A "patent right" refers to the proprietary right or the exclusive right approved by the applied law and enjoyed by the inventor or the assignee of the right to the inventions and/or innovative creations within the certain fixed number of years. A patent right is a type of exclusive right which is not protected by law once the protecting period provided by the applied law expires.

As stipulated in the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China, where it is substantially found after examination that there is no cause for rejection of the application for a patent for invention, the patent administration department under the State Council shall make a decision to grant the patent right for the actual invention, and issue the certificate of the patent.

The protecting period of the patent right to inventions and to utility models and designs applied and approved by December 31st 1992 shall be fifteen years and five years respectively, and on or after January 1st 1993 shall be twenty years and ten years, valid upon the actual application respectively.