1. What is intellectual property? 

Intellectual property refers to the right to possess, use, dispose of and benefit from the fruits of intellectual labor. Intellectual property is a kind of intangible property right. Like tangible assets such as house and automobile, it is protected by national law and has value and use value. Some major patents, well-known trademarks or works are worth far more than tangible assets such as houses and cars.

2. What is the content of intellectual property rights? 

Patents, trademarks, copyrights, manufacturers' names, new varieties of plants, appellations of origin, source markings, trade secrets, suppression of unfair competition, and other intellectual achievements.

3. What is a patent? 

Patent is the abbreviation of patent right. It is the right that the state grants the applicant the exclusive use and disposition of his invention-creation achievements in a certain period of time according to the patent law. It is a kind of property rights, is the use of legal protection means, "horse-racing enclosure", monopolize the existing market, seize the potential market of a powerful weapon. Patents are exclusive, temporal and regional.

4. Types of patents. 

In China, patents include: invention patents, utility model patents and design patents. 
Invention means a new technical proposal for a product, a method or its improvement; 
The utility model refers to the shape, structure or combination of the product, which is a new technical scheme suitable for practical use. 
The appearance design is refers to the product shape, the pattern, the color or its union makes the rich esthetic feeling and is suitable for the industrial application new design.

5. Duration of patent protection. 

The patent law of our country stipulates that the term of protection of patent right for invention is 20 years, and that of utility model patent right and design patent right is 10 years, both of which are counted from the date of filing.

6. What are the necessary conditions for patent application. 

New technology, new process or new product, patent application must have three characteristics: novelty, creativity and practicality. 
It must be emphasized that a new product that has been put on the market for sale, or a technical solution published to the public through a paper or a magazine, will lead to the loss of novelty of the technical scheme and can no longer be applied for a patent.

7. What are the circumstances under which patent rights cannot be granted. 

A. Scientific discoveries, such as the discovery of new stars and Newton's laws of gravity. 
B. rules and methods of intellectual activity, as in the play of new types of chess. 
C. the diagnosis and treatment of the disease;
D. Animal and plant varieties, but the method of production of the product may be granted a patent; (China has special regulations on the protection of animal and plant varieties). 
E. substances obtained by nuclear transformation.

8. What are the rights of the patentee. 

After the applicant has been granted the patent right for the invention or creation: 
(1) the right to enforce its own patent; 
(2) the right to assign the patent right; 
(3) the right to license another person's patent;
(4) the right to prohibit others from enforcing their patents without permission; 
(5) the right to claim protection in the event of infringement of the patent right; 
(6) the right to mark the patent right on the product; 
(7) temporary protection from the date of application to the date of authorization.

9. How long can a patent be authorized from the date of filing. 

Invention patents are granted for a long time, usually three to five years, but because they need to go through substantive examination procedures, patent rights are highly stable after patent authorization; utility model patents and design patents do not need to go through substantive examination procedures, and authorization is faster. The utility model is generally authorized from the date of application for 6 months to 12 months, and the design is generally authorized for about 6 months from the date of application. The patent certificate can be obtained after 3 months after the authorization.

10. What is the inventor. 

The term "inventor" or "designer" as mentioned in the Patent Law refers to a person who makes a creative contribution to the substantive characteristics of an invention or creation. In the course of completing an invention or creation, the person who is only responsible for organizing the work, the person who provides convenience for the use of material and technical conditions, or the person who engages in other auxiliary work shall not be the inventor or designer.

11.What is an applicant. 

The applicant is the owner of the patent, that is, the person who has the right to the patent.If the patent is a service invention, then the applicant must be a unit, if the patent is a non-service invention, then the applicant can be an individual, can also be a unit.

12. What is open in advance. 

China's Patent Law stipulates that if the Patent Office, upon preliminary examination, considers that an application for a patent for invention complies with the provisions of this Law, it shall publish the application after the expiration of 18 months from the date of filing. The term "advance disclosure" means that from the date of filing an application for a patent for invention, the applicant may request that his application for a patent be made public in advance and shall submit a public declaration in advance. Upon passing the preliminary examination by the Patent Office, the Patent Office may immediately enter into the public procedure by making a public statement in advance. An advance public declaration is only applicable to an application for a patent for invention. The applicant may not attach any conditions to the advance public declaration.

