Patents are territorial, which means that a patent only obtains legal protection in the region where its application is authorized.
From this perspective, if a foreign patent has not been applied for in China, then the first choice is that the patent is not protected by law in China, and domestic companies can imitate the patented technology or products for free without worrying about infringement.
Furthermore, can domestic companies apply for and obtain authorization?
Domestic enterprises can apply for this patent because the patent law does not prohibit application.
However, domestic enterprises may not be able to obtain authorization. Strictly speaking, domestic units should not obtain authorization.
Because my country’s patent law stipulates that inventions and creations that obtain patent protection should have “novelty, creativity and practicality”, where “novelty” means that no identical inventions and creations have been used before the patent application date. The invention is recorded in public publications, the same invention is not known to the public in other ways, and there is no conflicting application. Simply put, the poster's situation is a loss of novelty caused by "recording it in a public publication". Therefore, when a domestic enterprise files a patent application with the China Patent Office, if the application undergoes substantive examination and there are no omissions, it should The application was rejected on the grounds of loss of novelty. However, in actual work, since only invention patents are subject to substantive examination, and utility model & design patents are not subject to search, patent rights may also be granted. However, this right is precarious and any member of the public can invalidate the patent through post-grant proceedings. A patent right that is declared invalid is deemed to have ceased to exist from the beginning.
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