Three kinds of patent, three different weights
In China a patent is one of three things, and the gap between them is wider than the gap most buyers assume between “patented” and “not patented”. A supplier who says “sixty patents” without naming the kind has given you half of a number.
| Type | What it protects | Term | Examined for substance? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invention (发明) | The principle — how the thing works | 20 years | Yes: novelty and inventiveness examined before grant |
| Utility model (实用新型) | The structure of a working part — a valve, a lock, a chamber | 10 years | No: formal check only, granted quickly |
| Design (外观设计) | How the product looks from outside | 15 years for filings from 2021-06-01; 10 before | No: formal check only |
The commercial consequence is simple. A utility model is cheap, fast and narrow: it is a real registered right and you can act on a copy, but it will not stop someone who solves the same problem a different way. A design protects the look, and looks are easy to change. If your product strategy depends on owning the mechanism itself, only an invention patent does that job.
What our own list looks like, row by row
So that you can see how the three kinds sit together in one real portfolio:
| Type | Filed | Granted | In force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utility model | 43 | 37 | 36 |
| Design | 26 | 22 | 20 |
| Invention | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| International & Taiwan | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 75 | 60 | 56 |
Read the invention row rather than skipping to the total. Sixty granted patents is a real number and each one is enforceable, but none of our granted patents is an invention: two invention applications are still under examination and two earlier ones closed. If your legal team counts only invention patents, this portfolio reads thin — better to learn that from a guide than in due diligence.
The dates are worth a second look too. The oldest patent still in force was filed in 2018, so this is a working portfolio rather than a museum piece: 21 of the 56 sit with MIA, our factory, and 35 with 4°, the contracting company. Both names are counted together because it is one team.
What the portfolio actually covers
A count is not a coverage map. These are the things that are actually protected, and they are the reason a competitor cannot simply copy the machine:
- One-way air admission — gas goes in, water cannot come back, so the inside of the machine stays clean.
- Two-stage pressure release — slow first, then fast, so it does not spray when you open it.
- The bottle attachment on the mix line — hanging the bottle so it aligns itself onto the gas port.
- Flavour injection and mixing — carbonating juice, syrup and fruit without foaming over.
- Sealing, locking and quick-release cylinders — the parts that have to hold when the pressure is real.
- Outside soda makers: cream machines and insulated bottles, from the same mould shop.
What is not covered matters just as much. We hold no invention patent in force, and design coverage follows the models we actually filed rather than every model we sell. When a catalogue prints “patented” next to everything, including the hinge, it usually means nobody checked.
What a patent does not give you, or us
A patent is a right to exclude, not a promise. Four things it does not do:
- It does not give you exclusivity. If you need a period where nobody else gets the same model, that belongs in the commercial agreement — a patent cannot promise it.
- It does not defend itself. A registered right is worth what its holder is willing to enforce, so ask what happened the last time someone copied.
- It does not stop a workaround. Utility models cover structure; change the structure and the right no longer bites.
- It does not travel by itself. A Chinese patent is enforceable in China. If you sell in the EU or the US, ask about filings there — we hold one PCT application and take national-phase decisions project by project.
None of this makes a patent useless. It makes the difference between a list that has been checked and a number that has been repeated.
How to check any number yourself
This takes about ten minutes and does not need our permission:
- Download the list from the patent page — one PDF, 56 entries in force, each with applicant, filing date and publication number.
- Pick any application number, including the ones behind the models you are considering.
- Search it at CNIPA, the China National Intellectual Property Administration. The register is public, it shows the legal status, and it is the same document we hold.
Hand the PDF to your lawyer rather than to a translator: it is built to be checked, not admired.
Five questions to ask any supplier about their patents
These work on us as well as on anyone else:
- Is the applicant the factory itself, or a licensee? A supplier selling someone else's design appears on the register as a licensee, not an applicant.
- Which kind is it — invention, utility model or design? The answer changes what the right is worth.
- Is it still in force? Check the annuity status on the register, not the grant date on the certificate.
- Does it cover the exact model I am buying, or a predecessor that is no longer produced?
- Will you sign an IP and tooling clause that says who owns what, before tooling starts?
Our own answers are on the patent page — the numbers, the four certificates, and the list to download.