What is the longest period of validity of a patent?

1. What is the longest period of validity of a patent? According to the provisions of China's patent law, the term of the invention patent right is 20 years, and the term of the utility model patent right and the design patent right is 10 years, all of which are counted from the date of application. Before the TRIPS Agreement came into effect, most countries stipulated that the term of invention patent right was 15 years or 20 years. In the field of drugs and pesticides, applicants need to carry out a series of tests and go through many formalities before they can get the approval of the competent authorities and be sold after passing the examination by the competent authorities. In addition, the research and development costs of many drugs, especially biological drugs, are quite high. If the patent term is 15 years, many patentees in these fields will not be able to recover their huge investment, and the result will inevitably affect their enthusiasm for invention and creation. In order to encourage the patentee's invention and creation, when China revised the Patent Law in 1992, the term of invention patent was extended from 15 to 20 years, and the term of utility model and design was extended from the original 8 years (including the extended 3 years) to 10 years. TRIPS agreement stipulates that the protection period of invention patent and design is not less than 20 years and 10 years respectively from the date of application. 2. How to calculate the patent term? The first day of the semester (start date) is not included in the semester. If calculated in years or months, the expiration date shall be the corresponding day of the last month; If there is no corresponding day in the current month, the last day of the current month shall be the due date. For example, the filing date of an application for a patent for invention is1June 65438+ 1 day, and the validity period of its substantive examination request should be 200 1 day, not 20065438. Another example is the notices of 1999, 12 and 16 issued by the Patent Office, which should have been received by 1999, 12 and 3 1. If the notice stipulates that the time limit is two months, the expiration date of the time limit shall be February 29, 2000. If the due date is a legal holiday, the first working day after the holiday shall be the due date. Legal holidays refer to New Year's Day (one day), Spring Festival (three days), International Labor Day (three days) and National Day (three days); Legal holidays refer to Saturday and Sunday every week. For example, the filing date of a patent application is May 8, 200 1 year, which is the first working day of May, 200 1 year (May 1 -3 is the legal holiday of International Labor Day, and May 4 -7 is the rest day). Although there is a time limit for patent protection in China, the protection period of the former patent is relatively longer, up to 20 years. As for the latter two patents, the longest protection period is only 10 year.