Patent

What is a patent?
The existence of patents is to protect new technologies, inventions and creations, thus safeguarding the rights of manufacture and sale of the technologies, inventions and creations of the patent inventors and owners. To satisfy the requirements of patent application, the technology and inventive creation must meet the following conditions:

1. It must be capable of industrial application;
2. It must be new and have never been made public;
3. It must involve an inventive step.

The technologies and inventive creations will go public after the successful application so as to balance the interests of all parties in the society, to enable the usage of the new technologies by the public and to ensure reasonable rewards to the patent inventors and patent owners. These efforts promote the development of the society and stimulate inventors into more innovative creations.

Why Should Your Invention Be Protected?
It takes much time and money to invent a technology or product. There is a risk to piracy, unless the inventor or owner arranges patent registration for the invention before the infringement occurs. It is advisable to have the new technology patented so as to obtain protection before the related product is marketed. The Federation is experienced in filing patent application and document drafting in Europe, USA and other countries.

Application for Patent
Intended applicants should attend an interview by calling the Federations' Intellectual Property Centre. Please bring along the related technical drawings and, where practicable, the products. Because of the territorial nature of patent applications, officers of the Centre may provide different strategic advice on clients' request.

Application for Patents for Utility Models in China
Most patent applications filed in the past by the Federation are in China. It will take about one and a half months to draft patent documents. And then, it will take another 12 months from the day of submission to the date on which the patent announcement is published and the certificate issued. Legal actions against infringing parties can only be taken after the certificate is received.

Hong Kong short term patent
The Federation will, on behalf of the applicant, prepare the application documentation including the application of international official search reports. In a normal uninterrupted application, it will take about one and a half months to draft the patent documents. It takes about two to three months to apply for an international official search report. The duration, form the day of submission to the date of the patent announcement and the issuance of the certificate, is between four and six months. The patent owner can only file a lawsuit against the infringer after the certificate is received.

Protection period
For utility model patent in China, the period of protection is 10 years. The fee has to be paid yearly.

For Hong Kong short term patent, the period of protection is 8 years and renewable after 4 years.