Being a kind of the terminable intangible property rights, the patent rights, which begin with protection once they are authorized and proclaimed, are terminated by laws at the expiration of the term. Meanwhile, more patent rights tend to be terminated prior to the expiration of the term because of the patentees who are no longer willing to maintain or voluntarily give up their own rights.
After a patent right being terminated, the invention and innovation protected by this right will become a fortune for the whole society, where everyone is allowed to use it freely.
The circumstances of terminating patent rights are mainly composed of the following three (3) kinds:
① the termination at the expiration of the term, which is twenty (20) years after the application date for the invention patent rights and in addition ten (10) years for the utility model or design patent rights;
② the termination caused by not paying annual fees according to regulations. After the patent office issues fee-paying notices to patentees so as to notify them of retroactively paying annual fees and fines for delayed payments, where the patentees fail to pay or pay enough annual fees and fines during the overdue period for paying annual patent fees, the patent office will notify the patentees within two (2) months at the expiration of the overdue period, not earlier than one (1) month, the notices for termination. Furthermore, where the patentees fail to start the restoration procedure or the restoration is not approved, they shall respectively register and proclaim their patent rights in the “Patent Register” and the “Patent Gazette”, when it expires four (4) months after the issuance of the notices for termination. The date for terminating a patent right shall be the same as the expiration date of the last year;
③ the patentees voluntarily give up the patent rights. The patentees may bring forward statements to voluntarily give up their patent rights provided that they are willing to contribute their inventions and innovations to the whole society. Where the patentees voluntarily give up the patent rights, they shall submit the written statements by using a form uniformly made by the patent office. Under the circumstances that a patent right to be given up has two (2) (or above) patentees, it shall be agreed by all the patentees, who are also required to sign and seal in the statement or other documents. For a patent right having two (2) (or above) patentees, where there is one (1) or some patentees who request(s) to give it up, the procedure for changing the descriptive item shall be handled, to change the patent(s). After the statement for giving up the patent right in accordance with regulations is approved, the patent office will register and proclaim all relevant matters in the “Patent Register” and the “Patent Gazette”. From then on, this statement will be put into effect.
