts the procedure of invalidation, it will form a collegial panel to examine the case of the request for invalidation.
Third, make a decision on examining the request for invalidation.
It is the collegial panel that makes the examination decision after examining the request for invalidation.
There are three kinds of examination decisions on the request for invalidation: one is to declare all patent rights invalid, the other is to declare some patent rights invalid, and the third is to maintain the patent rights valid.
Fourth, the follow-up judicial relief procedure. ?
If the obligee refuses to accept the decision of the Patent Reexamination Board to declare the patent right invalid or maintain the patent right, he may bring a lawsuit to the people's court with the Patent Reexamination Board as the defendant within 3 months from the date of receiving the notice. The court accepting the lawsuit and the nature of the lawsuit are the same as those filed against the review decision. It should be noted that the other party to the invalid procedure participated in the lawsuit as a third party.
Legal basis: The patent right declared invalid in Article 47 of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) is regarded as nonexistent from the beginning. The decision to declare the patent right invalid has no retrospective effect on the patent infringement judgments and conciliation statements made and executed by the people's court before the patent right was declared invalid, the decisions on handling patent infringement disputes that have been performed or executed, and the patent licensing contracts and patent transfer contracts that have been performed. However, if the patentee's malice causes losses to others, it shall make compensation. If the patent infringement compensation, patent exploitation fee and patent transfer fee are not returned in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, which obviously violates the principle of fairness, they shall be returned in whole or in part.