Article 34 of the Patent Law After receiving an application for a patent for invention, the administrative department for patent in the State Council, after preliminary examination, finds that it conforms to the provisions of this Law, and shall publish it 18 months after the date of filing. The patent administration department of the State Council may publish its application at an early date upon the request of the applicant.
Invention patents enter the public domain immediately after publication, and anyone can consult patent documents, and their authorization is counted from the date of publication. Therefore, in order to protect the rights of patent applicants, a temporary protection period is set during the publication and announcement of invention patents.
Article 13 of the Patent Law After the publication of an application for a patent for invention, the applicant may require the entity or individual exploiting the invention to pay an appropriate fee.
To sum up, after the patent (strictly speaking, it should be a patent application) is made public in advance, it can only negotiate with the user to pay the royalties, and can't sue for infringement. If the patent is still in use after being granted, you can sue for infringement.