Can the patent protection period be renewed?
No.
(1) Termination upon expiration: invention Patent rights shall be maintained for 20 years from the date of application, and utility model or design patent rights shall be maintained for 10 years from the date of application. , terminated in accordance with the law;
(2) Termination for non-payment of fees: The Patent Office will issue a payment notice to notify the applicant that after paying the annual fee and late fee, the applicant has not yet paid the fee. If the annual fee and late payment fee are paid or paid in full, the patent right shall be terminated from the expiration date of the previous year.
Legal provisions on the term of patent rights
1984 Article 45 of the enacted Patent Law stipulates that the term of invention patent rights is fifteen years; the term of utility model and design patent rights is five years, and you can apply for renewal for three years before expiration. When the Patent Law was revised for the first time in 1992, in order to strengthen the protection of patent rights and to be consistent with the internationally adopted patent protection periods, the terms of three types of patent rights were extended.
Before the TRIPS agreement came into effect, most countries stipulated that the term of invention patent rights was 15 or 20 years. In the fields of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, applicants need to conduct a series of tests and go through many relevant procedures to obtain approval from the competent authorities. They can only be sold after passing the review by the competent authorities. In addition, the development costs of many drugs, especially biopharmaceuticals, are quite high. If the term of patent rights is 15 years, many patentees in these fields will not be able to recoup their huge investments during the remaining time, which will inevitably affect their enthusiasm for invention and creation. In order to encourage patentees' inventions and creations, the term of invention patent rights was extended to 20 years when the Patent Law was revised in 1992.
The first amendment to the Patent Law not only extended the patent protection period, but also canceled the renewal procedure for utility model and design patents. The renewal procedure stipulated before the amendment was originally intended to allow patentees to independently determine their patent rights. Whether it is necessary to continue to be protected will objectively increase the burden of procedures on the patentee. In fact, the patentee can express this desire by paying the annual fee and does not need to go through additional procedures. Therefore, in When the Patent Law was revised for the first time, the protection period for utility models and industrial designs was extended to 10 years, and the renewal procedure was cancelled.
Friends who have their own works must have a detailed understanding of this issue in order to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of their works. The patent right can be renewed after it expires, but it will last for twenty years You need to think carefully about whether it is necessary to continue after that.If you have other questions, you are welcome to consult a professional lawyer on the Legal Savior Network.
