Research On Patent Priority System In China

Priority principle is an important principle established by the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property, and it provides great convenience for any applicant in one country to file an application for a patent(invention), or a utility model, or an industrial design, or a trademark in other countries. However, the domestic priority is established in order to balance the super national treatment of foreign applicants because of enjoying a right of priority. So the purpose and function of domestic priority is different from foreign priority, and this article will discuss how to improve the priority system of China.With the development of science and technology, some new situations have emerged in the field of intellectual property, and the priority system in China becomes unable to meet the needs of the development of science and technology, there are still shortcomings, including:(1) it is unadaptable of domestic priority system to the development of technology, and makes domestic and foreign applicants inequitably, and it needs to harmonize two priority systems with each other, and to balance the domestic and foreign applicants;(2) because three types of subjects of invention, utility model and design overlap with each other, it is needed for conversion among three types of applications, and for providing an effective path for the applicant to achieve this conversion;(3) with the development of design industry and of people’s living level, it is needed to strengthen the protection of industrial design, such as permission for protection of partial designs and for additional similar designs, so it is needed to provide a design conversion path to convert a partial design to a whole design, and a similar design to a joint design application.The development of international rules makes the applicant more and more conveniently. Now the innovation ability of the applicants in China is enhanced continuously, and we should be more active to adapt to international competition rules, by improving of the priority system to break unfair position.In this article, the priority principle of Paris Convention and the legislative purpose are analyzed, and some practical problems in the priority system of China are analyzed, to provide a reference for improving the priority system of China.