The term of patent protection refers to the term of patent protection after the patent is granted the right. According to China's patent law, inventions include three categories, namely inventions, utility models and designs. Among them, the protection period of invention patent right is 20 years, and the protection period of utility model patent right and design patent right is 10 year. This shows that once an invention is patented, it can only be protected by law for 20 years at most. After this period of time, your inventions and technological innovations will be placed in the public domain and contributed to society for free.
Article 11 of the Patent Law After the patent right for invention and utility model is granted, except as otherwise provided in this Law, no unit or individual may exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, it may not manufacture, use, promise to sell, sell or import its patented products for production and business purposes, nor may it use its patented methods and use, promise to sell, sell or import products directly obtained according to the patented methods.
Article 44 The patent right shall be terminated before the expiration of the time limit under any of the following circumstances:
(a) failing to pay the annual fee in accordance with the provisions;
(2) The patentee waives his patent right in writing. In these two cases, the patent terminates, and of course there is a third case, that is, the patent expires and the protection naturally terminates. Then we finally concluded that the protection period of a patent is shorter than the patent period, the starting date is the patent application date, and the termination date depends on the patentee, but the longest time is the termination date of the patent period.
It takes a certain fee to apply for a patent right, and an annual fee will be paid after obtaining the patent right. Although these expenses are not high, they can't be squandered by small and medium-sized enterprises. Especially those inventions that have no market value, it is meaningless to spend these time, energy and expenses to obtain the so-called patent right.
legal ground
patent law
Article 42 The term of patent right for invention is 20 years, and the term of patent right for utility model and patent right for design is 10 years, counting from the date of application.
Article 43 The patentee shall pay the annual fee from the year when the patent right is granted.