Patent application: What are the provisions of the European Patent Office on partial priority?

Priority is a right stipulated in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, that is, each contracting state should recognize the priority of the nationals of the other country when applying for industrial property rights such as patents or trademarks. As far as patent application is concerned, if an applicant for a patent files an application in another contracting state within the prescribed time limit after filing an application for the first time in one contracting state, the applicant has the right to request that the date of the first application be taken as the filing date of the later patent application. According to the Paris Convention, the priority period of inventions and utility models is 12 months, and the priority period of designs is 6 months. The date of filing the patent application for the first time is the priority date.

According to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, China's patent law stipulates the priority system, which is divided into foreign priority system and domestic priority system.

Foreign priority, also known as "international priority", means that a patent applicant files a patent application in China within 12 months from the date of filing a patent application for the same invention or utility model for the first time in a foreign country, or within 6 months from the date of filing a patent application for the same design for the first time in a foreign country, and China takes the date of filing a patent application for the first time in a foreign country as the priority date.

Domestic priority, also known as "domestic priority", means that the patent applicant applies for a patent for an invention or utility model with the same theme for the first time in China within 12 months, and can enjoy priority. Design patents are not included in the domestic priority system.

With the establishment of the priority system, the patent applicant not only has 6 to 12 months to submit a patent application to a foreign country or reapply to the Patent Office in China National Intellectual Property Administration, China, but also can improve the technical scheme of the original application on the basis of the original application, and can also file several related inventions or utility model applications as one application under the principle of ensuring the singularity of the invention. The priority system effectively protects the rights and interests of patent applicants and reduces or avoids unnecessary repeated applications.

Priority will not be generated automatically, and application is required. If you apply for the same patent in the same country, it will not be accepted. If someone applies for the same patent abroad, or a foreigner applies in his own country, but you don't apply for protection in that country, you can definitely apply. Patents are as regional as trademarks, that is, the application in which country is limited to which country is protected.