China units and individuals to apply for international, shall be approved by the relevant competent departments of the State Council.
China units (including foreign-funded enterprises) or individuals applying for patents for inventions made in China shall meet the following three conditions: first, apply for patents in China National Intellectual Property Administration, China, or submit an international application to China National Intellectual Property Administration or the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization to designate China; The second is to entrust foreign-related institutions; Third, if an invention involves national security or vital interests and needs to be kept confidential, it cannot apply for a patent from a foreign country, but only from China.
There are two main ways to submit patent applications to other foreign countries: one is the Paris Convention, that is, to apply to the member countries of the Paris Convention one by one; The other is the patent cooperation treaty PCT.
Paris Convention means that the applicant files an application with a foreign patent office within 12 months (invention and utility model) /6 months (design) after filing his national patent application for the first time according to the special provisions made by the foreign patent law in accordance with the Paris Convention, and claims priority.
The disadvantage of this method is that it needs to go through different application procedures in different countries, complete the translation of application documents in various languages, select and hire lawyers from China and other countries within 12 months, and the time is tight and the workload is huge.
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is managed by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): an international treaty that facilitates patent applicants to obtain international patent protection. As long as the applicant submits an international patent application according to the treaty, he can request the protection of his invention in all member countries of the treaty at the same time.
The process of PCT approach: national application → international application → international search report and written opinions → request international preliminary examination → international preliminary examination report → enter the national stage.