China industrial design application should be made to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and must be made in Chinese. A Chinese design patent provides exclusive use of the aesthetic features of a product. To be patentable in China a design must have absolute novelty. Although a Chinese design patent protects only the aesthetic features of a product, the product does not have to look ‘good’ - the product only has to have features that can be observed through a person’s eyes alone. It is recommended that you carefully choose a patent agent or attorney to support this process.
How to register a design patent in China
The entire application process takes around six to eight months if there are no significant delays. 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.
- Other additional information, for example symmetric view(s), omitted view(s), basic design of multiple similar designs, transparent material used, and so on.
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Once the application has been accepted and found to include all relevant information it will be passed to preliminary examination (about one to two months after it is filed). Although no patentability searches will be carried out during preliminary examination (the examiners will not check that the patent is novel), Chinese examiners are sensitive to defects in design drawings which could delay or even prevent the granting of the patent. If everything goes smoothly, the SIPO will issue the decision of grant and the patent is granted, which will be published afterwards. The design patent provides the right holder the exclusive use of a product design for a period of ten (10) years.
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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.
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