Where foreign enterprises and joint venture enterprises which are established in China and have already been qualified as law persons in China wish to apply for patent in China, they can do as what the Chinese enterprises do. Foreign enterprises and joint venture enterprises can directly authorise a Chinese patent agency to handle the matter; the Chinese patent agent of said patent agency will draft the patent applications and handle the relevant patent application matters.
During the production activities of foreign enterprises and joint venture enterprises in the Chinese territory, where service inventions-creations are made by technical personnel (including foreign staff members) employed by said enterprises, and where applications for patent are filed for these inventions-creations, the application right for said applications for patent shall belong to said enterprises. Item 2 of Article 6 of the Chinese Patent Law clearly stipulates: "For a service invention-creation made by any staff member or worker of a foreign enterprise, or of a Chines-foreign joint venture enterprise, located in China, the right to apply for a patent belongs to the enterprise. For any non-service invention-creation, the right to apply for a patent belongs to the inventor or creator. After the application is approved, the patent right shall be owned by the enterprise or the individual that applied for it."
Where a foreign enterprise, registered in China, is only a branch or a subsidiary of a foreign company, and said foreign company wishes to file an application for patent in China in its name, said application shall be filed according to the procedures applicable to foreign enterprises. Where said branch company has already been registered in China and is qualified as a Chinese independent legal entity, where an application for patent is filed in the name of said branch company, said application shall be handled according to the procedures based on which the Chinese legal body files an application for patent.
