Patents are generally documents issued by government agencies or regional organizations representing several countries according to their applications. This kind of document records the contents of the invention and creation, and in a certain period of time, it has produced such a legal state that the patented invention and creation can only be implemented by others with the permission of the patentee. In China, there are three kinds of patents: inventions, utility models and designs.
Patent classification:
Patents are divided into valid patents and invalid patents according to the ownership of the owner.
Effective patent Generally, an effective patent refers to a patent that is still in a valid state after the patent application is authorized. In order to make the patent in a valid state, the patent right is still within the legal protection period, and the patentee also needs to pay the annual fee according to the regulations.
After the patent application for an invalid patent is authorized, the patent right is lost because the legal protection period is exceeded or the patentee fails to pay the annual fee in time, or the patent is declared invalid by the patent reexamination board after being requested by any individual or unit, which is called an invalid patent. Invalid patents are no longer binding on the use of the technology involved.