Implementation Regulations of the "PRC Patent Law"

(December 12, 1992, the State Council approved the revision of Decree No. 3 of the Chinese Patent Office on December 21, 1992)

Chapter I General Provisions Article 1 These Rules are formulated in accordance with the "PRC Patent Law" (hereinafter referred to as the "Patent Law").

Article 2 The inventions referred to in the Patent Law refer to new technical solutions proposed for products, methods or improvements. The term “utility model” as used in the Patent Law refers to a new technical solution that is suitable for practical use in terms of the shape, configuration, or combination of products.
Patent design refers to the design, which refers to the new design of the product, which has the beauty of the shape, pattern, color, or combination thereof and is suitable for industrial applications.

Article 3 The various procedures prescribed in the Patent Law and these Rules shall be handled in writing.

Article 4 The various documents submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Law and these Rules shall be in Chinese. The term “technical terms” that are uniformly prescribed by the family should be used as standard words. Where foreigner names, place names and scientific and technical terms do not have a unified Chinese translation, the original text shall be marked.
Where the documents and supporting documents submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Law and these Rules are in foreign languages, the Patent Office may request the parties to send Chinese translations within a specified time limit if deemed necessary; if the documents are not delivered at the expiration of the time limit, they shall be deemed as not submitting the documents and certificates. file.

Article 5 The documents sent to the Patent Office shall be submitted on the date of postmark. If the date of the postmark sent on the envelope is not clear, the date of receipt by the Patent Office shall be the date of filing unless the party can provide proof.
All kinds of documents of the Patent Office can be sent to the parties by mail, directly or through an announcement. Where a party entrusts a patent agency, the documents shall be sent to the patent agency; if the patent agency has not been appointed, the documents shall be sent to the first signatory or representative in the request. If the party refuses to receive the document, the document is deemed to have been delivered. All kinds of documents mailed by the Patent Office shall be fifteen days from the date of issuance of the documents and shall be presumed to be the date on which the parties receive the documents. The date of delivery shall be the date of delivery on the basis of documents that shall be sent directly by the Patent Office. If the document is sent to an unclear address and cannot be mailed, it can be delivered to the parties by means of an announcement. One month from the date of the announcement, the document is deemed to have been delivered.

Article 6 The first day of all kinds of deadlines stipulated in the Patent Law and these Rules shall not be calculated within the time limit. If the time limit is calculated in terms of years or months, the corresponding date of the last month shall be the expiry date; if the month does not have a corresponding date, the last day of the month shall be the expiry date. If the expiration date is a statutory holiday, the first working day after the holiday is the expiration date.

Article 7 If the party delays the period specified in the Patent Law or the Detailed Rules or the period specified by the Patent Office due to irresistible causes and causes its rights to be lost, it shall be within two months from the date of the elimination of the obstacles, but the expiration of the period shall not occur. Within two years from the date of publication, it is possible to explain the reasons to the Patent Office together with relevant supporting documents and ask for the restoration of their rights.
If the party delays the period specified in the Patent Law or the Detailed Rules or the time period specified by the Patent Office due to justified reasons, resulting in the loss of its rights, it may explain the reasons to the Patent Office within two months from the date of receipt of the notification from the Patent Office, requesting restoration of its rights. right. If the party requests to extend the time limit specified by the Patent Office, it shall explain the reasons to the Patent Office and handle the relevant formalities before the expiration of the time limit.
The provisions of the first and second paragraphs of this Article do not apply to the time limits stipulated in Articles 24, 29, 41 and 45 and 61 of the Patent Law.
The provisions of the second paragraph of this Article do not apply to the time limit specified in Article 88 of these Rules.

Article 8: Where units of the national defense system apply for invention patents and state secrets involving national defense need to be kept secret, their applications for patents shall be accepted by the patent offices set up by the department of national defense science and technology of the State Council; and the national secrets involving national defense that are accepted by the patent offices shall be kept confidential. An application for a patent for invention shall be transferred to the patent office established by the department in charge of national defense science and technology under the State Council for examination, and the Patent Office shall make a decision based on the examination opinions of the patent office.
Except for the provisions of the preceding paragraph, after accepting an application for a patent for invention, the Patent Office shall forward the application for confidentiality review to the competent authority of the State Council for review; the relevant competent authority shall notify the result of the review within four months from the date of receipt of the application. The Patent Office; if it needs to be kept secret, the Patent Office shall handle the application according to the confidential patent and notify the applicant.

Article 9 Except for the provisions of Article 28 and Article 45 of the Patent Law, where the application date is referred to in the Patent Law, which has priority, it refers to the priority date.
The filing date mentioned in these Rules refers to the date of filing a patent application by the Patent Office.

Article 10: The service invention creation accomplished by the execution of the tasks of the entity referred to in Article 6 of the Patent Law means:
(1) Inventions and creations made in their own work;
(2) to perform the inventions and creations made by the tasks other than the ones delivered by their own units;
(3) The invention-creation made within one year after resigning, retire, or mobilizing the work, or the tasks assigned by the original unit or the original unit.
The material conditions of the entity referred to in Article 6 of the Patent Law refer to the capital, equipment, parts and components, and raw materials of the entity or technical materials that are not open to the public.

Article 11 The inventor or designer referred to in the Patent Law means a person who has made creative contributions to the substantive features of the invention. In the process of completing the invention and creation, those who are only responsible for organizing the work, who provide convenience for the use of the material conditions, or who perform other auxiliary work, should not be considered as inventors or designers.

Article 12 The same invention can only be granted one patent.
Where two or more applicants as stipulated in Article 9 of the Patent Law apply for patents for the same invention-creation respectively on the same day, they shall negotiate and determine the applicant themselves after receiving the notification from the Patent Office.

