Someone Patented Your Invention in China: Ownership Action, Inventorship or Invalidation?

When a Chinese partner, supplier or former employee patents your invention, the first instinct is often to ask for the patent to be invalidated. A case analysis published on 22 October by the Intellectual Property Tribunal of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), on case (2025) Zui Gao Fa Zhi Xing Zhong No. 794, points the other way: such a complaint is really a dispute over patent ownership and inventorship, best resolved through a civil action that establishes who owns the patent and who the real inventor is (news). This article explains the routes available in China, what each one gets you, and what to put in place before it happens. It describes general rules; specific cases need professional advice.

First: who took it, and how far has the filing gone?

Typical situations: a former employee files on research results they took with them; one party to a joint development project files alone; a contractor files the commissioned results in its own name; a factory or customer files after seeing drawings or samples during quoting. If the Chinese application is still pending, the dispute is over the right to apply for the patent; once granted, it is over the patent itself. Both can be claimed in court. Which route to take depends on what you want in the end: the patent back, or just the freedom to keep using the technology.

Route 1: an ownership action to get the patent back

• What you get: a court ruling that the application or patent belongs to you, or to you and the other party jointly. With the final judgment you ask the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) to record the change of applicant or patentee. The patent keeps the original filing date, which is the main advantage of this route.
• Freeze the file first: under the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law, once an ownership suit or mediation has been started, you can ask CNIPA to suspend proceedings on the application or patent, so the other side cannot transfer, abandon or amend it while the case runs. Suspension is time-limited, so request it as soon as you file.
• What you must prove: that the technical solution came from you, how the other party got access to it, and that the patent claims cover the same solution.

Route 2: an inventorship action

Article 16 of the Patent Law gives the inventor the right to be named as inventor in the patent documents. If ownership itself is not in dispute, for example because it is an employee invention belonging to the company, but the wrong person is named, the real inventor can bring a separate inventorship claim.

Route 3: invalidation, and when it makes sense

• "They stole it" is a weak invalidation ground: in case No. 794 the requester relied on the good-faith principle in Article 11 of the Implementing Regulations as revised in 2023. The SPC said that ground polices whether the inventive activity itself is genuine, that is, whether the technical solution was made up or falsified; taking someone else's invention and patenting it is a matter for ownership and inventorship disputes. The court also noted that where obtaining a patent clearly breaches good faith, CNIPA's examining panel may raise that ground of its own motion.
• Winning does not give you the patent: once a patent is invalidated, the technology is free for everyone, including competitors, and you do not get the patent either. The other side's published application can also block your own later application, which is exactly what happened to the requester in case No. 794.
• When it fits: you do not need exclusivity, only the freedom to keep using the technology, and you disclosed it yourself before the other side's filing date, through sales, trade fairs, papers or a website. That prior art can support an invalidation request. If you are sued, Article 67 of the Patent Law allows a prior-art defence, and under Article 75 a party that was already making or using the invention, or had made the necessary preparations, before the filing date may continue within its original scope.

Evidence: secure it early

1. Dated R&D records: lab notebooks, drawing versions, code commits, internal review notes.
2. How the other side got access: cooperation or development contracts, NDAs, emails and chat messages, records of drawings and samples handed over.
3. A claim chart: each claim of their patent against your documents and dates.
4. Web pages and chats that can disappear, fixed by notarisation or a trusted timestamp.

Prevention: settle it in the contract

• Commissioned and joint development: under Article 8 of the Patent Law, unless otherwise agreed, the right to apply for a patent on an invention made jointly or on commission belongs to the party or parties that completed it. In other words, if you pay a Chinese company to develop something and the contract is silent, the right to patent it sits with the contractor by default. Write down who owns the results, who may file and who pays.
• Departing employees: inventions made within one year after leaving that relate to the employee's former duties or assigned tasks count as employee inventions of the former employer. Watch for new filings in former employees' names.
• File before you show: sign an NDA before sharing drawings or samples with suppliers or prospects, and file in China first for anything core. Whether you need a separate Chinese patent at all is covered in I have a US patent. Do I also need a Chinese patent?

If the other side is already suing you on that patent, see how infringement and invalidation proceedings interact in suing for patent infringement in China.

Frequently asked questions

The Chinese application is still pending. What can we do? Sue to establish ownership of the right to apply and ask CNIPA to suspend examination of the application.

If we win the ownership case, is the patent automatically ours? No. The change has to be recorded at CNIPA on the basis of the final judgment.

It is a utility model. Can we just invalidate it? Yes, if you have a statutory ground such as lack of novelty or inventive step, with evidence. "We invented it first" is not enough on its own, and invalidation will not give you the patent.

J&C Intellectual Property Agency, founded in 2008, is a CNIPA-recorded trademark agency and a member of the China Trademark Association. We handle trademark filings and customs recordals in China for foreign brands; see our trademark registration service.