13. What is substantive review. 

The so-called substantive examination refers to the examination conducted by the administrative department for patent under the State Council on whether the substantive contents of an application for a patent for invention are novel, creative or practical. The substantive review was conducted on the basis of a preliminary review. Examiners evaluate the "novelty", "creativity" and "practicality" of patent applications by searching domestic and foreign patent documents and public publications, and also examine whether the patent documents meet the requirements. For example, whether it is consistent with "singularity", whether it is "open enough", whether it is "modified beyond the scope", and so on. Applications for patents for utility models and designs are not subject to substantive examination.

14. What is the meaning of the patent application number? 

The patent application number in China consists of 13 digits (including characters). It is divided into four paragraphs: for example, the first paragraph of 200610176542.4 is the first four, indicating the year in which the patent application was filed, for example, "2006" means the application was filed in 2006; the second paragraph consists of the fifth digit. Type of patent application, "1" for invention ("2" for utility model, "3" for design); The third paragraph, consisting of the sixth to twelfth digits, indicates the serial number of such applications in the current year, for example, 0176542 indicates the number of 176542 applications in the current year; The fourth paragraph, consisting of a digit or symbol in the thirteenth digit, is a computer check bit, which can be any number of 0, 9, or the character X, such as "4" in the example.

15. What is Patent acceleration. 

By speeding up patents, patents can be granted earlier. There is basically no backlog in the examination of design patents, so it is of little significance to speed up the examination.Utility model patents can be granted within five months by expediting the licensing decision by the examiner. The invention patent acceleration needs to provide the provincial competent department to provide the proof, the authorization time may advance about one year in general.

16. What is Patent infringement. 

According to the provisions of Article 57 of the Patent Law, the act of executing a patent for the purpose of production and operation without the permission of the patentee is an act of patent infringement. Specifically, an invention or utility model is an act of manufacturing, using, selling, promising to sell, importing a patented product or obtaining a product directly in accordance with a patented process for the purpose of operation without the permission of the patentee; For design, it refers to the manufacture, sale and import of its patented product for the purpose of business operation.

17. After the date of patent application, whether or not it is infringing to manufacture the same product before the patent application is published (announced). 

After the date of patent application and before the publication of the patent application, it is not an infringement for another person to manufacture the same product as the patent application. Because at this stage, the patent applicant only submitted a patent application, the application has not yet been made public (announcement), whether the patent right can be obtained will be determined after a series of examination by the Patent Office. At this time, the patent applicant does not have the attributes of the patentee, so he has no right to prohibit others from producing the same products as his patent application, and has no right to bring tort actions against others. At the same time, during this time, the patent application is in the confidential stage, the other person also does not know that the product has applied for the patent, therefore until the patent application publicizes, the other person produced the same product also does not have any infringement liability.

18.What is a patent assignment. 

Patent assignment refers to the transfer of all patent rights by the patentee to the transferee.It needs to be recognized in writing and registered by the Patent Office of the State intellectual property Office before it becomes effective. The assignment of a patent right by a Chinese entity or individual to a foreigner must be subject to the approval of the relevant competent department under the State Council.

19. What is Patent Licensing. 

Patent license, also called patent enforcement license, refers to the system that the patentee has the right to allow others to execute his patent and get the corresponding reward. It is an important right of the patentee to license others to enforce his patent. The Patent Law stipulates that any entity or individual that exercises another's patent must sign a written license contract with the patentee and pay royalties to the patentee. The licensee shall not have the right to permit any entity or individual other than those specified in the contract to enforce the patent. Patent license is a paid transfer of the right to use a patent, is a limited license, such as the implementation of the patent time, place, scope and so on to make a restrictive agreement. The parties shall sign a written implementation permit contract. The licensee only has the right to use the patent and pays the royalty to the patentee. The parties shall, within 3 months from the date of entry into force of the patent licensing contract, go through the formalities for the record.

