Mainland Chinese Are Denied Applying for Patent Priority.

Intellectual Property Office has recently received applications for patent priority from Mainland Chinese companies. They also requested to be given preferences as a member country of WTO. Intellectual Property Office indicated, since Mainland Affair Council has not yet agreed on opening such option, they will not accept any similar applications. However, for the Taiwanese businessmen who would like to apply for patent priority, they may apply through a third country.

According to Article 27 of the Patent Law, within a year after applying for patents legally overseas for the first time, international priority rights may be claimed when applying for patents in our country with the same inventions. As stipulated in Article 29, those who file patent applications on top of the applied inventions or new design patents may claim domestic priority rights based on the applied handbooks, graphic inventions or new design patents.

CYJ/CHT