Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China

(Promulgated by Decree No. 306 of the State Council of the People's Republic of China on June 15, 2001, and effective as of July 1, 2001)
Chapter I General Provisions

Rule 1 These Implementing Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Patent Law).

Rule 2 "Invention" in the Patent Law means any new technical solution relating to a product, a process or improvement thereof.

"Utility model" in the Patent Law means any new technical solution relating to the shape, the structure, or their combination, of a product, which is fit for practical use.

"Design" in the Patent Law means any new design of the shape, the pattern or their combination, or the combination of the color with shape or pattern, of a product, which creates an aesthetic feeling and is fit for industrial application.

Rule 3 Any formalities prescribed by the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations shall be complied with in a written form or in any other form prescribed by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council.

Rule 4 Any document submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations shall be in Chinese; the standard scientific and technical terms shall be used if there is a prescribed one set forth by the State; where no generally accepted translation in Chinese can be found for a foreign name or scientific or technical term, the one in the original language shall be also indicated.

Where any certificate or certifying document submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations is in a foreign language, the Patent Administration Department under the State Council may, when it deems necessary, request a Chinese translation of the certificate or the certifying document be submitted within a specified time limit; where the translation is not submitted within the specified time limit, the certificate or certifying document shall be deemed not to have been submitted.

Rule 5 Where any document is sent by mail to the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, the date of mailing indicated by the postmark on the envelope shall be deemed to be the date of filing; where the date of mailing indicated by the postmark on the envelope is illegible, the date on which the Patent Administration Department under the State Council receives the document shall be the date of filing, except where the date of mailing is proved by the party concerned.

Any document of the Patent Administration Department under the State Council may be served by mail, by personal delivery or by other forms. Where any party concerned appoints a patent agency, the document shall be sent to the patent agency; where no patent agency is appointed, the document shall be sent to the liaison person named in the request.

Where any document is sent by mail by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, the 16th day from the date of mailing shall be presumed to be the date on which the party concerned receives the document.

Where any document is delivered personally in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, the date of delivery is the date on which the party concerned receives the document.

Where the address of any document is not clear and it cannot be sent by mail, the document may be served by making an announcement. At the expiration of one month from the date of the announcement, the document shall be deemed to be served.

Rule 6 The first day of any time limit prescribed in the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations shall not be counted in the time limit. Where the time limit is counted by year or by month, it shall expire on the corresponding day of the last month; if there is no corresponding day in that month, the time limit shall expire on the last day of that month; if a time limit expires on an official holiday, it shall expire on the first working day following that official holiday.

Rule 7 Where a time limit prescribed in the Patent Law or these Implementing Regulations or specified by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council is not observed by a party concerned because of force majeure, resulting in loss of his or its rights, he or it may, within two months from the date on which the impediment is removed, at the latest within two years immediately following the expiration of that time limit, state the reasons, together with relevant supporting documents, and request the Patent Administration Department under the State Council to restore his or its rights.

Where a time limit prescribed in the Patent Law or these Implementing Regulations or specified by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council is not observed by a party concerned because of any justified reason, resulting in loss of his or its rights, he or it may, within two months from the date of receipt of a notification from the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, state the reasons and request the Patent Administration Department under the State Council to restore his or its rights.

Where the party concerned makes a request for an extension of a time limit specified by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, he or it shall, before the time limit expires, state the reasons to the Patent Administration Department under the State Council and go through the relevant formalities.

The provisions of paragraphs one and two of this Rule shall not be applicable to the time limit referred to in Articles 24, 29, 42 and 62 of the Patent Law.

Rule 8 Where an application for a patent for invention relates to the secrets of the State concerning national defense and requires to be kept secret, the application for patent shall be filed with the patent department of national defense. Where any application for patent for invention relating to the secrets of the State concerning national defense and requiring to be kept secret is received by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, the application shall be forwarded to the patent department of national defense for examination, and the Patent Administration Department under the State Council shall make a decision on the basis of the observations of the examination made by the patent department of national defense.

Subject to the preceding paragraph, the Patent Administration Department under the State Council shall, after receipt of an application for patent for invention which is required to be examined for the purpose of security, send it to the relevant competent department under the State Council for examination. The relevant competent department shall, within four months from the date of receipt of the application, notify the Patent Administration Department under the State Council of the results of the examination. Where the invention for which a patent is applied for is required to be kept secret, the Patent Administration Department under the State Council shall handle it as an application for secret patent and notify the applicant accordingly.

