What should I do if the co-owners of the 2023 patent application rights have no provisions for their rights?

The inventor of a patent can apply for patent registration, and the patent may be jointly invented by multiple people. A joint patent can be entrusted to one of them to apply for registration. If the co-owners of the patent application right or the patent right have an agreement on the exercise of the right, the agreement shall prevail. . If there is no agreement, the co-owners can exploit the patent alone or license others to exploit the patent in the form of a general license. Below, the editor of Legal Savior Network will provide readers with relevant answers.

1. What should I do if the co-owners of patent application rights have no provisions for their rights

1. According to the relevant laws of my country, if the co-owners of the patent application right or the patent right have an agreement on the exercise of the right, the agreement shall prevail. If there is no agreement, the co-owners can exploit the patent alone or license others to exploit the patent in the form of a general license.

2. Legal provisions: "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China"

Article 15 If the co-owners of the patent application right or the patent right have an agreement on the exercise of the right, the agreement shall prevail. If there is no agreement, the co-owners can exploit the patent alone or license others to exploit the patent in the form of a general license; if others are permitted to exploit the patent, the royalties collected shall be distributed among the co-owners.

Except for the circumstances specified in the preceding paragraph, the exercise of a jointly owned patent application right or patent right shall require the consent of all co-owners.

2. What does the scope of patent protection include

1. The scope of protection of an invention or utility model patent shall be based on the content of the claims. The description or drawings may be used to explain the claims. How to determine the content of patent protection shall be based on the scope determined by the claims.

2. The scope of protection of design Patent rights shall be subject to the design patent product shown in pictures or photos. Patent protection rights granted by a country or a region are only valid within the scope of that country or region. They have no legal effect in other countries and regions, and patent protection rights are not recognized.

3. The period of patent protection: Invention patents are 20 years from the date of application. Utility model patents and appearance device patents are valid for 20 years.The calculation is 10 years. If the patent protection period expires, the annual fee is not paid, or the patent is voluntarily surrendered, the patent right is no longer protected. The independent claims include a preamble and a characterizing part. The preamble shall state the name of the subject of the technical solution of the invention or utility model, and the necessary technical features shared by the closest prior art to the subject of the invention or utility model. The feature part shall state the technical features that are different from the closest prior art. The technical features in the characteristic part and the technical features in the preamble part together define the scope of protection claimed for the invention or utility model.

4. The scope of protection of design patent rights shall be subject to the design patent product shown in pictures or photos. Applying for a design does not require the submission of written documents such as claims and descriptions, but requires the submission of pictures or photos. The standard for judging whether there is infringement is: if the same or similar design is used on a product that is identical or similar to the patented product, it is considered to be infringing. Identical products refer to the same purpose and the same function; similar products refer to the same purpose. , the specific functions are different.

The above knowledge is the editor’s answer to relevant legal issues. According to the relevant provisions of our country’s laws, the right to apply for a patent or the co-owner of the patent right shall exercise its rights. If there is an agreement, the agreement shall prevail. If there is no agreement, the co-owners can exploit the patent alone or license others to exploit the patent in the form of a general license. If you need legal help, you are welcome to go to the Legal Savior Network for legal consultation.