I want to know if a US provisional application could be used as a priority for a Chinese patent application?
A US provisional application can be used as a foreign priority for a Chinese patent application. It is prescribed in Article 29 of the Chinese Patent Law that “Where, within twelve months from the date on which any applicant first filed in a foreign country an application for a patent for invention or utility model, … he or it files in China an application for a patent for the same subject matter, he or it may, in accordance with any agreement concluded between the said foreign country and China, or in accordance with any international treaty to which both countries are party, or on the basis of the principle of mutual recognition of the right of priority, enjoy a right of priority”, i.e., a foreign right of priority. Provisional application is one of the types of patent applications in the U.S. patent system and can be used as a priority for subsequent non-provisional applications. Both China and the United States are member countries of the "Paris Convention". According to the provisions of the treaty, US applications should be recognized as priorities. Therefore, US provisional applications can be used as priorities for Chinese patent applications.
