Securing your patents in China

在中國申請專利

　　【正文】

　　Securing your patents in China

　　In spite of the problems companies have in enforcing their patents in China， they are sometimes critical to prevent others from patenting your product.

　　The big risk： If another company patents your idea first， it can turn around and sue you for infringement.  It isn't as much about getting a patent in China as preventing other people from getting one.  The Chinese government is trying to better enforce patents， so having a Chinese patent may be worth more in the future.

　　It also makes sense to get a Chinese patent if you are selling your product into the Chinese market and that a “patent will allow you to fight back if the manufacturer starts selling knockoffs of your product.”   If you are going to seek a China patent of that which you have already patented in the United States， you must do so within a year of filing your U.S. patent application， unless you get an extension by filing an international patent application.

　　Here I'd like to take one of my clients in U.S. for example.  My client is a U.S. large-scale medical equipment manufacturer who has been selling their products and operates in China for several years， however， it didn't patent relevant technology （even design of product） in China.  Later， it found many of its products are copied by a Chinese affliate of a foreign company who has sought and received corresponding patents.  My client wrote emails to me for enforcement strategies against this copycat and I have to tell them it is too late for getting our own patens in China due to loss of novelty here.  However， as a defensive strategy， we may consider invalidate the patents owned by the copycat if it bites my client by using its patents.  Of course this may cost my client ample time and money fending off the claims.（馬寧）

　　北大法律信息網(wǎng)