Design Patent Application in China

Design patent application in China is different from the practices in western countries. As a SME doing business in China, protecting your intellectual property rights (IPR) in such a challenging market is essential to business success. Due to the difference in IP systems between western and China, many foreign investors do not know how to protect their designs. In China, designs fall under the scope of patent protection, while no protection is offered to unregistered designs.

Design Patent vs Copyright
In China, copyright and design patents serve two distinct functions: copyright protects the physical expression of an idea whereas a design patent protects the aesthetic features of an industrial product. Different aspects of the same product may be covered by these different types of IPR. For example, the external appearance of an electric razor may be protected by a design patent whereas the instruction manual, packaging and marketing materials are covered by copyright.

How to register a design patent in China
Design patent applications in China should be made to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and must be made in Chinese. It is recommended that you carefully choose a patent agent or attorney to support this process. The importance of Chinese language accuracy is very high as it is the value of experience in filling patents: knowing what the examiner would like to see and what common mistakes can lead to a rejected application.

In the application, other than name, nationality and address of the applicant(s) and designer(s), title of the design, and drawings/photos (known as views) of the design itself, a brief description of the design including the following must be provided:

- Name of the product.
- Use of the product, which determines the class of the product and the scope of protection.
- Indication of the essential design feature(s), that is, the major difference(s) of the design from any prior designs patents (held by you or another company).
- A drawing or photograph for publication when the design patent is granted.
- Specifics of the colour used, if colour is claimed.

Once the application has been accepted and found to include all relevant information, it will be passed to preliminary examination. Although no patentability searches will be carried out during preliminary examination, Chinese examiners are sensitive to defects in design drawings which could delay or even prevent the granting of the patent. Once successfully registered, a design patent provides the right holder the exclusive use of a product design for a period of 10 years.

Contact Us
If you have further inquires, please do not hesitate to contact Tannet at anytime, anywhere by simply visiting Tannet’s website english.tannet-group.com, or calling Hong Kong hotline at 852-27826888 or China hotline at 86-755-82143422, or emailing to 2355735242@qq.com. You are also welcome to visit our office situated in 16/F, Taiyangdao Bldg 2020, Dongmen Rd South, Luohu, Shenzhen, China.

Previous：China Copyright and Patent Protection      Next：Intellectual Property Types