Q．What’s the meaning of “the same day” mentioned in Article 9 of the Chinese Patent Law 2008?

A: According to the provision of Rule 41 of the Implementing Regulations 2010 of the Chinese Patent Law, “the same day” mentioned in Article 9 of the Chinese Patent Law (CPL) 2008 refer to the same actual filing date, not the same priority date. Rule 41 also requires the applicant state on the same filing day in both the application for patent for invention and the application for patent for utility model that the applicant also filed another application regarding the same invention.

Certainly, the two applications may claim priorities of respective earlier applications. And in such a case, surely the two applications shall have the same priority date. Otherwise according to the provision of Article 22 of the CPL 2008, the application has the earlier priority date will constitute a conflicting application with respect to the other application of the same applicant.