Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property Rights

The basic purpose of the Paris Convention is to ensure that the industrial property rights of a member country are protected in other member countries. However, due to the contradiction of interests among member countries, the Convention fails to formulate a unified "Industrial Property Law", which is based on the domestic legislation of member countries, so it does not exclude the territoriality of the effect of patents. While respecting the domestic legislation of each member, the Convention stipulates several basic principles that each member state must abide by jointly in order to harmonize the legislation of each member state and make it consistent with the provisions of the convention.

The basic principles and important provisions of the Paris Convention are:

1. Principle of national treatment. Legally, other member states are given the same treatment as their own nationals.

2. Priority principle. Trademarks enjoy six months of priority. The invention and utility model are 12 months and the industrial product design is 6 months. The condition is that the applicant must complete the first qualified application in one of the member states, and the content of the first application must be exactly the same as that of the later application to other member states.

3. The principle of trademark independence. The conditions for applying for and registering trademarks shall be determined by the domestic laws of each Member State and shall be independent of each other. A trademark is independent of the original trademark after it has been registered in a member country. Even if the original registered country has revoked the trademark or is invalid because it has not gone through the formalities for renewal, it will not affect the protection it receives in other member countries.

4. Compulsory Licensing Patent Principle. The Convention stipulates that compulsory licensing may be approved under certain conditions to prevent possible abuse of patent rights by patentees. If a patent is not implemented or fully implemented by the patentee within a period of four years from the date of application or three years from the date of approval of the patent (whichever is expected to be longer), the member states concerned have the right to adopt legislative measures to approve compulsory licences and allow third parties to apply the patent. If two years after the first approval of the compulsory license, the abuse caused by granting the patent right can not be prevented, the procedure of revoking the patent can be put forward. The Convention also provides that compulsory licensing shall not be exclusive or transferable, but it is permissible if it is transferred together with the part of the enterprise or brand that uses such licensing.

5. Use of trademarks. The Convention stipulates that a registered trademark of a member country must be used, and its registration can be revoked only after a reasonable period of time and when the parties can not give a legitimate reason for not using it. B. Where a trademark has been registered in a Member State, when it is registered in a Member State, it shall not refuse to register a trademark if the subsidiary part of the trademark is altered without altering the important part of the original trademark and without affecting the salient features of the trademark. C. If a trademark is shared by several industrial and commercial companies, it will not affect its application for registration and legal protection in other member countries, but the trademark used jointly is premised on not deceiving the public.

6. Protection of well-known trademarks. "Whether or not a well-known trademark has been registered, the member states of the Convention shall prohibit others from using the same or similar trademarks, and refuse to register the same or similar trademarks as a well-known trademark.

7. Transfer of trademark rights. If the law of its member states stipulates that the transfer of trademark rights shall be valid with the transferor of its business, the transfer of the business of that country is sufficient to recognize its validity, and it is not necessary to transfer all domestic and foreign business. However, such transfer should be conditional on not causing public misunderstanding about the origin, nature or important quality of the commodity affixed with the trademark.

8. Temporary protection of exhibition products. Members of the Convention shall, in accordance with their national laws, provide provisional legal protection for the patents and trademarks of products exhibited at official or officially recognized international exhibitions held in the territory of the member States of the Convention.