20. What are the ways to apply for foreign patents? 

At present, there are generally two ways for applicants in China to apply for patents abroad: 
The first is the Paris Convention approach: for an application for an invention or utility model, the applicant should submit the application to the patent office of the member State of the Paris Convention within 12 months from the priority date and pay the corresponding fee. The design shall be submitted within 6 months from the priority date. 
The second is the PCT approach: within 12 months from the priority date, the applicant directly submits a PCT international application in Chinese or English to the State intellectual property Office of China, confirming the date of the international application. The application shall have the effect of a regular national application in all member States of the PCT.

21.What is a PCT patent application. 

PCT is the abbreviation of "Patent Cooperation Treaty" (Patent Cooperation Treaty), and it is the international treaty about patent. According to the PCT, patent applicants can file international patent applications through the PCT channel and apply for patents in a number of countries. 
PCT consists of international and national phases: 
A. the international stage is the first stage of the examination and approval procedure of the international application, which includes the necessary procedure such as the acceptance of the international application, the examination of the form, the international search and the international publication, as well as the optional procedure of the international preliminary examination. 
B. the national phase, which is the second stage of the international application process, takes place in the patent office (known as the designated or selected office) of the country in which the applicant wishes to obtain the patent. It includes the formalities for entering the national phase and the approval process at the designated or selected bureau. 
The main formalities for the entry of an international application into the national phase are the submission of the translation of the international application document and the payment of the required national fee in accordance with the requirements of each country. 
After the international application has entered the national stage, the patent offices of each country shall examine it in accordance with the provisions of its patent laws and regulations, and decide whether to grant a patent right. 
It should be noted that patent applicants can only apply for a patent through PCT, not directly through PCT. In order to obtain a patent in a certain country, the applicant for a patent must also go through the formalities of entering that country, and the patent office of that country shall examine the application for the patent and grant a patent right if it complies with the provisions of the patent law of that country.

22.What benefits does PCT bring to patent applicants. 

A. it is convenient for patent applicants to apply for patents in foreign countries by filing an international patent application without having to file a patent application separately in each country. 
B. when filing an ordinary patent application in a foreign country, an applicant for a patent shall, within twelve months after the date of the first filing of the patent application, file a patent application with the patent office of each country. And through PCT, patent applicant can go through the formalities that international patent application enters every country within 30 months after filing patent application for the first time, this lengthens the time that enters national stage. Using this time, patent applicants can investigate the market, business prospects for inventions and other factors, and decide whether to continue to apply for a foreign patent before entering the national phase at a greater cost. If, after investigation, it is decided not to apply for a patent in a foreign country, costs can be saved. 
C. An international patent application shall be searched internationally by an international search unit, and a high-quality international search report shall be obtained. The international search report presents one or more of the prior art documents so that the patent applicant can not only understand the status of the prior art, but also make a preliminary judgment as to whether the invention has the prospect of granting a patent. If the international application has undergone an international preliminary examination, the patent applicant may also receive a high standard international preliminary examination report from the international preliminary examination unit. If the international preliminary examination report indicates that the invention is not novel, creative or industrially useful, the patent applicant may consider not entering the national phase in order to save costs. 
D. it simplifies the payment process by simply paying the patent application fee to the receiving office rather than to all patent offices in the country where patent protection is sought. 
E. the cost of applying for the national phase of PCT in some countries is lower than that for ordinary applications. 
F. the language of the international application can be any language. Chinese and English can be used in the international patent application filed by the Chinese applicant, which provides convenience for the foreign enterprises in China to apply for patent.

23. How to choose the way to apply for Foreign Patent. 

When an applicant wishes to be protected by more than one country (typically more than five countries) as an invention, it is appropriate to use the PCT route. This is because it is only necessary to file an international application with the Chinese Patent Office through the PCT, thus eliminating the need to file a separate national application with each country. When an applicant only needs to apply for a patent in one country or a few countries, it is appropriate to use the Paris Convention approach.