(Revision Approved by the State Council on 26 June 2001 and Promulgated by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on 1 July 2001)

CHAPTER I GENERAL PROVISIONS

Rule 1 These Implementing Regulations are drawn up 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, pattern, or their combination and the combination of color and shape or pattern, of a product, which creates an aesthetic feeling and is fit for industrial application.

Rule 3 Any proceedings provided for by the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations shall be conducted in a written form or in any other form prescribed by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council.

Rule 4 Any document submitted under 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 and certified document submitted in accordance with the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations are in foreign language, and where the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council finds it necessary, it may request for a Chinese translation of the certificate and the certified document to be submitted within a specified time limit; where the translation is not submitted within the specified time limit, the certificate and certified document shall be deemed not to have been submitted.

Rule 5 For any document sent by mail to the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, the date of mailing indicated by the postmark on the envelope shall be presumed to be the date of filing. If the date of mailing indicated by the postmark on the envelope is illegible, the date on which the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council receives the document shall be the date of filing, except where the date of mailing is proved by the addresser.
Any document of the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council may be served by mail, by personal delivery or by any other means. 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 person indicated in the request.
For any document sent by mail by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, the 16th day from the date of mailing shall be presumed to be the date on which the addressee receives the document.
For any document, which shall be delivered personally in accordance with the prescription of the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, the date of delivery is the date on which the addressee receives the document.
Where the address of a document is not clear and cannot be sent by mail, the document may be served by making an announcement in the Patent Gazette. At the expiration of one month from the date of the announcement, the document shall be presumed as having been served.

Rule 6 The first day of any time limit prescribed in the Patent Law and these Implementing Regulations shall not be counted. Where a 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, the time limit 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 Administrative Department under the State Council is not observed because of force majeure, resulting in the loss of any right on the part of the party concerned, he or it shall, 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 Administrative 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 Administrative Department under the State Council is not observed because of any justified reason, resulting in the loss of any right on the part of the party concerned, he or it shall, within two months from the date of receipt of a notification from the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, state the reasons and request the Patent Administrative 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 Administrative Department under the State Council, he or it shall, before the time limit expires, state the reasons to the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council and complete the relevant procedures.
The provisions of paragraphs one and two of this Rule shall not be applicable to the time limits referred to in Articles 24, 29, 42, and 62 of the Patent Law.

Rule 8 Where an application for patent for invention relates to the security of the State concerning national defense and is required to be kept secret, the application shall be filed with the patent organization of the national defense system. Where any application for patent for invention relating to the secrets of the State concerning national defense and requiring to be kept classified is received by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council shall transfer the application to the said patent organization of the national defense system. The Patent Administrative Department under the State Council shall make a decision on the basis of the observations of the examination of the application presented by the said patent organization of the national defense system.
Subject to the preceding paragraph, the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, after receipt of an application for patent for invention, which is required to be examined for the purpose of security, shall send it to the competent department concerned of the State Council for examination. The said department shall, within four months from receipt of the application, send a report on the results of the examination to the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council. Where the invention for which a patent is applied for is required to be kept secret, the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council shall handle it as an application for secret patent and notify the applicant accordingly.

Rule 9 The invention-creations contrary to the laws of the State referred to in Article 5 of the Patent Law do not include invention-creations the exploitation of which is prohibited under the laws of the State.

Rule 10. The date of filing referred to in the Patent Law, except that mentioned in Articles 28 and 42, means the priority date where a right of priority is claimed.
The date of filing referred to in these Implementing Regulations means the date of filing provided for in Article 28 of the Patent Law, unless otherwise provided for.

Rule 11 "Service invention-creation made by a person in execution of the tasks of the entity to which he belongs " mentioned in Article 6 of the Patent Law refers to 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 one belongs mentioned in Article 6 of the Patent Law includes the entity one temporarily works for; "material and/or technical means of the entity" mentioned in Article 6 of the Patent Law refers to entity's money, equipment, spare parts, raw materials, or technical data which are not to be disclosed to the public.

