How long does a patent for an invention last?

乔治：那么一般一顶专利的期限是多长时时间啊?。

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Article 3l. An application for a patent for invention or utility model shall be limited to one invention or uti1ity model.

第三十一条一件发明或者实用新型专利申请应当限于一项发明或者实用新型。

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To be eligible for a patent, an invention must not just be novel, but also useful and non-obvious.

一项可专利的发明不仅内容要新奇，也要具备实用和非显而易见性。

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In other words, the first inventor to file an application for an invention gets the patent, not the first person to invent something.

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For anyone with an invention to sell, patent and intellectual property protection is their first priority.

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Suppose, further, that an employee at Company B independently conceives the same invention in June and files for a patent in July.

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