What are the precautions in China National Intellectual Property Administration's patent transfer contract?

I. Confirming the Type and Legal Status of Patent Right According to the provisions of China's Patent Law, patents include inventions, utility models and designs, among which the authorization of utility models and design patents has not been substantially examined, so the "stability" of their patents is relatively poor. The transferee shall fully understand the types of the transferred patent right, weigh the potential risks of the transfer, and require the patentee to provide the search report issued by China National Intellectual Property Administration when necessary. The transferee shall, through legal status search, confirm that the patent to be transferred is a valid patent and confirm the remaining validity period of the patent right. Second, pay attention to the identity of the patentee and assignee. For the transferee, we should pay attention to whether the transferor of the patent right is the legal holder of the patent, whether the patent right is owned by others, whether there is the nature of service invention, and whether the transferor of the patent right is a state-owned enterprise. If it is a state-owned enterprise, it needs to go through the formalities for the transfer of state-owned assets in accordance with the provisions of the Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on State-owned Assets of Enterprises. Some technologies involved in patent rights may be of great significance to national interests, and if such technologies are transferred to foreigners, it may bring adverse effects to China's national interests. Therefore, according to the patent laws and regulations, if a unit or individual in China transfers a patent right to a foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization, it shall go through the formalities in accordance with the relevant laws and administrative regulations. The "laws and administrative regulations" mentioned in the patent law mainly refer to the foreign trade law and the regulations on the administration of technology import and export. Third, when a formal written transfer contract is signed, the patent right is actually a kind of property right, but the invention as the object of the patent right is intangible and cannot be actually possessed like tangible property, so the ownership of the patent right shall be subject to the register of China National Intellectual Property Administration. Therefore, the Patent Law stipulates that the parties involved in the transfer of patent rights shall conclude a written contract and register it in China National Intellectual Property Administration in time. In addition, it should be noted that the transfer of patent rights takes effect from the date of registration. Four. Clarify the treatment after the patent is declared invalid. Article 47 of China's patent law stipulates that the patent that has been declared invalid does not exist from the beginning, and the patent transfer contract that has been performed is not retroactive. The patent transfer fee will not be returned, but it obviously violates the principle of fairness and should be returned in whole or in part. From the transferee's point of view, the transferred patent right is not necessarily "absolutely" effective, especially the utility model and design that have not been substantially examined, and there is a certain risk of being declared invalid. Once declared invalid, the transferred patent right will lose its meaning. According to the above provisions of the Patent Law, the original patentee has no obligation to return the patent transfer fee, and in the absence of other agreements, the assignee shall bear the responsibility of declaring the patent invalid. Therefore, before signing the patent transfer contract, the transferee should fully consider the "stability" of the patent to be transferred, the patent transfer fee, the economic benefit prospect of patent implementation and other factors, and agree with the patentee on different treatment methods after the patent is declared invalid in the transfer contract according to the specific circumstances. V. Understanding the implementation history The patent to be transferred may have signed a license contract with others. If the previous licensing contract is not registered or filed in China National Intellectual Property Administration, the transferee has the right to request the licensee of the patent to stop the implementation. If the license contract has been registered or filed in China National Intellectual Property Administration and publicized, the licensee of the patent can enjoy the right to exploit the patent, but the transferee has no right to prevent the licensee from exploiting it. Therefore, before signing the patent right transfer contract, the assignee should carefully know whether the patentee has signed a license contract with others for the patent, and should also know whether the patentee has implemented the patent to be transferred by himself, and make clear in the patent transfer contract the implementation of the patent before the transfer and the legal responsibilities and solutions for possible consequences. Six, the implementation of the agreed patent that infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of others may infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of others. For example, the implementation of the design patent may infringe upon the copyright and portrait rights of others, and the invention and utility model patent may be the improvement of the basic patent proposed by others, so the implementation of the improved invention may infringe upon its patent right without the permission of the patentee of the basic patent. Therefore, in the patent right transfer contract, especially for the transferee, the way to bear the tort liability under the above circumstances should be stipulated. According to the above, we can see that patent transfer is a complicated operation, which requires the approval of relevant departments, and it is necessary to know the type of patent, the identity of the patentee, and whether the patent has signed an implementation contract with others. After signing the patent transfer contract, we should register in China National Intellectual Property Administration, so as to protect the interests of both parties from infringement.