Rule 12 "Inventor" or "creator" mentioned in the Patent Law refers to any person who has made creative contributions to the substantive features of the invention-creation. Any person who, during the course of accomplishing the invention-creation, is responsible only for organization work, or who offers facilities for making use of material and/or 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 file, on the same day, applications for patent for the identical invention-creation, according to Article 9 of the Patent Law, shall, after receipt of a notification from the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, hold consultation among themselves to decide on the person or persons who shall be entitled to file the application.

Rule 14 Where a Chinese entity or individual assigns the right to apply for patent or the patent right to a foreigner, the assignment shall be approved by the competent Organ for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation under the State Council in conjunction with the Administrative Organ for Science and Technology under the State Council.

Rule 15 Where a patent right is transferred for reasons other than the assignment of a patent right as provided for in Article 10 of the Patent Law, the interested party shall perform the formalities for change of the name of the patentee with the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council on the basis of relevant certified document or legal instrument.
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 Administrative Department under the State Council for recordal.

Chapter II Application for Patent

Rule 16 Anyone who applies for a patent in written form shall submit application documents in two copies to the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council.
Any application filed in any other form prescribed by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council shall conform to the requirement.
Any applicant, who appoints a patent agency for filing an application for a patent with, or for dealing with other patent matters before, the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council, shall submit a power of attorney indicating the scope of the power entrusted.
Where there are two or more applicants of one application and where they have not appointed any patent agency, the first applicant indicated in the request shall be the representative unless otherwise stated in the request.

Rule 17 Other related matters mentioned in Article 26, paragraph two, of the Patent Law refer to:
(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 shall be indicated; where the applicant has not appointed a patent agency, the name, address, postal code and telephone number of his or its person to be contacted;
(4) where the priority of an earlier application is claimed, the relevant matters which should 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;
(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 indicate the title of the invention or utility model, and the title shall be consistent with the one appearing in the request. The description shall contain:
(1) technical field: indicating the technical field the technical solution falls into for which protection is claimed;
(2) background art: indicating the background art which facilitates the understanding, searching and examination of the invention or utility model, and citing, if available, the documents reflecting such art;
(3) contents of invention: stating the technical problem to be solved by the invention or utility model and the technical solution adopted for solving the technical problem, and indicating the advantageous effects of the invention or utility model with reference to the prior art;
(4) Drawings: briefly explaining each of the drawings where the description is accompanied therewith;
(5) Specific mode for carrying out the invention or utility model: indicating in detail the optimum mode contemplated by the applicant for carrying out the invention or utility model; this shall be done in terms of examples, where appropriate, and with reference to the drawings, if any.
The manner and order mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be observed by the applicant of a patent for invention or a patent for utility model and a subtitle is given at the beginning of each portion of the description, unless, because of the nature of the invention or utility model, a different manner or order would afford an accurate understanding and a more economical presentation.
The description of the invention or utility model shall be written in standard terms and traightforward sentences, and shall not contain such references to the claims as: "as described in part - of the claim", nor shall it contain commercial advertising.
Where an application for patent for invention covers one or more sequences of nucleotides or of amino acids, the description thereof shall contain a table of sequence complying with the prescription of the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council. The applicant shall submit the table of sequence as a separate portion of the description, together with a computer-readable copy in the form prescribed by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council.

Rule 19 The same sheet of drawings may contain several figures of the invention or utility model, and the drawings shall be numbered and arranged in numerical order consecutively as "Figure 1, Figure 2, … … ".
The scale and the distinctness of the drawings shall be such that a reproduction with a linear reduction in size to two-thirds would still enable all details to be clearly distinguishable.
Drawing reference signs not appearing in the text of the description of the invention or utility model shall not appear in the drawings. Drawing reference signs not appearing in the drawings shall not appear in the text of the description. Drawing reference signs for the same composite part used in an application document shall be consistent throughout.
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 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 between parentheses. They shall not be construed as limiting the claims.