Article 13 A patent implementation license contract concluded between a patentee and another shall be filed with the Patent Office within three months from the effective date of the contract.

Article 14 Patent agencies provided for in Article 19, Paragraph 1 and Article 20 of the Patent Law shall be designated by the State Council authorized by the Patent Office.

Article 15 When a dispute arises over the right to apply for a patent for invention or creation or the patent right granted, the parties may request the patent administrative authority to handle it, or they may file a suit directly in the people's court. If the parties have disputes over the right to apply for a patent or patent rights, and have already requested the patent administrative authority to handle or file a lawsuit with the people's court, they may request the Patent Office to suspend the relevant procedures. In accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, requesting the suspension of the relevant procedures shall submit a request to the Patent Office and attach relevant documents for acceptance by the patent administrative organ or the people's court.

Chapter II Application for Patent Article 16 When applying for a patent, it shall submit the application documents to the Patent Office in duplicate.
Where the applicant has entrusted a patent agency to apply for patents and handle other patent affairs with the Patent Office, it shall also submit a power of attorney, stating the entrusted authority.

Article 17 Other matters mentioned in the request referred to in Article 26, paragraph 2 of the Patent Law are:
(1) the nationality of the applicant; (2) the applicant is the enterprise of the enterprise or other organization in which the headquarters is located; (3) the relevant matters that the applicant has entrusted with the patent agency;
(4) related matters that should be noted when priority is required; (5) the signature or seal of the applicant or the patent agency; (6) the list of application documents;
(7) list of additional documents; (8) other relevant matters that need to be noted.
Where two or more applicants have not appointed a patent agency, they shall designate one person as the representative.

Article 18 The specification of an application for a patent for invention or utility model shall be written in the following manner and order:
(1) The name of the invention or utility model, which should be the same as the name in the request;
(b) the technical field in which the invention or utility model belongs;
(3) to the applicant's knowledge, indicate useful background techniques for the understanding, search, and examination of inventions or utility models, and cite documents that reflect these background techniques;
(4) The purpose of the invention or utility model;
(5) to specify the technical plan for the claimed invention or utility model so that technical personnel in the technical field can understand it and achieve the purpose of the invention or utility model;
(6) The beneficial effects of the invention or utility model compared with the background art;
(7) Where there is a drawing, there shall be a description of the drawing;
(8) To describe in detail the best way in which the applicant believes to implement the invention or utility model, and where appropriate, it should be illustrated by examples; if there is a figure, it should be contrasted with the drawings.
An applicant for an invention or utility model patent shall write an instruction manual in the manner and sequence prescribed in the preceding paragraph, unless the nature of the invention or utility model is written in a different way or in a sequence to save the length of the manual and allow others to better understand its invention or utility. New type.
In the description of the invention or utility model, quotations such as “... as stated in the claims...” shall not be used, nor shall commercial propaganda be used.

Article 19 Several drawings of inventions or utility models may be drawn on a single drawing. The drawings shall be numbered in the order of "Figure 1, Figure 2, ...".
The size and clarity of the drawings should be such that when the figure is reduced to two-thirds, the details in the figure can still be clearly discerned. Reference numerals that are not mentioned in the text of the description of the invention or utility model shall not appear in the drawings. Reference numerals that do not appear in the drawings may not be mentioned in the text of the description. The reference numerals in the application documents indicating the same components should be the same. In addition to the necessary words in the drawings, there should be no other notes.

Article 20 The claims shall state the technical features of the invention or utility model, clearly and briefly describe the scope of the protection requested.
There are several claims in the claims and they should be numbered in Arabic. The scientific and technical terms used in the claims should be consistent with the scientific and technical terms used in the specification. They may have chemical formulas or mathematical formulas, but they must not have illustrations. Except as absolutely necessary, the words "as stated in the description ..." or "as shown in ..." shall not be used. The technical features in the claims can be cited in the corresponding figures in the drawings of the specification, which should be placed behind the corresponding technical features and placed in parentheses in order to facilitate the understanding of the claims. Reference signs must not be interpreted as limiting the claims.

Article 21 The claims shall have independent claims and may also have dependent claims.
The independent claims should reflect the technical solution of the invention or utility model as a whole, and record the necessary technical features for achieving the purpose of invention or utility model. The dependent claims shall further define the claimed claims using the additional technical features claimed.

Article 22 The independent claims for inventions or utility models shall include the preamble and features, and be written in accordance with the following provisions:
(1) Preface: the title of the subject claimed to be protected by the invention or utility model and the necessary technical features common to the subject matter of the invention or utility model and the existing technology;
(b) Characteristics: Using the phrase "it is characterized by..." or similar terms, it is stated that the invention or utility model is different from the technical features of the prior art. These features are combined with the features described in the preamble to limit the scope of protection required by the invention or utility model.
The nature of an invention or utility model is not suitable to be expressed in the preceding paragraph. Independent claims may be written in other ways. An invention or utility model should have only one independent claim and be written before the dependent claims of the same invention or utility model.

Article 23 The subordinate claims of the invention or utility model shall include the quotation part and the limitation part, and be written in accordance with the following provisions:
(1) Reference section: The number of the claim cited and its subject name;
(2) Limiting part: It indicates the additional technical features of the invention or utility model.
A subordinate claim that refers to one or more of the above claims, as long as the previous claim is cited. The use of multiple dependent claims in two or more claims may not be the basis for another multiple dependent claim.

Article 24 The abstract shall state the technical field to which the invention or utility model belongs and the technology to be solved