Patent Marking Outside The U.S.

Canada has no statutory requirement for a patentee to mark patented articles, so of course there is no penalty for failure to mark. Marking is, however, still recommended because it arguably provides public notice of the patent rights.

In China (PRC), patent marking is compulsory , and must be done in Chinese. Patentees must follow a specific format, which is the Chinese character for patent, followed by the two digits of the year of the patent application, a third digit denoting the type of patent, the patent number, and a parity bit .

In Korea, patent marking is permissible , much as in the United States. Major distinctions are that products made under Korean method patents should also be marked , and there are severe penalties for false marking, including liability of employees for company violations .

In Japan, there is no downside for failure to mark. Marking is done entirely for commercial benefit, and indeed some patent holders intentionally avoid marking so as not to give free advice to competitors.

In Taiwan, patent marking is compulsory , and no damages are allowed unless the infringer knew or should have known of the patent. There is no specific language requirement, and in practice marking is made in Mandarin, English, or both.