Rule 9 Any invention-creation that is contrary to the laws of the State referred to in Article 5 of the Patent Law shall not include the invention-creation merely because the exploitation of which is prohibited by the laws of the State.

Rule 10 The date of filing referred to in the Patent Law, except for those referred to in Articles 28 and 42, means the priority date where priority is claimed.

The date of filing referred to in these Implementing Regulations, except as otherwise prescribed, means the date of filing prescribed in Article 28 of the Patent Law.

Rule 11 "A service invention-creation made by a person in execution of the tasks of the entity to which he belongs" referred to in Article 6 of the Patent Law means any invention-creation made:

(1) in the course of performing his own duty;

(2) in execution of any task, other than his own duty, which was entrusted to him by the entity to which he belongs;

(3) within one year from his resignation, retirement or change of work, where the invention-creation relates to his own duty or the other task entrusted to him by the entity to which he previously belonged.

"The entity to which he belongs" referred to in Article 6 of the Patent Law includes the entity in which the person concerned is a temporary staff member. "Material and technical means of the entity" referred to in Article 6 of the Patent Law mean the entity's money, equipment, spare parts, raw materials or technical materials which are not disclosed to the public.

Rule 12 "Inventor" or "creator" referred to in the Patent Law means any person who makes creative contributions to the substantive features of an invention-creation. Any person who, during the course of accomplishing the invention-creation, is responsible only for organizational work, or who offers facilities for making use of material and technical means, or who takes part in other auxiliary functions, shall not be considered as inventor or creator.

Rule 13 For any identical invention-creation, only one patent right shall be granted.

Two or more applicants who respectively file, on the same day, applications for patent for the identical invention-creation, as provided for in Article 9 of the Patent Law, shall, after receipt of a notification from the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, hold consultations among themselves to decide the person or persons who shall be entitled to file the application.

Rule 14 Any assignment of the right to apply for a patent or of the patent right, by a Chinese entity or individual, to a foreigner shall be approved by the competent department for foreign trade and economic affairs of the State Council in conjunction with the science and technology administration department of the State Council.

Rule 15 Except for the assignment of the patent right in accordance with Article 10 of the Patent Law, where the patent right is transferred because of any other reason, the person or persons concerned shall, accompanied by relevant certified documents or legal papers, request the Patent Administration Department under the State Council to make a registration of change in the owner of the patent right.

Any license contract for exploitation of the patent which has been concluded by the patentee with an entity or individual shall, within three months from the date of entry into force of the contract, be submitted to the Patent Administration Department under the State Council for the record.

Chapter II Application for Patent

Rule 16 Anyone who applies for a patent in written form shall file with the Patent Administration Department under the State Council application documents in two copies.

Anyone who applies for a patent in other forms as provided by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council shall comply with the relevant provisions.

Any applicant who appoints a patent agency for applying for a patent, or for having other patent matters to attend to before the Patent Administration Department under the State Council, shall submit at the same time a power of attorney indicating the scope of the power entrusted.

Where there are two or more applicants and no patent agency is appointed, unless otherwise stated in the request, the applicant named first in the request shall be the representative.

Rule 17 "Other related matters" in the request referred to in Article 26, paragraph two of the Patent Law means:

(1) the nationality of the applicant;

(2) where the applicant is an enterprise or other organization, the name of the country in which the applicant has the principal business office;

(3) where the applicant has appointed a patent agency, the relevant matters which shall be indicated; where no patent agency is appointed, the name, address, postcode and telephone number of the liaison person;

(4) where the priority of an earlier application is claimed, the relevant matters which shall be indicated;

(5) the signature or seal of the applicant or the patent agency;

(6) a list of the documents constituting the application;

(7) a list of the documents appending the application; and

(8) any other related matter which needs to be indicated.

Rule 18 The description of an application for a patent for invention or utility model shall state the title of the invention or utility model, which shall be the same as it appears in the request. The description shall include the following:

(1) technical field: specifying the technical field to which the technical solution for which protection is sought pertains;

(2) background art: indicating the background art which can be regarded as useful for the understanding, searching and examination of the invention or utility model, and when possible, citing the documents reflecting such art;

(3) contents of the invention: disclosing the technical problem the invention or utility model aims to settle and the technical solution adopted to resolve the problem; and stating, with reference to the prior art, the advantageous effects of the invention or utility model;

(4) description of figures: briefly describing each figure in the drawings, if any;

(5) mode of carrying out the invention or utility model: describing in detail the optimally selected mode contemplated by the applicant for carrying out the invention or utility model; where appropriate, this shall be done in terms of examples, and with reference to the drawings, if any;

The manner and order referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be followed by the applicant for a patent for invention or for utility model, and each of the parts shall be preceded by a heading, unless, because of the nature of the invention or utility model, a different manner or order would result in a better understanding and a more economical presentation.

