In China, annual fees are paid for each year of patent validity beginning with the year the patent is obtained. The first post-grant annuity must be paid within two months of receiving the Office’s Notice of Allowance. All annual fees after that should be paid in full before the due date.
Does China have a patent grace period?
The clause allowing for a grace period for inventions with a public interest is a novel feature. An invention shall not lose novelty if it is initially disclosed in a situation of emergency or under exceptional conditions of the State and for the public good, according to the revised Chinese Patent Law. This initial disclosure should not occur more than 6 months prior to the application. This would allow a new medical product, like as one that protects against Corona, to be released before a patent application is filed.
Since novelty is an international prerequisite for patentability, the principle behind patent law is that there should be no grace period for inventions. In reality, several nations having grace periods, such as the United States, sidestep this by calculating a 12-month grace period for “pre-AIA” applications filed before the earliest US filing date.
In 2018, Japan extended the patent grace term to 12 months, and China will now have a 6-month grace period.
In Europe, on the other hand, this is uncommon, with only Estonia, San Marino, Albania, and Turkey offering a grace period under the European Patent Convention.
When can a Chinese divisional patent be filed?
When a patent application contains two or more inventions that do not correspond to a single general creative concept (i.e., there is a unity defect), the applicant may file a divisional application on his own initiative or based on the examiner’s examination conclusions.
(1) Where a patent application has been awarded a patent right, the deadline for filing a divisional application is two months from the date of receiving the Chinese Patent Office’s Notification to Grant Patent Right in respect of the application. If the patent application is a divisional application, the deadline for filing a divisional application must be no later than two months from the date of receiving the Chinese Patent Office’s Notification to Grant Patent Right in respect of the initial parent application. If the examiner issues a unity rejection in a divisional application during examination, the deadline for filing a divisional application based on an already filed divisional application is two months from the date of receiving the Chinese Patent Office’s Notification to Grant Patent Right to the divisional application (rather than the initial parent application of the divisional application).
(2) If the patent application is rejected, the applicant may file a divisional application within three months of receiving the rejection decision; a divisional application may also be filed during the reexamination period after filing a request for reexamination or during the initiation of administrative litigation against the reexamination decision.
(3) No divisional application may be submitted if the patent application has been withdrawn or is assumed to have been withdrawn, or if the right has not been restored.
It’s worth mentioning that a divisional application can be used for more than only correcting a unity problem. In practice, a divisional application is filed so that a set of more desirable claims for the invention in a patent application can be presented.
What are patent annuities?
Patent Annuities are fees that a patent owner must pay to renew a patent that has been awarded. Otherwise, it will expire, and you will lose your rights as the patent owner before the ordinary expiration date. The amount and frequency of this renewal fee varies by national or international law, but they are frequently required annually, hence the term “Annuities.” Reliability and low prices are a winning combination.
Does China have provisional patent?
In China, there might be a substantial time gap of one to two years between patent publication and patent issuance due to the comparatively long time required for inventive patent prosecution. During this time, the applicant has not yet gained a patent right, although infringement actions are likely to have occurred.
In such a circumstance, Chinese patent law provides “provisional protection” for the published patent application, stating that “the applicant may force the entity or individual utilizing the innovation to pay an appropriate fee after the publication of an application for a patent for invention.”
If a third party is using the applicant’s invention, the applicant must notify the third party of its published invention patent application and request that the third party pay fees for such use. The third party frequently refuses to pay the price since the patent has not yet been granted. If the applicant files complaints with the local intellectual property office (IPO) or files a lawsuit against the third party in court, the IPO and court will normally put the case on hold, or the third party will usually file a request to suspend the case. In practice, this means that “Only once the patent is granted can the “provisional protection” of a published patent application with a request for payment of fees be successfully enforced.
In addition, when enforcing the rules, the applicant should be aware of the following: “provisional protection” for its patent applications that have been published.
(a) Provisional protection only applies to acts of utilising the invention that occur after the date of patent publication but before the date of patent grant.
(c) The deadline for filing such a legal action “The “provisional limitation” period begins when the applicant learns or should know that its innovation is being used by a third party.
(d) If the applicant knew or should have known that its invention was being used by a third party prior to the grant of the patent, the time restriction for instituting such an enforcement action has expired “The “provisional limitation” period is two years from the date of patent award.
What does 15 minute grace period mean?
A grace period is a period immediately following an obligation’s deadline during which a late charge or other action that would have been taken if the deadline had not been met is waived if the obligation is met during the grace period. To put it another way, it’s a period of time during which regulations or penalties are waived or postponed. Grace periods can be anything from a few minutes to several days or longer, and they might apply to things like showing up for work, paying a bill, or satisfying a government or legal requirement.
A grace period is a period of time during which a specific regulation does not apply, or only partially applies, in law. See novelty for further information on the grace period in patent law (patent).
A grace period is the time following a respawn when a player cannot be struck or killed — they are’safe’ for a short amount of time so that they do not die frequently, which would result in a loss of enjoyment.
Can you file a Chinese patent application in English?
The Chinese Patent Law and its Implementing Regulations require all documents to be written in Chinese. Applications for the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) can be filed in either Chinese or English. However, within 30 months of the priority date, you must submit a Chinese translation of the application (extendible to 32 months subject to payment of a surcharge).
Please use the contact form to send us your question if you require a more detailed response.
How do you get a patent in China?
A patent can be filed in one of three ways: Directly file a patent application in China. The filing of a patent by a foreign applicant must be handled by a local patent agency. FIEs, on the other hand, can apply for patents in China without the help of a licensed patent attorney.
How often are patent renewal fees payable?
Patent renewal/maintenance payments are only needed three times in the term of a patent in the United States. They’re also only due after the patent has been issued.
The first fee is due three years and six months after the patent is granted, and it allows the patent to be renewed after the fourth anniversary. The second charge is due seven years and six months after the award date, and the third fee is due eleven years and six months after the grant date.
Late payment penalties begin immediately after the payment due date has passed, as shown in the table below. After six months, the patent expires.
For US patents, there are three types of entities: large, small, and micro. Small Entities pay half of the fees charged by Large Entities, while Micro Entities pay only a quarter. A small entity is defined as an individual, a firm with less than 500 employees, or a non-profit organization with fewer than 500 employees (such as a university). The entity must not have licensed the patent rights to a Large Entity and must not be obligated to do so under any contract. A subset of Small Entities is a Micro Entity. To be considered a Micro Entity, the patent applicant must not have been listed on more than four previous applications and must not earn more than three times the preceding year’s median family income (about $35,000).
How often are patents renewed?
Utility patents, in general, expire 20 years from the application filing date if the required maintenance fees are paid. Patent expiration dates are not calculated by the USPTO.
How often are patent maintenance fees due?
When do patent maintenance fees have to be paid? Maintenance costs are owed for issued utility patents 3.5 years after grant, 7.5 years after grant, and 11.5 years after grant, according to 35 U.S.C. 41(b). Maintenance fees can only be paid six months before the due date.
Does China follow patent laws?
Patents are granted in China by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), which was renamed from the State Intellectual Property Office on August 28, 2018. (SIPO). Invention patents, utility model patents, and design patents are the three sorts of patents. Patents on inventions are subjected to a substantive examination, whereas utility model patents are simply subjected to a formal inspection.
