According to Article 27 of the Chinese Patent Law, where a patent application for a design is filed, documents such as a request, drawings or photographs of the design and a brief description of the design shall be submitted. The relevant drawings or photographs submitted by the applicant shall clearly indicate the design of the product for which patent protection is sought.
The request, drawings or photographs of the design and a brief description are the documents that must be filed, and they are described below.
1. Request
The request shall state the name of the product using the design, the designer, the applicant, etc.. The applicant usually provides at least the name, the designer, the applicant's relevant information (name, address, nationality, organizational code, etc.), and other parts of the request that need to be filled in will be done by the agency itself.
2. Drawings or photographs of the design
The drawings or photographs of the design are used to determine the scope of protection of the design patent rights, and they should clearly and accurately show the design of the product for which patent protection is sought.
The applicant should provide orthographic views of the design of the product. In practice, it is usually necessary to provide the orthographic views for 6 sides, and at least 1 three-dimensional drawing (3D view), as shown in Example 1 below.
Main (Front) view Rear view Left view
Right view Top view Bottom View
3D view 1 3D view 2
Example 1 Toys (dolls)
When making drawings, reference should be made to China's national standards for technical drawing and mechanical drawing, and the design of the product should be expressed by solid lines of uniform thickness.
Drawings can be made using standardized auxiliary lines, e.g. indicating the position and direction of the section with an indicative line, as in Example 2.
State transition drawings, sectional drawings, reference drawings, enlarged drawings, etc. can also be submitted as needed. There is no restriction on the number of views in China, but the views are required to show clearly the design for which protection is sought.
Example 2 Trays for documents
When taking photographs, a single-color background should be chosen to ensure that the photographs are clear and that no content other than the design of the product for which patent protection is claimed appears in the photographs.
The same requirement applies to CG renderings. Examples 3 and 4 below meet the legal requirements for reference.
Example 3 Sofa-Photo Example 4 Doll (Cat) - CG Rendering
For a partial design application, the design drawings or photographs must show the product as a whole, clearly indicating the parts for which protection is sought and those that are not.
There are two main ways of representation:
One is a combination of dashed/dotted and solid lines. The solid line indicates the part of the product that requires protection, and the dashed/dotted line indicates the part that does not require protection.
The second is to cover or obscure the parts that are not required to be protected with a single-color translucent layer, with a brief description stating the parts to be protected. Both representations are shown in Examples 5 and Examples 6, respectively.
In addition, if the part for which patent protection is claimed contains a three-dimensional shape, a three-dimensional drawing that clearly shows the part should also be submitted.
3. Brief description
The applicant typically only needs to provide the name, the purpose of the product, the main contributing design features, and to indicate the drawing or photograph that best illustrates the contributing design features. If the views contain colors, it is necessary to state whether the colors are protected or not. The design attorney will draft a brief description in accordance with Chinese practice.
In addition, where several similar designs for the same product are filed together, the primary/principal design needs to be stated in the brief description.
4. Other information to be prepared
4.1 Power of attorney: If you appoint an agent, you need to submit a power of attorney. Usually the agent will prepare a power of attorney template and send it to the applicant to sign or seal.
4.2 Priority information: Date of filing, application number and receiving authority, priority copy or DAS code are required.
4.3 If the first designer is a Chinese, he/she is required to provide his/her identity card number.
4.4 The non-loss-of-novelty grace period is only 6 months in China and is strictly examined. If there is such a case, you need to inform your design attorney at the time of commissioning.
4.5 If the subsequent applicant is not the same as the prior applicant and is not one of the prior applicants, proof of priority transfer is required.
4.6 Deferment of examination: a deferment of examination of 1-36 months can be requested at the time of filing the design application and can be withdrawn at any time.
The above is intended to serve as a reference for applicants filing design applications in China, enabling them to prepare and file their applications before the design disclosure.
