What does an invention “completed” in China mean? China and the US are similar in that both countries highly value national security, and thus have rules regulating the exportation of technology and information from within their borders. This includes new inventions that arise from within their respective borders. As such, both governments require inventors who create IP within their borders to obtain approval by requesting a foreign filing license (or “confidentiality examination request“ in Chinese) before they can file a patent application in a foreign jurisdiction first (i.e., “export” the “technology”). In China, “inventions or utility models, of which the substantive content of the technical solution is completed within the…
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US vs CN: Foreign Filing License Requirements
In China, foreign filing requirements are generally very similar to the US — a foreign filing license is required if a foreign application is to be filed first for an invention made in the country. The Chinese equivalent to the US foreign filing license is called a confidentiality examination for foreign filing. According to Chinese Patent Law Article 19 (previously Article 20), if a foreign application is to be filed for an invention made in China, the applicant must submit a request to conduct a confidentiality exam to the CNIPA in advance. The CNIPA will determine whether the invention (for simplicity, the term “invention” includes invention and utility models in…
