There are several ways for foreigners to apply for a patent

With regard to patent applications by foreigners, China divides foreigners into two categories: foreigners, foreign enterprises or other foreign organizations that have a habitual residence or business office in China, and foreigners, foreign enterprises or other foreign organizations that do not have a habitual residence or business office in China, and they are handled separately according to different circumstances. Two different types of situations can be handled:

For foreigners, foreign enterprises or other foreign organizations that do not have a habitual residence or business office in China and request to obtain a patent right in China, according to the provisions of Article 18 of the Patent Law, it may be handled according to the following three different circumstances: (1) If the country to which the foreigner belongs has signed a bilateral agreement with China, it shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the agreement. (2) Where the country to which the foreigner belongs and China jointly accede to an international treaty, it shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the international treaty. (3) There are two types of treatment according to the principle of reciprocity: First, if the patent law of a foreign country unconditionally allows foreigners to apply for patents in that country, China also allows its citizens and legal persons to enjoy the treatment of Chinese citizens and legal persons; Second, if the patent law of a foreign country stipulates that nationals of other countries are allowed to apply for patents in that country on the condition that the foreign national is granted national treatment in that country, the Chinese patent law may grant the foreign national national national treatment in that country.

Any foreigner, foreign enterprise or other foreign organization that does not meet the above three conditions and does not have a habitual residence or business office in China cannot apply for a patent in China. According to the Patent Law, foreigners, foreign enterprises or other foreign organizations with their habitual residence or business offices in China must submit legal documents requesting protection of their inventions and creations to the State Intellectual Property Office in the same way as Chinese. These documents are the basis for the State Intellectual Property Office to examine and decide whether to grant a patent, and are also the basis for the scope of rights protected by the Patent Law after the applicant obtains the patent right.

The Patent Law and its implementation rules provide uniform provisions on the form of patent application documents. All application documents submitted by the applicant shall be in accordance with the uniform ** formulated by the State Intellectual Property Office, and the text shall be in Chinese. If there is no unified Chinese translation of foreign names, place names or scientific terms, the original text should be indicated in parentheses after the Chinese translation.

If the various documents and supporting documents submitted by the foreign applicant in accordance with the regulations are in foreign languages, the State Intellectual Property Office may, if it deems it necessary, require the applicant to attach Chinese translations within the specified time limit. Foreign applicants applying for patents for inventions and utility models shall submit documents such as a request, description, drawings, claims and abstract. The applicant applying for a design patent shall submit a request and documents related to the design, such as ** or **, and shall indicate the name of the product in which the design is used and the class to which the product belongs.

After the application is filed, the CNIPA examines and approves the patent application.

At present, there are generally two ways for Chinese applicants to apply for patents abroad:

The first is the more traditional approach, the Paris Convention route, where the applicant should file an application with the patent offices of several Paris Convention member states within 12 months from the priority date and pay the corresponding fees. With this route, applicants may not have enough time to prepare documents and raise fees.

The second is the PCT route: the applicant files a PCT international application in Chinese or English directly with the CNIPA within 12 months from the priority date, and the international filing date is determined, and the application has the effect of a regular national application in all PCT member states.