1) What do you mean when you say someone abroad did it? Patents are about the application system, that is, in which country (such as the United States) a patent is applied for, and the patent obtains the patent rights of that country (the United States), then it is protected in that country (the United States), except for the applicant, any unit or It is illegal for personal use (in the United States), but without application in other countries (such as China), you cannot obtain protection. Any unit or individual in China can use it domestically, and it will not constitute infringement. However, it should be noted that , never export your products to a country with patent rights (the United States). . . In other words, the protection of patents is based on national boundaries, so the administrative department is the State Intellectual Property Office (the names vary from country to country, for example, Taiwan calls it Intellectual Property Rights), which is under the jurisdiction of the Patent Office. Therefore, to apply for a patent, you need to follow the national intellectual property laws. To apply to the Patent Office of the Intellectual Property Office, submit the application documents to the above-mentioned Patent Office for review and approval.
2) Supplementary question: If you have applied for a patent abroad, you need to search on the website of the intellectual property office of each country. If there is, it means there is, if not, there is not. Of course, the premise is that the search is complete. Generally, the main search is The United States, Europe, Japan and domestic; similarly, infringement applies to national boundaries, as I have explained above, but you need to note that the patent application cycle is relatively long, generally taking about 3 years to be authorized, so the search is not available now, and It does not mean that foreign applicants have not applied. It may not have been announced yet. There is a certain time lag. This is too complicated and you may not understand it. What needs to be judged is that if the patent applied for abroad 3 years ago does not exist in China, you can It can be done, but you need to pay attention to it within 3 years. It may be authorized in China after a while. It is recommended to ask professionals in this regard. I can only talk about it in general; in addition, patent protection has a time limit, and some are 20 years. , some things are 10 years old. Anyone can use it after it expires, so you can use it with confidence, without any problems