1. subject. Ordinary individuals who apply for a patent in China can apply on their own or entrust a patent agency to handle it. If it is a special individual, it must be entrusted to a patent agency. Special individuals include:
① foreigners who have no habitual residence or business office in China;
② China people who have lived or worked abroad for a long time;
③ compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. If an individual in China applies for a patent for an invention-creation completed in China to a foreign country, he should first apply to the patent administration department of the State Council, and also entrust a patent agency to handle it, and cannot apply for it himself.
2. Object. Inventions include inventions, utility models and designs. It is necessary to determine the type before applying, and the conditions, costs, contents of rights to be protected, and economic benefits brought by the grant of patent rights are different for different types of applications. Applicants should choose according to their own situation. The term of protection is 2 years for inventions and 1 years for utility models and designs, all of which are counted from the date of application.
3. Procedures. Invention patents are subject to preliminary examination and substantive examination, and utility models and designs are authorized to be announced only after preliminary examination.
① A patent for invention shall submit a request, a specification, an abstract of the specification and a patent claim, and if necessary, the specification shall be accompanied by drawings.
② The utility model needs to submit the request, the patent claim, the specification, the appended drawings of the specification, the abstract of the specification and the appended drawings of the abstract.
③ The patent for design needs to submit a request, a picture or photograph of the design. The patent for utility model and design takes about 8-12 months. After the formal examination is passed, the authorization notice will be issued, and the licensing procedures will be handled. After paying the licensing fee, the patent certificate will be obtained in about 2-3 months. The specific time depends on the speed of the examiner's examination, the detailed degree of the applicant's disclosure information and the provision of the attached drawings. Applicants should make full preparations before applying.