The description of the invention or utility model shall use standard terms and be in clear wording, and shall not contain such references to the claims as: "as described in claim ?­", nor shall it contain commercial advertising.

Where an application for a patent for invention contains disclosure of one or more nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences, the description shall contain a sequence listing in compliance with the standard prescribed by the Patent Administration Department under the State Council. The sequence listing shall be submitted as a separate part of the description, and a copy of the said sequence listing in machine-readable form shall also be submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Administration Department under the State Council.

Rule 19 The same sheet of drawings may contain several figures of the invention or utility model, and the figures shall be numbered and arranged in numerical order consecutively as "Figure l, Figure 2, ?­".

The scale and the distinctness of the drawings shall be as such that a reproduction with a linear reduction in size to two-thirds would still enable all details to be clearly distinguished.

Reference signs not mentioned in the text of the description of the invention or utility model shall not appear in the drawings. Reference signs not mentioned in the drawings shall not appear in the text of the description. Reference signs for the same composite part shall be used consistently throughout the application document.

The drawings shall not contain any other explanatory notes, except words which are indispensable.

Rule 20 The claims shall define clearly and concisely the matter for which protection is sought in terms of the technical features of the invention or utility model.

If there are several claims, they shall be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals.

The technical terminology used in the claims shall be consistent with that used in the description. The claims may contain chemical or mathematical formulae but no drawings. They shall not, except where absolutely necessary, contain such references to the description or drawings as: "as described in part ?­of the description", or "as illustrated in Figure ?­of the drawings".

The technical features mentioned in the claims may, in order to facilitate quicker understanding of the claim, make reference to the corresponding reference signs in the drawings of the description. Such reference signs shall follow the corresponding technical features and be placed in parentheses. They shall not be construed as limiting the claims.

Rule 21 The claims shall have an independent claim, and may also contain dependent claims.

The independent claim shall outline the technical solution of an invention or utility model and state the essential technical features necessary for the solution of its technical problem.

The dependent claim shall, by additional technical features, further define the claim which it refers to.

Rule 22 An independent claim of an invention or utility model shall contain a preamble portion and a characterizing portion, and be presented in the following form:

(1) a preamble portion: indicating the title of the claimed subject matter of the technical solution of the invention or utility model, and those technical features which are necessary for the definition of the claimed subject matter but which, in combination, are part of the most related prior art;

(2) a characterizing portion: stating, in such words as "characterized in that..." or in similar expressions, the technical features of the invention or utility model, which distinguish it from the most related prior art. Those features, in combination with the features stated in the preamble portion, serve to define the scope of protection of the invention or utility model.

Where the manner specified in the preceding paragraphs is not appropriate to be followed because of the nature of the invention or utility model, an independent claim may be presented in a different manner.

An invention or utility model shall have only one independent claim, which shall precede all the dependent claims relating to the same invention or utility model.

Rule 23 Any dependent claim of an invention or utility model shall contain a reference portion and a characterizing portion, and be presented in the following manner:

(l) a reference portion: indicating the serial number(s) of the claim(s) referred to, and the title of the subject matter;

(2) a characterizing portion: stating the additional technical features of the invention or utility model.

Any dependent claim shall only refer to the preceding claim or claims. Any multiple dependent claims, which refer to two or more claims, shall refer to the preceding one in the alternative only, and shall not serve as a basis for any other multiple dependent claims.

Rule 24 The abstract shall consist of a summary of the disclosure as contained in the application for patent for invention or utility model. The summary shall indicate the title of the invention or utility model, and the technical field to which the invention or utility model pertains, and shall be drafted in a way which allows the clear understanding of the technical problem, the gist of the technical solution of that problem, and the principal use or uses of the invention or utility model.

The abstract may contain the chemical formula which best characterizes the invention. In an application for a patent which contains drawings, the applicant shall provide a figure which best characterizes the technical features of the invention or utility model. The scale and the distinctness of the figure shall be as such that a reproduction with a linear reduction in size to 4cm x 6cm would still enable all details to be clearly distinguished. The whole text of the abstract shall contain not more than 300 words. There shall be no commercial advertising in the abstract.