Chinese Patent Law and Patent Information Service

Abstract

China's Patent Law became effective from 1st April 1985; it protects three kinds of patent: patent for invention, patent for utility model and patent for design. By the end of 1991, the China Patent Office had accepted more than 210,000 applications and granted over 86,000 patents. China's patent system adopts deferred examination for the patent of invention, and formal examination for utility model and design. The China Patent Office publishes a lot of documents including specifications, Official Gazette, indexes, etc. in paper, microform, machine-readable magnet tape or CD-ROM, has created the databases of Chinese patent documents, and provides online retrieval services both in home and overseas countries. The Chinese patent information system includes three kinds of institute: a Chinese Patent Documentation Service Centre which functions as a depositing centre, copying centre and service centre providing services for the general public apart from patent examiners, more than 20 patent information divisions in provincial institutes of sci-tech information and 64 Chinese patent document depository libraries. At present, the development of China's socialist commodity economy and evolution of modern information techniques will have a direct impact on the exploitation and utilization of Chinese patent information.