Patent Priority and Conflicting Applications

When pending applications and comparison documents do not involve priority, the judgment of conflicting applications is relatively simple. When one or both of them enjoy domestic priority, Article 10 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law stipulates: "Except in the cases stipulated in Articles 28 and 42 of the Patent Law, the filing date mentioned in the Patent Law means the priority date", so it is easy for everyone to understand that the filing date as a criterion for judging whether the application violates the priority date. However, when reviewing applications or comparing documents to enjoy foreign priority, some people think that priority is based on earlier applications filed in other countries, when the applicant did not file an application in China, and another criterion for judging conflicting applications is limited to those filed by others in China, so they have doubts about whether the filing date can be advanced to the priority date.