Guide for Filing a Patent in PRC

Guide for Filing a Patent in PRC

	In accordance with the Chinese Patent Law, there are three types of patents issued by the Chinese Patent Office, “invention” patent, “utility model” patent, and “design” patent. The patent term for an “invention” patent is twenty (20) years from the date of filing, whereas for a “utility model“ or “design” patent, ten (10) years from the date of filing. These patent terms are not extensible.
	Requirements for Filing a Chinese Patent Application
	1) Instruction Letter
	The instruction letter should indicate the title of the invention, type of the patent application, name(s)/address(es) and nationality(ies) of the applicant(s) and the inventor(s) and translation in Chinese (if any); Foreign priority information (priority application date/number and country); If requesting for earlier publication, or for substantive examination simultaneously, and the date by which the application must be filed, etc.
	2) Power of Attorney
	An original one signed and dated by the applicant should be provided.
	3) Application documents
	For filing a patent application for “invention” or utility model", the applicant is requested to provide us with a description, claims, drawings (if any) and an abstract. For filing a patent application for "design", we need three (3) sets of drawing product incorporated with the design and a brief specification. Such drawings/photos should be sized from 3cm´ 8cm to 15cm x 22cm.
	4) Priority document and assignment
	If a foreign priority is claimed, a certified copy of the priority application provided by the original receiving country shall be submitted to the Chinese Patent Office.
	If the applicant of the priority application is different from the applicant of the Chinese application, an assignment shall be submitted.
	Notes: If the Power of Attorney fails to be submitted when filing the application, the same can be submitted within two months from the date of filing.
	China has joined the Budapest Treaty in July 1995. Therefore, when a new microorganism species is involved in a patent application, the new microorganism species can be deposited in an international deposit center designated by the Treaty. A certificate of deposit and a certificate proving the species being alive both issued by the international deposit center shall be submitted either at the time when filing the application or within three (3) months from the date of filing the Chinese application.
	According to the Chinese Patent Law, for patent application for invention, the request for substantive examination shall be filed within three (3) years from the date of filing/priority. If, without any justified reason, the applicant fails to meet the time limit for requesting examination as to substance, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn (be rejected).
	In accordance with Article 36 of the Chinese Patent Law, an applicant must, at the time of filing a request for substantive examination, submit reference materials, if there is any, which can be search reports and / or examination results of foreign Patent office(s).
	Since the Chinese Patent Office accepts application documents only in the Chinese version, therefore, it is recommended that the filing documents be forwarded to us two (2) weeks prior to the date by which the application must be filed or the date on which the priority period expires so that we can have sufficient time to prepare the Chinese application documents, together with the translation.
	Should you have any question, please contact the International Department using: Tel: 86-010-66514270 Fax: 86-010-66514272 E-mail: bpa@bpta.com.cn